The Most Accurate, Completely Correct WWE Royal Rumble 2025 Match Predictions

With the start of 2025 comes the start of every wrestling fan's favorite time of year: the road to WrestleMania! And, as is the case every year, the path to WWE's showcase of the immortals starts at the Royal Rumble, an event as highly anticipated as 'Mania itself.

Being the humongous wrestling dork that I am, I have devised what I believe to be an absolutely flawless list of predictions for one of WWE's most unpredictable events of the year.

The tumultuous rivalry between Kevin Owens and WWE champion Cody Rhodes will literally reach new heights at Royal Rumble when they go head-to-head in a championship ladder match. Owens has had it out for Rhodes ever since the champion joined forces with the OTC Roman Reigns in the Bloodline civil war of 2024.

Reigns brutally tormented the likes of Kevin, Cody, and countless others over the years during his dominant tenure as WWE champion. So when Rhodes aligned himself with the very man he fought tooth-and-nail to vanquish at WrestleMania, Owens felt personally slighted. As history has shown, Owens is not quite as forgiving as the American Nightmare.

After months of back-and-forth personal attacks and arena brawls, the two finally look to end their feud once and for all at the Rumble, with both Cody's WWE Championship and the customized Winged Eagle belt that Owens stole from Rhodes hanging in the balance. Which star will ascend to greatness this Saturday at Lucas Oil Stadium?

On any other premium live event, a WWE Championship ladder match would be the biggest spectacle of the night. But as every diehard wrestling nerd knows, the best part of the Royal Rumble event is the Royal Rumble match itself!

For the uninitiated, the match will start with two competitors in the ring, with another wrestler entering the ring every 90 seconds until all 30 entrants are in the match. Rather than scoring a pinfall or submission, the objective of the Rumble match is to throw your opponents over the top rope with both of their feet hitting the floor. The match will continue until just one superstar remains in the ring, winning the match and earning a match for the world title of their choosing at WrestleMania.

If that sounds like a giant game of The Floor Is Lava, let me assure you, it is most certainly exactly that. And it's awesome. The Rumble match always finds a way to deliver unexpected surprises in the form of returning legends, debuting NXT callups, shocking eliminations, and so much more.

The men's and women's Rumble matches are sure to steal the entire show this weekend, promising a plethora of excitement as WWE's stars fight to stamp their ticket to WrestleMania. But which man and woman will stand tall at the end of their respective Rumbles?

Given the frenetic and unpredictable nature of the Rumble match, I've certainly got my work cut out for me when it comes to achieving 100% prediction perfection for this show. However, my picks for last year's Royal Rumble event were nearly flawless, save for a misguided prediction that CM Punk would win the men's Rumble match.

But surely I won't make that same mistake this year, right? RIGHT? Let's find out! Here are my picks for the 2025 WWE Royal Rumble!

My pick: #DIY

Ever hitting the scene in WWE back in late 2024, Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley of the Motor City Machine Guns have taken SmackDown's tag team division by storm. They won tag team gold in lightning quick fashion and, were it not for the underhanded tactics of Johnny Gargano and Tomasso Ciampa of #DIY, they may still have the gold around their waists.

As determined as MCMG may be to reclaim the tag titles, the 2-out-of-3-falls stipulation of the match provides a lot of room for #DIY to skirt the rules in their favor, which is what helped them win the championships in the first place. By hook or by crook, I foresee a successful title defense in #DIY's immediate future. 

My pick: Cody Rhodes

I gotta say, this match ended up becoming a lot harder to predict than I originally anticipated, which I think speaks to both men's ability to sell their personal animosity with each other. Once trusted friends turned to bitter rivals, Rhodes and Owens will go to war this Saturday with giant steel ladders in hand.

What makes this match such a wildcard is Kevin's recent attempts to sway Sami Zayn to his side in the leadup to the match. Owens and Zayn's friendship is a rich and complex tapestry, and their careers are intrinsically linked with one another. Despite their ups and downs through the years, Owens considers Sami his longest and truest friend...or so he claims.

Despite Kevin's best efforts, I doubt Sami will succumb to his manipulations at the Rumble. After some inner debate, ultimately I'm giving the victory to the American Nightmare.

My pick: Jordynne Grace

This is perhaps the biggest shot in the dark I've ever taken when it comes to these predictions. News broke recently that former TNA Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace has officially signed with WWE. Grace stunned the world when she entered the Rumble at last year's event while still under contract with TNA, then went on to compete in WWE's developmental brand NXT through the summer of 2024.

Now that she is officially a member of WWE's roster, I can think of no better way to put Grace over in the eyes of fans than giving her a dominant performance in the Rumble match that leads to a shocking win. It would be the first time in the history of the company that a newly signed talent won the Royal Rumble in their debut match. I also feel the possibility of Jordynne Grace either facing Rhea Ripley or Tiffany Stratton at WrestleMania is simply too amazing to pass up.

I understand this is a long shot, but I'm completely willing to bank my chances of prediction perfection on Jordynne's massive boulder shoulders.

My pick: CM Punk

That's right, I'm picking Punk to win the Rumble yet again! I have apparently learned nothing from last year!

In all seriousness, if you had asked me just a month ago what match I thought was a lock for WrestleMania, I would've said Punk vs. Seth Rollins in a heartbeat. However, after defeating Rollins in the main event of Raw's Netflix debut, it seems that Punk has moved on and set his sights on higher aspirations. And with so many of his peers pointing out the fact that Punk has never main evented a WrestleMania, it almost seems like they're telegraphing a win for the straightedge superstar.

Can CM Punk secure his first Rumble win AND his first WrestleMania main event match in a single year? God do I hope so, or else it's gonna be real tough to justify picking him for next year's Rumble match (I probably will anyway).

You can watch WWE Royal Rumble on Saturday, February 1 at 6 p.m. ET, only on Peacock!