What did you think of the Royal Rumble? Let me know in the comments.
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0:00 - WWE Royal Rumble 2025 Review
0:48 - Women’s Royal Rumble Match
3:13 - Motor City Machine Guns vs DIY
4:44 - Cody Rhodes vs Kevin Owens
6:51 - Men’s Royal Rumble Match
Cody Rhodes INJURED! Drew McIntyre STORMS OUT! WWE Royal Rumble 2025 Review | WrestleTalk
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WATCH ROCK VS CENA EP 1: WWE WrestleMania 27 Review! 👉 https://youtu.be/ZGXkz-qLiRk
More wrestling news on https://wrestletalk.com/
Unlock the secrets to working in professional wrestling, sign up to https://www.wrestlingmasterclass.com/
0:00 - WWE Royal Rumble 2025 Review
0:48 - Women’s Royal Rumble Match
3:13 - Motor City Machine Guns vs DIY
4:44 - Cody Rhodes vs Kevin Owens
6:51 - Men’s Royal Rumble Match
Cody Rhodes INJURED! Drew McIntyre STORMS OUT! WWE Royal Rumble 2025 Review | WrestleTalk
#WWE #royalrumble #codyrhodes #WrestlingNews #WrestleTalk #WWERAW #AEW
Buy WrestleTalk Merch here! https://wrestleshop.com/
Sources used for research:
Youtube Channel Comments Policy
We appreciate the comments and opinions our viewers provide. Do note that all comments are subject to YouTube auto-moderation and manual moderation review. We encourage opinions and discussion, but harassment, hate speech, bullying and other abusive posts will not be tolerated. Decisions on comment removal are made by the Community Manager. Please email us at support@wrestletalk.com with any questions or concerns.
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SportsTranscript
00:00Cody Rhodes injured, Drew McIntyre screaming and cursing backstage, Jordan Grace's massive
00:07heat with her own mum, and the biggest piece of breaking news, professional wrestling works
00:13fans.
00:14I'm Oli the Paper Davis, soon to be your Jam That Jampion, and this is my review of
00:23the WWE Royal Rumble 2025… in about 10 minutes.
00:31Because Triple H doesn't want to hog all the limelight, which is why he came out at
00:34the end of WrestleMania 40, had the opening promo on the Netflix debut Raw and is this
00:38year's Hall of Fame class headliner, his wife Stephanie McMahon opened the Royal Rumble
00:42instead.
00:43Where she hyped up the crowd with all of WWE's amazing business metrics.
00:48After a Pat McAfee voiced video package helpfully explaining this whole Royal Rumble thing to
00:52their new viewers on Netflix, the card opened with the women's match.
00:57Io Sky, Liv Morgan and Roxanne Perez were the first three entries, who all stayed in
01:01for over an hour, with Perez breaking the record for the longest Iron Maiden performance
01:06ever at 1 hour 7 minutes and 47 seconds.
01:09And I'm very aware of these figures, because their actual greatest debut on this year's
01:14show was the Stats graphics bar that was always on the bottom of the screen.
01:18It was a really efficient way to keep track of everything all the time, and yet another
01:22production triumph for WWE.
01:25Then 16 other women entered.
01:27And then out came Jordan Grace.
01:29But you told me you were at your mum's birthday.
01:31It's almost like I've been worked by a pro wrestler.
01:34I thought, plot-wise, Grace had the most interesting interaction of the whole match.
01:39She hugged Naomi from their time together in TNA, which sparked a flash of angry jealousy
01:43from Naomi's tag team champion partner Bianca Belair.
01:47It made me start to think how that overprotectiveness could play into what happened to her previous
01:51tag partner Jade Cargill and her return… which didn't happen here.
01:57Instead, the surprise spots were of a very good, but superficial capacity.
02:01Alexa Bliss came out at number 21, getting one of the loudest pops of the night, wearing
02:05a Fiend Forever jacket in honour of Bray Wyatt.
02:08Stephanie Vakka and Julia were the NXT cameos at 24 and 28 respectively.
02:13And Trish Stratus and Star of US Traitors Nikki Bella got the legend spots at 25 and
02:1830.
02:19All really fun pops, but they mostly felt like high spots, not connecting with the women's
02:23division's current storylines.
02:26Because there aren't any.
02:27Instead, ultimately, this was a lot of isolated moments to fill time until Charlotte wins,
02:33lol.
02:34When Flair made her return at 27, one of the best numbers to have in the Rumble, I thought
02:38they were leaning so much into her winning that it might be a swerve.
02:42So WWE did the meta swerve, and had her win anyway.
02:46Nia Jax eliminated a bunch of your favourites like she just selected a spreadsheet line
02:50in Excel and hit clear row.
02:52It was so Charlotte, currently a babyface, wouldn't get crowd heat for getting rid
02:55of people like Io and Liv who had been in there from the start.
02:58Perez threw out Nia to give her an extra boost as the match's runner up and longest ever
03:03performance.
03:04And then Flair quickly eliminated Perez to win.
03:06Overall, a superficially fun Rumble, with a predictable winner that did relatively little
03:10to set up any other feuds for WrestleMania.
03:13The WWE Tag Team Championship match between the Motor City Machine Guns and DIY could
03:18have been an NXT TakeOver level classic on another show.
03:22They've had a logically built feud of getting one win apiece and then a no contest over
03:26the titles, setting up the two out of three falls match here.
03:30But they were in the filler spot between the Women's Rumble and the WWE Championship
03:34matches, and were never given enough time to tell the kind of story the stipulation
03:38requires.
03:39They crammed three falls into just 40 minutes, which stopped the crowd properly getting involved
03:44until the final third.
03:46Which is a shame, as the first fall was incredibly smart, with a fake out DIY tag letting Ciampa
03:51get a pin.
03:52The Guns predictably levelled, and DIY ended up winning when the Street Profits interfered.
03:57But then the Street Profits also beat up DIY too.
04:00So this was mostly an angle to build a three way feud for another show.
04:04WWE announced their Clash in Paris event for the 31st August, which has absolutely nothing
04:09to do with AEW's Europe-based show the week before.
04:12Then they introduced another new great piece of production, where they would play archive
04:16clips of the wrestling legends before they were shown watching in the crowd.
04:20The Godfather, Mickie James, Kurt Angle, Ron Simmons, Rick Steiner and RVD were all in
04:25attendance.
04:26And Stephen Amell.
04:27The first half of the show was fun, but a bit superficial.
04:30The Women's Rumble was always Charlotte's to win.
04:33The tag title match was more to further a feud on TV.
04:36But it's all about how you leave them, folks.
04:38And the second half was all killer, no filler.
04:41Emphasis on the killer and Kevin Owens' head.
04:45First up was Cody Rhodes defending his WWE Championship against Kevin Owens in a ladder
04:49match.
04:50Which started with the most insane spot of the night.
04:53Cody walking under a ladder on the entrance ramp.
04:56Cody's superstitious.
04:58Walking under ladders.
05:03The crowd were heavily into this from the start, because the feud has been so well told.
05:08Those four months of intensity were paid off with a fierce brawl through the crowd,
05:12and then all the ladder spots your sicko heart desired.
05:15There was even a little baby ladder.
05:17At one point, there were so many ladders in the ring, I needed the stats graphic from
05:20the Rumble earlier to know how many were currently active.
05:23Because it's Kevin Owens in a ladder match, he of course took the night's two worst
05:27bumps.
05:28Being back-body dropped onto a ladder on its side, and, for the finish, being Alabama slammed
05:33off the announce table through a ladder bridge.
05:37Which briefly made it look like KO's head had fallen off, but it might not have just
05:42been Kevin's neck that snapped.
05:44Cody ran up the ladder in the ring to unhook the belts and retain, but this wasn't the
05:48white meat babyface Cody of 2024.
05:51This felt like an increasingly unhinged, violent Cody who has been pushed to his limit.
05:56He made a point to pose behind a bloodied Owens at the end, tiptoeing the line that
06:00separates justified vengeance from gloating.
06:04Sami's aim was out there too by this point, tending to his friend KO.
06:09This could go in a few different directions.
06:11Owens could be angry with Sami for not helping him win.
06:14Or Sami could start to see Cody in a different light.
06:17For what it's worth, WWE announced on the post show that Cody suffered multiple injuries
06:22in the match, which is why he couldn't speak to the media.
06:25Jackie Redman said his in-ring status may be uncertain, which could rule him out of
06:29WrestleMania season.
06:30So tune in to SmackDown this Friday to see if he's ok.
06:35The promo line made me think it was a bit of a work.
06:37Thankfully, Jackie's mic worked for that announcement, because Big E and Joe Tessitore
06:40sure didn't.
06:41When they promoted the post show just before the main event, they had the wrong audio.
06:45And then it was time for arguably the best built Royal Rumble match in WWE history.
06:51And it started off in the best possible way, with Rey Mysterio at numero uno, and Penta
06:58as numero dos.
07:00Just casually starting off with a dream match, they shook hands, and Penta did his first
07:04of five and a half zero miedos for the night.
07:08The bell rang, and they botched a spot, with both of Penta's feet clearly touching the
07:13floor.
07:14Right after came Chad Gable, the scourge of the luchadors.
07:17Just three entrants in, and every one of them felt connected with months or years of storyline
07:21context.
07:22The midcard got into full speed, however, with Brom Breaker at No. 7, where he eliminated
07:26Hayes and Escobar right away.
07:28To describe part of the Rumble as midcard usually means it's a bit, well, mid.
07:33But WWE have done such a good job with their roster, I was as into this and their interactions
07:37as anything else.
07:39And then came the big comedy spot of the night.
07:41The just-eliminated Hayes took out No. 8 entrant Akira Tozawa in frustration as they passed
07:46on the ramp.
07:47The camera followed Akira back into the gorilla position, where Triple H hastily sent YouTuber
07:51Isho Speed, who was livestreaming the event from backstage, to enter the Rumble in his
07:57place.
07:58And, of course, WWE putting an influencer in a Rumble would get a collective groan.
08:03But Speed's yelp of horror and excitement, and then the factbreaker absolutely killed
08:07him with a spear, and then Otis threw him over the announce desk, was the perfect execution.
08:13Emphasis on the execution.
08:15Then came the Jacob Fatu middle section.
08:18Coming out at No. 12, every entrant following Jacob would have the same pattern.
08:22Play your music, run wild, then have a really cool staredown with Fatu.
08:26I could do a 50-man Rumble with that template and still not get bored.
08:29Barely able to catch your breath by No. 15, say his name, and he appears, TNA Champion
08:35Joe Hendry entered to an enormous pop.
08:38I'm so happy for him.
08:39And then the Rumble reminded you it had another gear.
08:43I was enjoying the midcard so much, I kind of forgot about all the main eventers, as
08:47the second half of the match, at No. 16, saw Roman Reigns enter his first Rumble in 5 years.
08:54He eliminates Sheamus.
08:55He eliminates Hendry.
08:56Then it's him vs Breaker, but Breaker spears him, but Roman reverses his elimination.
09:02You could say that's a future WrestleMania main event, but commentary saved that line
09:06for Roman's next interaction, as Reigns went face to face with Jacob Fatu.
09:12And then came out professional Roman hater Drew McIntyre.
09:15This has been a flawless Rumble so far.
09:17What the f*** is Finn Balor's new entrance music?
09:20Death Rebels suck.
09:21Yes, I agree.
09:22Let's quickly move on.
09:23As in out came Jey Uso at No. 20, AJ Styles makes a shock return at 21, Braun Strowman
09:29is next, and eliminates Fatu, furthering their feud.
09:32Then No. 23 is John Cena, holding a Last Time is Now towel.
09:37Shut up pre-2015 Cena hating Oli.
09:40That made me emotional.
09:41I'm in peak wrestling right now.
09:43Oh my god, CM Punk's at No. 4.
09:46Oh my god, he's also got pink trunks on.
09:49It's Cena!
09:50It's Roman!
09:51It's Punk, the Rumble's three winning favourites in the ring right now.
09:55Even though Punk and Roman are doing serious badass faces.
09:58But Cena is doing his goofiest WHAAAAAT I'm still tingling.
10:05And then out runs Seth Rollins at 25, and he goes straight for Punk, Dominik Mysterio,
10:10Sami Zayn, Damian Priest, LA Knight and Work Smarter Not Harder Logan Paul at the final
10:155 entrance.
10:16J accidentally superkicks Sami to eliminate him, meaning there was no big spot where Sami
10:20was caught in between the Bloodline and Seth.
10:22There wasn't a KO interaction either, which is probably for the best as, remember, he
10:26doesn't currently have a head.
10:28Maybe Sami will beat Gunther at Elimination Chamber, and J will face Zayn at Mania.
10:32Most weirdly, though, was Damian suddenly eliminating Drew McIntyre.
10:36Felt like an odd choice.
10:37Priest isn't even on the same brand as Drew anymore, so they're not building a Mania
10:4141 feud.
10:42And it felt like McIntyre had a lot more storyline stuff to do with the likes of Roman, Seth and
10:47According to PWInsider, and the Wrestling Observer, Drew was legitimately furious about
10:51this backstage, where he was allegedly screaming and cursing about how someone had to get their
10:57moves in at the expense of the other storylines in the match.
11:01According to the Wrestling Observer, a lot of other participants in the Rumble felt this
11:04way too.
11:05Drew then reportedly stormed out the building before the match was over.
11:08Although two sites are independently saying they've corroborated this, this could still
11:12be a work.
11:13It was similar to Drew storming out of Survivor Series 2023 when CM Punk returned to WWE,
11:19which led to one of the best onscreen feuds of 2024 between them.
11:22The final six ended up being Cena, J, Seth, Roman, Logan and Punk.
11:28Seth and Roman had an awesome clash after being kept apart since last year's WrestleMania,
11:32which led to Punk throwing them both over the top rope.
11:35But then out of nowhere, Logan Paul eliminated CM Punk.
11:40I was genuinely furious, but that is the intention.
11:43Well played WWE, you made me not like a heel.
11:46Much like everything, Bloodline, this spot had many layers, and it led to a violent brawl
11:50between Seth, Roman and Punk on the outside, including two pretty stiff looking stomps
11:55from Rollins onto Reigns.
11:56But it left a final three of Cena, Logan and J.
12:00Just like Charlotte earlier, the drama was removed, because it's such an obvious Cena
12:04wins LOL.
12:05And that's when the son of a bitch did the actual swerve.
12:08Logan got eliminated, and it came down to J and Cena battling on the ring apron.
12:13J escaped back in the ring off an AA attempt, and pushed John Cena off to win.
12:19Jey Uso, the 6th or 7th favourite for this match, won the whole thing, in what might
12:24be the most shocking Rumble winner of all time.
12:28I'll watch Rikishi still find a way to be annoyed by it.
12:31He wouldn't have been my choice, but I can't deny how over he is and the importance of
12:35making new stars.
12:37actually gets a main event spot on one of the WrestleMania nights, as I'd hate to
12:40see the Royal Rumble winner main event Jey Uso do an opener.
12:44This was already the best built Rumble of all time, in my opinion.
12:47I'd like to wait until after Mania 41 is done to finally decide, but this might be
12:51a top 3 ever when all is said and done.
12:55But remember when WWE was terrible?
12:58We do.
12:59I kind of miss it in a weird masochistic way.
13:01Luke and I are doing a deep dive series on The Rock vs John Cena, and you can watch episode
13:061, our review of WrestleMania 27, right now.
13:10Here's a clip.
13:11Oh, we can smell what he's cooking.
13:15Yes, we can also see him.
13:18Because welcome to 8xInnerLifex our new series where we are going through the full Rock vs
13:32John Cena absolute clusterf*** that took place in WWE from 2011, kinda through to…
13:43when did he set his name on fire and beat Erick Rowan?
13:462016?
13:47Sure.
13:48WrestleMania 32.
13:49That's right.
13:50It's a brand new series here on WrestleTalk and on our Patreon at patreon.com forward
13:59slash WrestleTalk.