5 Massive mistakes WWE made at the 2025 Royal Rumble

The 2025 Royal Rumble is now in the rearview mirror, and WWE is officially on the Road to WrestleMania 41. There are several talking points emerging from both major matches, but it appears that for the first time during Triple H's reign in WWE, fans have walked away from the show feeling slightly disappointed.

Jey Uso's victory surprised many fans who believed John Cena would win. However, the lack of surprises in the men's match and the predictability of the women's match are two of the biggest issues with this year's show.

The following list will look at just five massive mistakes that were made at the 2025 WWE Royal Rumble.

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#5. Lack of surprises

In the women's match, several unexpected stars appeared, including Alexa Bliss and Trish Stratus. However, aside from IShowSpeed's cameo, there was nothing surprising in the men's match.

Stephanie McMahon teased that the WWE Royal Rumble would be full of surprises, but the event did not deliver on this promise. It remains unclear why legends were not brought back when many of them were present at ringside and backstage and could have easily stepped in for a few minutes.

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#4. Teased returns that didn't follow through

Several stars expected to return were missing from the show, including Becky Lynch, who has been teased for weeks. CM Punk even hinted at his wife AJ Lee showing up, prompting fans to chant for her during his entrance, but once again, the former Divas Champion did not appear.

There was a lot of hype about the show, as usual, but there seemed to be a lot missing from it as well.

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#3. WWE wasted a number of Royal Rumble slots

Over the past few weeks, several women declared their spots in the match, and there was a belief that the rest would be surprises. Instead, it seems many women just chose not to declare and were added to the match anyway.

Having PFC take up three slots only to all be eliminated at the same time seemed quite wasteful, the group could have represented by one member rather than using all three.

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#2. There was no "Royal Rumble moment"

Kofi Kingston and Naomi have stood out each year when they have had a Royal Rumble moment to show that they could stay in the match in an incredible way. Logan Paul managed to jump from the announce table back into the ring, but there was nothing from the women, with Naomi's elimination coming along with several other stars at the hands of Nia Jax.

There were many times when stars could have created memorable moments for themselves, but none stood out.

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#1. Charlotte Flair's underwhelming win

There has been a lot of backlash regarding Charlotte Flair's win, as she is a competitor who has already won the WWE Royal Rumble and headlined WrestleMania. She has been away from the company for more than a year and hasn't seen what the women have been doing throughout that time to push the industry forward.

It seems disrespectful to the locker room for Flair to walk in at number 27 and win the Rumble match, securing her WrestleMania main event for the second time.