Alexa Bliss' Royal Rumble 2025 Return Came About Late & At Shotzi's Expense (WWE News)

Despite reports that she and WWE were butting heads over the terms of her return, Alexa Bliss shocked the world by appearing at the Royal Rumble this past weekend.

Previously, Alexa was at one point set to return to WWE on the San Jose-set episode of Raw last month which saw Penta make his company debut. Reports at the time stated that those plans were ultimately scrapped after Bliss and WWE came to an impasse over the 33-year-old's contract - WWE said to be wanting Alexa to return under her existing contract, Bliss herself said to be wanting a new deal.

Either way, Alexa Bliss ended up being the biggest surprise entrant in either of the Royal Rumble matches over the weekend, entering the women's match in the #21 spot and getting a fun 11-minute run that was ultimately brought to an end by Liv Morgan.

As for how Alexa's return came about, Fightful Select reports that this was a late decision. In fact, so late was this decision, the other participants in the women's Rumble had no idea that Bliss was to be in the match as of Saturday morning. Not only was the five-time WWE Women's Champion not at rehearsals on Friday, but Shotzi was instead scheduled for that spot.

While those Fightful spoke to about this situation didn't have anything against Alexa Bliss and were happy that she was back, there were some people who felt bad for Shotzi in all of this. For Shotzi, this would've been a first main roster appearance since last year's Royal Rumble, with the Ballsy Badass having missed the bulk of 2024 due to a knee injury and nowadays getting some reps in NXT before returning to the main roster fold.

Alexa Bliss' WWE Return

While it may have been a year since we've seen Shotzi on the WWE main roster, it was two years since Alexa Bliss last competed in a WWE ring prior to this year's Royal Rumble.

For Alexa, she last laced up her boots at the 2023 Royal Rumble, coming up short in her attempt to dethrone Bianca Belair as the WWE Raw Women's Champion. During her time away from WWE, Bliss and her husband Ryan Cabrebra welcomed their daughter into the world.

As mentioned, Alexa is a five-time WWE Women's Champion - a three-time Raw Women's Champion, a two-time SmackDown Women's Champion - and has had three runs as a Women's Tag Team Champion, two of which came with Nikki Cross and one that was alongside Asuka. Bliss also won the Money in the Bank briefcase in 2018, which she cashed in that very same night against Ronda Rousey.

It remains to be seen what lies in the future for Alexa Bliss, with previous rumblings that any such Alexa return could see her involved with the Wyatt Sick6. If that is the case, expect the Ohio native to head to the SmackDown brand, but likewise, she could well turn up on Raw as soon as tonight.