OK this is really just about the Rumble matches and winners in response to some of the reactions that have been out there since. So let’s get it:
Women’s Rumble Match
So the main issues that some people in the IWC seem to have in this match are: 1) who was (and was not) in it and 2) who won. OK, nobody told you guys that AJ Lee was going to be in this match. It wasn’t teased, her husband when asked played it down, and she never gave any hints or indications that she was preparing to come back. You weren’t lied to, you weren’t baited and switched on. You made it up out of thin air so you only have yourself to blame for being mad she wasn’t there. She has given zero indication that she wants to come back so stop bothering her. And if you were mad about Nikki Bella being in it, then…..go get a life, I beg you. Nikki Bella didn’t do nothing to y’all to warrant being mad that she was number 30 in a match she wasn’t winning, instead of somebody you imagined being in there sans any evidence.
Now, to the other question. I will be as objective as possible here because I admittedly have a bias towards the winner. But if you’re going to make the argument that they should have given it to ‘somebody new’, I gotta ask:
Who?
Iyo Sky? Why? Because she’s great in the ring? So what? Gotta do better than that. Because she ‘deserves’ it? I’m sorry, did she cure cancer in her spare time, or achieve world peace or something? I’m sorry but if you tell me that somebody deserves for their fictional character to achieve some honor in a wrestling storyline you better have more than a moveset as your reasoning.
Roxanne Perez? They are never going to have a Rumble winner from NXT. The tepid reactions many NXT people get in the Rumble because few of us outside diehard superfans know who they even are, and the fact that it is still developmental pretty much kills that as an option. Let’s be real, the only reason y’all are even mentioning her is because she got to the final two. If it had been Giulia or Stephanie Vaquer you’d be saying the same thing.
All signs for this year pointed to there being the first two time winner – had it not been Charlotte it would have likely been Becky Lynch returning or Bianca Belair once they’d reworked the storylines a bit to set her up properly. And it’s time. There are 10 men who have won it twice, 4 who won it in back to back years. We are in an unprecedented time in women’s wrestling where there are multiple fully active women at or over the age of 35 who are also in high positions and haven’t given any hints about retiring. They should get the same booking as their male counterparts of similar age, tenure, and accomplishment.
The main event tier on the men’s side is full of guys the same age or older, many of whom have been on the main roster longer than Charlotte, Becky, Asuka, etc. This women’s revolution as it was called was about getting closer to equality between the men and women on the roster. Well equality means having the same rewards all around, and getting to stack up Rumble wins and main events is part of that. Playing the ‘everybody gets a turn’ game or the ‘get out of the way for the new girls’ game only lowers the ceiling on where the division is capable of going. Remember, if everyone is super then no one is.
As for Charlotte herself, she’s the only woman they built any kind of story for winning this match. Iyo has barely factored onto television since December. Bianca is occupied in the tag team division. Nia Jax and Liv Morgan just came off of title reigns that had spanned four and six months, respectively. She was out for over a year with a knee injury and at one point wasn’t sure if she’d make it back at all. Giving her a big comeback victory in her comeback year makes sense. There is precedent in the form of not just Cody Rhodes but HHH and John Cena and Steve Austin, all who came back after a long injury hiatus and won the very next Rumble. If you didn’t want her to win that’s fine but acting as if there was no good reason is just disingenuous.
But also, let’s say the quiet part out loud. Would we be talking about it as much if someone else won it? Iyo was constantly overshadowed in her own faction while she was Women’s champion, first by Bayley then by Bayley and Asuka. You think there would be a million takes flying everywhere on podcasts and YouTube videos if she’d won it? Let me help you out here: no, there wouldn’t be. As of this writing, Charlotte’s segments from RAW and NXT in the week after she won are the most viewed for each episode on the WWE’s YouTube channel, her segment from Smackdown is second only to the main event for the night and her promo segment from NXT was the highest rated one for that episode. The YouTube highlight reel of the 2025 women’s rumble already has more views today than both the 2024 women’s rumble and Iyo’s WrestleMania match vs Bayley from last year, and is poised to surpass Iyo’s year and a half old Money in the Bank cash in video from 2023. If you want to say the most popular person in the match should have won then that would have been Alexa Bliss or Trish Stratus or Nikki Bella, none of whom any of you were calling for to win. Speaking of popularity…..
The Men’s Rumble
This had to be the biggest collection of guys who have main evented PLEs or held world titles – Roman, Seth, Cena, Punk, Drew, LA Knight, Priest, Braun, Rey, the Usos, Sami Zayn, Finn Balor, Sheamus, Logan Paul – and guys considered future big stars or world champions like Bron Breaker, Jacob Fatu, and Penta – in one match. That’s over half the field, and that’s with no Cody, Gunther, KO, or Randy Orton involved. Having 22 guys on your roster who have already main evented big shows, or are expected to in the future in is just ridiculous. To have such a wealth of riches is often a bad omen for a wrestling company but this seems like one time that things are in place to manage it better. We’ll see; empires fall every day so I wouldn’t be the house on it but I like their chances to keep it together better than any other company that’s had a similarly stacked roster.
There was a lot to like here. Bron Breaker got to show out, Joe Hendry continued his magic carpet ride by making an appearance, Jacob Fatu was a menace again, and we got a magic moment in the opener when Rey Mysterio and Penta were numbers 1 and 2. Then there were the two big swerves. Roman, Seth, and Punk getting eliminated all in succession turned the entire match on it’s head and then Jey Uso pulling out the win was the shocker of all shockers. The Seth/Roman/Punk eliminations were genius level booking, and then the finish with Jey Uso all alone with John Cena was excellent.
Now as to the backlash towards Jey….. first of all that is entirely an IWC thing. Jey has since gotten back to encore requests for his entrances in RAW and Smackdown. Looking at the crowd reactions and the merchandise sales he is arguably the most popular man there right now, and if he isn’t then he has definitely joined that rarefied air with Roman, Cody, and Punk. If you weren’t going to pick Cena for the farewell tour or Roman or Punk or Seth then in hindsight Jey was the obvious call.
It’s just funny to be honest. If you’re of the belief that it was time to crown somebody new with the Rumble win then Jey is that perfect combination of being somebody different but who has already established himself at the top. But the IWC has decided that since Jey isn’t a ‘5 star match guy’ that he’s an awful choice. Give me a break. Jey isn’t Big Bear Collie for crying out loud:
It’s also laughable to see people saying that instead of Jey it should have been John Cena of all people. I mean, if Charlotte doesn’t need it how can you turn around and call for 2 time Rumble winner, 16 time champion John Cena…..who at this point is probably further away from being a five star match guy than Jey is! No, Jey was the right pick full stop. Roman, Seth, and Punk are entangled in a storyline that precludes them winning this match, and no one else in there should have gotten it. Drew McIntyre and Damien Priest are not on any kind of storyline trajectory where it would have made sense for either of them. Jey and Cena were the only ones on any kind of path that could have led there.
Jey Uso is a guy who did everything the IWC said you’re supposed to do. He went out there, took what booking he was given and through his own work got over huge. Jey’s character and persona isn’t one that was cooked up in a creative meeting, it’s a full extension of who he is. He is the one true example of somebody who got over with minimal heavy handedness from the booker. And there were even times where it damn sure looked like they weren’t interested in making him anything more than a Pop the Crowd midcard guy. The word organic is badly overused in the IWC but he is a real example of it.
But you can’t come out here and say Jey was a terrible choice because he doesn’t dipsy doo triple flip moonsault suplexes. There have been many WrestleMania main eventers who were not men of 1,000 holds. Jey is more than good enough to have a memorable match on a big stage with Gunther. Don’t let anybody tell you different. It’s a no brainer to put somebody as popular as him in a WrestleMania main event, don’t overthink and over hot take this, folks.
With Jey and Charlotte if it’s anything other than personal preference your logic doesn’t add up here. If you didn’t want either of them to win then just say that, don’t give me some convoluted, cockamamie logic as to why it should have been (insert name here). Sorry if you can’t handle it. Ok not really….suck it losers, we’re going to WrestleMania.
Stroke of Genius 