9 Ups & 11 Downs For WWE In 2025
9. The Ron Killings Debacle
Fans care when wrestlers get released and this is a nice thing.
Fans really cared when news broke (from the source himself) that Ron Killings' contract wasn't going to be renewed in June, and before anybody could stop to take a breath and question exactly what more R-Truth could do in WWE, the mass outpouring of support resulted in the types of protests that aren't really common amongst the fanbase post-Vince McMahon.
Per the usual well-informed reports, Nick Khan was a big driving force in reversing the decision and securing Killings a new deal, and based on the booking ever since, it's reasonable to assume it wasn't a Triple H call. The supposed creative kingpin dropped him back in during the Money In The Bank main event as a thorn in heel John Cena's side, then gave him a singular moment of agency in the post-PLE Raw before fantasy bookers were left to rot along with Truth's run on top.
After Cena was abruptly turned face on the SmackDown before SummerSlam, WWE just retconned the entire direction and returned everybody's favourite toy to factory settings. From bad PR to pathetic outcomes, little summed up the company's ability to miss marks quite like this entire sorry ordeal.
8. CM Punk Vs Seth Rollins Gets No Payoff
WWE were required to pivot from their main event plans in late-2025 when Seth Rollins suffered an injury during his Crown Jewel Champion Vs Champion match with Cody Rhodes. Considering what looked to be the road ahead, the timing couldn't have been worse.
In the weeks following Rollins' write-off, Punk won a Number One Contender's match and was ultimately successful at a subsequent Saturday Night's Main Event in a mostly-quite-bad match with Jey Uso. 'The Voice Of The Voiceless' was Champion again, and this time, Rollins couldn't pull off some sort of masterplan to claim the gold right back with a briefcase cash-in. There'll be another day for the two, but Punk Vs The Vision had exponentially less juice to it and it's not like the original Rollins beef was still at the top of everybody's agenda. And that's the worst of it; on television before Rollins got hurt, Punk off-handedly noted that he'd beaten Rollins on the first Netflix Raw of 2025, and had every intention of doing it on the last one too. By the time they actually get to it, it won't have half the neatness of what might have been.
An unlikely alliance might be the only way to get both out of the endless loop that kicked off when Punk first returned at the 2023 Survivor Series, though Rollins presumably doesn't want to be saddled with his rival any longer than necessary either. 'The Visionary's 2025 peaked with his WrestleMania victory rather than during the follow-through - another victim of the company chasing the instant high of the big reveal rather than the extended one in the aftermath of the revelation.
Speaking of which...