8 Ups & 7 Downs From WWE Royal Rumble 2025

1. From Afterthought To Aftermath

The build to the men’s Royal Rumble match dominated WWE programming in the weeks prior to Saturday’s PLE. Unfortunately, the women’s Rumble received only a fraction of that amount of attention and care. And it showed during the show.

The women’s Rumble was a mostly dull affair, with little of note happening overall during the first two-thirds of the match. The match followed a pattern: countdown, superstar’s music hits, wrestler poses, jogs down to the ring, gets about 30-45 seconds of shine, and then fades to the background against the ropes as the countdown starts again.

Despite the match filling up with superstars and some women who could have benefited from a “clearing the deadwood” spot being in the Rumble, that moment never came until the closing moments of the match. Pure Fusion Collective were in the Rumble at the same time and registered just one elimination: Maxxine Dupri. Jordynne Grace should have bounced a few women, but she only tossed one.

At one point, there were 16 women in the Rumble. More than half the field was in the ring at the same time. There were 13 women in the match after Nikki Bella entered at #30. That means nearly half of all eliminations came after all 30 women had entered the Rumble. That’s insane.

While there were a few good moments that will be highlighted later, it’s nothing short of disappointing that WWE dropped the ball with plotting out a smart, captivating Rumble, especially considering it featured the debuts of Giulia, Stephan Vaquer, and Jordynne Grace, the return of Trish Stratus and Nikki Bella, and three iron women runs of more than 65 minutes.