For as many WWE fans that picked Charlotte Flair to win the Women’s Royal Rumble Match on Saturday night, that same amount of fans — and then some more — need to pick their jaws up off the floor now that Jey Uso is the official winner of the men’s match. Be honest. You didn’t see that one coming and that’s what WWE was counting on when they booked him to win.
In wrestling, you don’t ever want to swerve fans just to swerve them, but a well-timed and logically set-up swerve is always fun in the moment. That’s what WWE went with inside the Jey victory.
Looking back, he spoke the win into existence. On Raw, he graciously accepted the reality that a Royal Rumble victory would be his last real shot at a world championship for awhile and then he said he’d win. It was all right there, but it was just too hard to believe. Well, believe it.
The rest of the 2025 Royal Rumble PLE included a wild and exciting, but different type of ladder match, the tag team division in the death spot on the card again, and a surprise-filled Women’s Rumble Match. The Jey Uso victory is going to steal headlines and it should, but overall, this was a fun night and a thumbs up show.
Here are my Brass Ring Ratings for the event and here’s how they work … I call it like I see it and grade accordingly. Period.
2025 Women’s Royal Rumble Match
The Women’s Royal Rumble Match lacked any kind of coherent or consistent story going in. Therefore, it didn’t rely on or build on top of any real stories inside the match either. The match was about surprises and to that end it worked. Alexa Bliss, Trish Stratus, Jordynne Grace, Nikki Bella, Roxanne Perez, Lash Legend, Jaida Parker, Stephanie Vaquer, and Guilia were all surprise talents that impacted the match positively. At the moment where most of those women were still alive and they were joined by Bayley, Iyo Sky, Bianca Belair, and others, it was impossible not to take a step back and appreciate just how far the women’s division has come in WWE. There was talent on display and the future looks very bright when you zoom out. Charlotte Flair winning the match was too obvious in the end. WWE’s lack of vision to build up real potential threats outside of Flair hurt the match once she arrived in it. Flair has kind of always sucked the life out of matches she’s in and she did the same thing here. That said, the surprises made the match fun and for better or worse, that is what fans will remember fondly.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OO 1/2
DIY vs. Motor City Machine Guns - Two Out of Three Falls Match for the WWE Tag Team Championships
Ouch. They got the death spot on the card. After a Royal Rumble match? Sorry fellas. This was about as good as you could have hoped for, but just didn’t need the two out of three falls stipulation. The stipulation made the match pace awkwardly with a first pinfall coming just a few minutes after things started. The second and third falls were better, but the second in particular was pretty inconsequential because nobody bought that things would really end on fall two. What are The Street Profits up to? They needed the titles to be on DIY in order to challenge for them? Having Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins waste both DIY and MCMG was confusing and left the fans without a real reason to care about either of the three teams featured.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OO
Cody Rhodes vs. Kevin Owens - Ladder Match for the Undisputed WWE Championship
An excellent match and the match of the night. This was different from other WWE ladder matches and it very much needed to be. Instead of coming up with spots to do off the ladders and then building the match around those spots, Owens and Rhodes made a concerted effort to use the ladders as a part of a fight. So, as a true weapon instead of a stunt prop. The result was less ladder spots overall, but ladder spots that resonated and cultivated big pops from the crowd. Rhodes got a little vicious toward the end of this one, which lines up with how CM Punk talked about the championship weighing on and changing it’s holders as they hold it — like the Ring of Power, but only for WWE. They’ve got areas to build off of coming out of this and it was a better than fine effort to put a bow on the Owens vs. Rhodes feud.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OOOO
2025 Men’s Royal Rumble Match
The start of this match between Penta and Rey Mysterio was so darn smart and made me smile. A really cool moment, even if Penta and Rey kinda missed their spot causing Penta to be “eliminated.” I mean, if it isn’t shown on replay, it never happened right? The rest of the early part of the match was a lot of filler, so that the back half of the match could emphasized the loaded nature in terms of star power. Jacob Fatu brought some intensity and had strong moments, but things really started moving once John Cena entered the picture. The match only sort of delivered on some of the big moments that they built into the hype of the match. You could have gotten mileage out of stuff like Punk/Cena, but didn’t in favor of simple stare downs that were designed to get crowds buzzing. They buzzed for some, but not others and a little action instead of staring would have gone a long way to making the key match moments even bigger. Now, WWE has many storylines to work with coming out of the match. CM Punk, Roman Reigns, and Seth Rollins seem attached at the hip now. Was that big brawl after they all were eliminated designed to help build Elimination Chamber? Is it a look into a potential WrestleMania triple threat? Time will tell. Jey Uso is of course the biggest talking point coming out of this. Will WWE go all the way with him and actually put him in a main event title match at WrestleMania? Conventional wisdom says they won’t, but if not, why give him the W? Special honorable mention in this match goes to Bron Breakker. That guy looked tremendous, got top time with and a hit a move on Roman Reigns, and nearly decapitated a streaming celebrity. All in a days work, I guess.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OOO
What did you think of this year’s WWE Royal Rumble? Let us know in the comments!
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