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One Royal Rumble match feels as unpredictable as ever and the other appears to have one truly logical choice for who punches their ticket to a world championship chance in a main event at WrestleMania.
Careers with be made at Lucas Oil Stadium on Saturday (6 p.m. Peacock) as the road to WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas begins.
Royal Rumble winners can be one of the potentially most polarizing — or sometimes universally loved decisions WWE can make.
The Post’s pro wrestling columnist Joseph Staszewski tries his best to predict how it will all play out when the bell rings.
2025 WWE Royal Rumble full match card
DIY (Johny Gargano and Tomas Ciampa) over Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelly and Chris Sabin) to retain the WWE tag team championships (Two-Out-Of-Three Falls)
Motor City Machine Guns have been a breath of fresh air to the WWE tag team division and just the fact that a two-out-of-three falls championship match is on a major premium live event is a big step forward over the past year-plus in the division.
DIY took the belts off MCMG in early January as Gargano deceived them with kindness before ultimately turning heel with Ciampa for the first time. Since then, DIY has been using Pretty Deadly to run interference to keep MCMG away from their championships — including them crashing the team’s last match on the Dec. 6 SmackDown.
While Pretty Deadly keeps getting warned they are being played — with DIY dangling an eventual title shot for them — they moved closer to fully accepting it on SmackDown.
This could go either way based on whatever decision Pretty Deadly makes to likely decide the match in the third fall. The story still feels like has legs and places to explore so WWE won’t take the titles for DIY yet.
Cody Rhodes over Kevin Owens to retain the Undisputed WWE championship (Ladder match)
It’s a shame Kevin Owens’ fine work won’t be rewarded with a legitimate world title run — though he’s gotten to masquerade as one with the famed Winged Eagle championship for more than a month since claiming he beat Rhodes at “Saturday Night’s Main Event.”
You don’t pull the trigger on a title change to the heel in the third match of the trilogy before Rhodes can go into WrestleMania 41 with a full year as champion. What’s important here is how Rhodes wins and so many things are possible in a ladder match — with the “American Nightmare” seemingly in a heel turn spiral.
Owens has already, in so many words, told Sami Zayn he expects him to have his back and help him win so they can face each other at WrestleMania. It is also possible Randy Orton — whom Owens piled drive to take him off TV in the storyline for months — comes back and cost his former tag team partner the match. Whatever happens, Owens will be off to his next feud — against either Zayn or Orton.
Charlotte Flair wins the Women’s Royal Rumble
Betting Favorites: Charlotte Flair 1/2, Iyo Sky 2/1, Becky Lynch 3/1, Bianca Belair 4/1, Jade Cargill 5/1 Jordynne Grace 15/2 (Paddy Power)
WWE only seemed to start caring about the Women’s Royal Rumble when it had Liv Morgan, Raquel Rodriguez, Bianca Belair, Naomi and Nia Jax — for a second time — declare for the match in one segment on SmackDown last week in front of both world champions as they join Bayley and Iyo Sky in the match.
Charlotte Flair did get a special vignette calling herself the GOAT to announce her return for the Royal Rumble from a serious knee injury after more than a year out of action. WWE Women’s champion Tiffany Stratton hasn’t been shy about wanting a dream match with Flair that is absolutely WrestleMania worthy.
Belair, who won the Royal Rumble in 2021 and went on to beat Sasha Banks at WrestleMania, feels like one of two wild cards in this match because fans have wanted to see her versus Women’s World champion Rhea Ripley for years at WrestleMania and WWE has teased it on occasion. She also would be a fantastic opponent for Stratton as the champ can make the case she is bigger, faster and stronger than the EST. The other is former TNA Knockouts champion Jordynne Grace. She would be a fantastic fresh face for Ripley to square off with.
Outside of the idea of Jax or Morgan winning to get their title rematches, the list of viable candidates feels thin. Becky Lynch — if she returns — has already feuded with Stratton and Ripley. Bayley appears headed for a program for Roxanne Perez. Jade Cargill facing her mystery attacker feel like her WrestleMania story.
Flair is the logical choice after WWE called her The GOAT in her vignette, re-establish that and capitalize on the good feelings around her return to set up to dream match with Stratton.
John Cena wins the Men’s Royal Rumble
Betting Favorites: CM Punk: 1/1, John Cena 7/4, Roman Reigns 10/3, Seth Rollins 5/1, The Rock 9/1, Drew McIntyre 9/1 (Paddy Power).
The men’s Royal Rumble is stacked and could be John Cena’s to lose.
The 16-time world champion is on the star-studded list of wrestlers who have declared for the match, including Roman Reigns, CM Punk, Drew McIntyre, Seth Rollins, Jey Uso and Sami Zayn. All of them would be fine WrestleMania main eventers — with Cena as the betting favorite as he begins his retirement tour.
As significant as it would be to beat Gunther for the World Heavyweight championship, the Royal Rumble should be about going on to challenge for the more prestigious title in Cody Rhodes’ Undisputed WWE championship. If you look at the list, really only Cena, Punk and Reigns make sense to do that — unless The Rock or Randy Orton make an unexpected appearance.
Rhodes considers Cena a mentor and the two are close, So the protegee standing between the mentor Cena and breaking Ric Flair’s record with a 17th world reign would be very intriguing. Rhodes’ character appears to be in the early stages of a heel turn and maybe an interaction with Cena accelerates that.
Punk and Rhodes beautifully laid out the tension among the two friends that could carry their story to close Raw this week. Reigns winning would give us the same WrestleMania main event for three straight years — though maybe Punk forces it to become a triple-threat match via the favor he is owned by Paul Heyman.
Also keep an eye on the side plots going on between McIntyre, Rollins, Punk, Uso and Zayn — all have been connected one way or the other over the past year as an interesting Bloodline subplot has been brewing.
If there are surprises, I expect them from the TNA side after the announced partnership between the two brands earlier this month. Nic Nemeth, Joe Hendry and Moose all feel like potential names to look out for as is a potential A.J. Styles return.
A match between the WWE’s two biggest babyfaces in the past 20 years feels too good to pass up and lets the other pieces — Punk vs. Roman Reigns and Gunther vs. Logal Paul — easily fall into place at WrestleMania.
