Reviewing the 2025 Women's Royal Rumble Match (and My Hopes for Future Events)

Amazing, isn't it? Once upon a time, the concept of a Women's Royal Rumble match sounded impossible, like a pipe dream, like a fantasy. Here it is, the first day of February 2025, and it is Year Eight of the Women's Royal Rumble Match. The whole thing started with the 2018 event; Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch were the first ever entrants, and the first winner was Asuka. We've seen a lot of wild moments since then, and some emotional surprise entrants as well. I still carry all of the heartfelt emotion from three years ago when Melina finally made her first Women's Rumble appearance in 2022.

Per usual, the Women's Rumble kicked off a Royal Rumble event that only had four total matches: both Rumbles, a 2 Out of 3 Falls tag title match, and a ladder match for the WWE Championship. So here's a number of the highlights:

The first two entrants always get talked about in every Royal Rumble match, and regarding this year, Iyo Sky (#1) and Liv Morgan (#2) kicked off the eighth annual Rumble match. These two crossed paths very recently: Liv and Iyo clashed at Saturday Night's Main Event nearly two months prior for the Women's World Championship in what would be Liv's last major successful title defense before she lost the title to Rhea Ripley in WWE's first Raw on Netflix.

I consider NXT members, alums, Hall of Famers, and now, TNA talent to be "surprise" entrants, and the first of the surprises came right after the first two entrants. Roxanne Perez entered at #3, and this was a different Roxanne. She wasn't the sweet and peppy competitor anymore; she's venomous, she's evil, and she's insanely vicious (ask Lyra Valkyria). The Women's Rumble is no stranger to using NXT talent; in fact, one year, they damn near gutted NXT's Women's Division. In the case of Roxanne, I think this appearance was different. I think they are very close to calling her up after she just had a long 2nd title run. Roxanne's currently in a feud with last year's Rumble winner, Bayley, as both of them will be vying for the NXT Women's Championship at Vengeance Day in two weeks.

Roxanne was one of five NXT women who appeared in the match, with one of them being the current NXT Women's Champion, Giulia, who Roxanne eliminated. She did vow to break more of Bayley's records, and she did. She now has the longest Women's Rumble time ever--she lasted 67:47 in the match.

A lot of fans, myself included, expected this: Jordynne Grace graced (intended pun) us with her appearance in this year's Rumble. This was her second appearance, but this was different. Last time, Jordynne was not only with TNA, she was their Knockouts World Champion. She was the second to break that forbidden door after Mickie James did so, but regarding this year, Jordynne's appearance came as an official signed talent with WWE. We will see what happens with Jordynne in due time, but there's at least one thing I want from Jordynne: a feud with Zaria, especially with Jordynne as a heel.

She's back, folks! Alexa Bliss made her return to WWE at the Women's Rumble, entering at #21. She had been the center of rumors for a good bit entering this night. It had been heavily rumored that Bliss would be back as a member of the Wyatt Sicks, but after that fell through, a bigger story came out that WWE had nothing for her, and we wouldn't see her for a long time. So because of this, I was one of many people not holding my breath for Bliss to return tonight, but hours before the show started, I read that Bliss signed a new deal with WWE. Lo and behold, Five Feet of Fury returned! It seems like yesterday that I first saw her on NXT. It was actually 12 years ago.

I had been waiting patiently for some "blasts from the past," and when #25 hit, there was that familiar music. Of course, when WWE thinks alums, legends, and Hall of Fame "Divas," they only think of Trish Stratus. They are so obsessed with having Trish on all of the time. Yes, she's a legend, she's a seven-time Women's Champion, I get all of that. She's not the end all, be all, though. Lita did just as much as Trish, if not more so, but we hardly see her back. And I was hoping to see more women from the Ruthless Aggression Era appear. Candice Michelle, Victoria, Stacy Keibler, Maryse. Bring in Melina again, bring in Michelle McCool again. Honestly, I thought I'd see Layla tonight. Nope.

As far as alums, we only saw Trish at #25, and Nikki Bella at #30. Nikki I saw coming because I read she was in Indianapolis (the site of this year's Rumble), and seeing as she was in attendance at the first Raw on Netflix, and she's part of the third season of The Traitors, I figured I'd see her. There were heavy rumors that we'd see AJ Lee tonight, but that did not happen. So we were robbed of seeing Punk and AJ join a small list of real-life wrestling couples who have done Rumbles at the same event.

Nia Jax is slowly becoming the Women's Rumble equivalent of Kane in these things. She keeps making history in Rumbles. We all remember when she competed in both Rumbles in the same night, and of course, she set a record for most eliminations in a single match. This year, she topped that record. Nia eliminated nine women tonight, including six of them at once. Holy moley. I mentioned Kane, I know that number has long since been broken, but still--11 in a single Rumble is just amazing.

So in all of this craziness, who won the eighth annual Women's Royal Rumble?

We all saw this coming once the first promo aired. Charlotte Flair entered at #27, which is a known sweet spot in the other Rumble match, and ended up winning it after eliminating Roxanne Perez. So with this victory, Charlotte becomes the first two-time Women's Rumble winner, as she had won the Rumble match five years prior. It's a feel good story for Charlotte, but overall, this is another winner who definitely did not need to win this match. In eight Women's Rumble matches, a Horsewoman has won half of them, though if you consider Asuka close to being one, they've won five. Though at least Asuka's win was about her dominance, and Becky Lynch's win was about proving herself as The Man. Bayley didn't need to win last year, and Charlotte sure as hell didn't need to win this year.

So Charlotte has her choice of champions, but we know who she's going after. According to the rumors, it will be Charlotte going after Tiffany Stratton at WrestleMania 41.

I enjoyed the Women's Rumble, per usual. There were things I was disappointed in, but it never stops me from seeing an immense number of my favorite stars battle it out in an amazing match. One of the awesome attributes came early in the match, with Lyra Valkyria entering at #4 and Chelsea Green entering at #5. The first-ever Women's Intercontinental Champion and the first-ever Women's United States Champion. That was absolutely awesome as hell! So yeah, we have a lot of titles for the women, and a few days before the event, I read that WWE is considering making the Royal Rumble and Survivor Series two-night events. I figured that the Big Four shows would become mega large together. WrestleMania has been two nights since 2020, and this year's SummerSlam will be two nights for the first time.

They can definitely do this for the Rumble beginning next year, and it's a simple thing regarding the matches. Night 1 will focus solely on the women, and Night 2 can focus solely on the men. With five championships for the main roster's women, this can definitely be done. The all-women's night can feature some (or all) of the championships on the line, and then it would be main evented by the Women's Rumble. This could allow more surprise entrants, because those who have competed already would be less likely to be in the Rumble.

Once again, I absolutely enjoyed this year's Women's Royal Rumble match; it was a joy to watch an immense group of amazing women battle it out in such an amazing and chaotic event. I have hopes that my visions for future Rumble events will come true, but for now, I'll continue to enjoy the Women's Royal Rumble and all that comes with it.