8 Ups & 7 Downs From WWE Royal Rumble 2025

5. Maximizing Her Minutes

WWE Royal Rumble 2025 Nia Jax
WWE

Hats off to Nia Jax for really delivering as the monster heel she always has been intended to play. It took her nearly a decade and a sojourn away from WWE, but she’s done quite nicely in the role since returning.

Saturday’s performance at the Royal Rumble mixed her dominance with some old-fashioned heel chicanery. Before she even entered the ring, Nia yanked Zelina Vega off the apron, eliminating her. She went after the immensely popular Trish Stratus, tossing the Hall-of-Famer and ending her night. Jax overcame 10 women pummeling her, then managed to eliminate five women at once while they were fighting on the apron in a memorable and economical spot.

Jax also set a record with nine total eliminations, beating a record she previously held with two other wrestlers. She looked like a serious threat during the Rumble, which is probably the best one can hope for when they aren’t going to win.

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Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.