Royal Rumble breaks records
KARACHI:
WWE has been on a roll since former owner Vince McMahon left the company due to harassment and trafficking allegations and Triple H took over as the Chief Content Officer.
The latest Royal Rumble 2025, held at the Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis, kept the momentum running at an all-time high.
The much anticipated, all-star show featured two Royal Rumble matches – men's and women's – and two championship matches. Over 65 thousand people from all 50 US states and 48 countries attended the mega event. But the Rumble had even bigger records to break.
At the post-show press conference, CCO Triple H aka Paul Levesque said, "Tonight was the highest-grossing Rumble in history, but more than that it was the third largest gate in WWE history, and for a single night event it was the largest gate WWE has ever done."
The only events ahead of Royal Rumble 2025 are the two nights of WrestleMania 40 last year. The show also broke social media records with the video of Bron Breaker (nephew of veteran Scott Steiner) hitting a brutal spear to YouTuber IShowSpeed in the men's Rumble match being viewed over 300 million times in less than 24 hours across all platforms, thus making it the most viewed Royal Rumble social post in history.
The energy live at the show was electric, to say the least. The show opened with the women's Royal Rumble and featured Rumble debuts of new signees and international superstars such as Stephanie Vaquer and Giulia, former TNA star Jordynne Grace, as well as the return of Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair (legendary Ric Flair's daughter). Although an unpopular decision among the fans, Charlotte made history and won the match, making her the only two-time women's Rumble winner. At the end, she eliminated NXT's Roxanne Perez, who had lasted one hour, seven minutes and forty-seven seconds in the match – the longest of anybody in women's Rumble match history.
DIY defeated the Motor City Machine Guns in a two-out-of-three falls match to retain the WWE Tag Team Championships and Cody Rhodes defeated a maniacal Kevin Owens in a violent Ladder Match to retain the Undisputed WWE Championship.
The men's Royal Rumble match closed the show. The match was overloaded with star power with the likes of CM Punk, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, newest lucha sensation Penta, Rey Mysterio, new full-time WWE wrestler and YouTuber Logan Paul and more clashing for the opportunity to main event WrestleMania 41. The match also saw the return of John Cena in his final Rumble match as the Hollywood star is set to retire from professional wrestling in December 2025.
The one hour and twenty minutes long match (the longest Rumble match ever) showcased WWE's wrestling variety at its full potential with stars like Penta lasting 42 minutes, the longest of all. Besides him, Jacob Fatu raised hell for 24 minutes before being eliminated by arch-rival Braun Strowman.
A moment inspired awe among the 65 thousand live when Punk, Reigns, Cena and Rollins stood face to face in the ring. With everyone clamoring to headline the Grandest Stage of All, their paths are certainly intertwined on this Road to WrestleMania.
While the fans predicted Punk, Reigns or Cena to win the Rumble, WWE pulled out a shocker when Jey Uso eliminated Cena at the end to have his hand raised. Jey, the twin brother of Jimmy Uso, son of Rikishi, cousin to Reigns and Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, has become increasingly popular with the fans screaming 'Yeet' whenever he comes out.
Years of hard work finally paid off for Jey as the Yeet-man pulled off the unthinkable and will now headline WrestleMania again, this time for a shot at the world championship. He is likely to re-challenge his long-time rival and current World champion Gunther.
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