8 Ups & 7 Downs From WWE Royal Rumble 2025

3. The Case Against Jey

WWE Royal Rumble 2025 John Cena Jey Uso
WWE

There are strong cases to make in both directions about Jey Uso winning the Royal Rumble, so rather than picking a side, let’s present both.

No one on the roster gets a bigger reaction upon entering any arena than Jey Uso. He has charisma to spare for half the roster, and he’s been involved in some of WWE’s biggest angles of the past several years. However, the bell still has the ring. Jey has only shown in limited situations an ability to really deliver in huge moments in singles matches. Uso as a singles star has a ceiling, and we likely saw it last fall when he won the Intercontinental Championship in a memorable match on Raw. He’s not the guy to carry the promotion, nor is he a WrestleMania main-eventer or a guy to fight for a world title at 'Mania.

Jey was the perfect challenger for Gunther’s World Heavyweight Championship at Saturday Night’s Main Event last month – no one expected him to win, but he’d produce some feel-good moments and go out on his shield. The match itself wasn’t that great, but it was good for what it was. Making a rematch at WrestleMania is far from ideal.

There’s a big difference between main-eventing an episode of Raw, or SNME, or a B-show PLE challenging for a world title, but fighting for one of the biggest prizes in the company at their biggest show of the year is a different planet. Is this part of some long-term booking strategy, or did WWE decide to shock the world and generate some buzz by doing something completely unconventional?

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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.