I haven’t talked much about pro-wrestling recently but with both the Royal Rumble 2025 and Wrestlemania coming up, I figured it might be a good time to review some of the big things going on. Namely, the big title(s) scene and certain key people whether they’re involved in that scene or as part of the main story lines.
Part of the thought process behind this blog comes from the question: just who will be the one taking on Cody Rhodes for the title? Right now, Cody is in a feud with Kevin Owens and I suspect their upcoming ladder match will be the end to their feud. Personally, I’m hoping that Drew McIntyre enters the main event title picture with Cody (he already interrupted an interview just before Kevin Owens attacked Cody on Raw). Besides the fact that Drew had one of the best blood feuds in recent history with CM Punk, he effectively turned into the most intriguing personality and best heel on the entire roster during that period and would make for the perfect foe against Cody. However, at this stage, I can’t see Drew McIntyre being the one to win the Rumble unfortunately as that slot is generally reserved for someone the WWE really wants to push to the top or someone on top they want to keep at the top of the card.
With that in mind before I go into a potential Royal Rumble 2025 winner for the men’s division, I wanted to discuss possible candidates who might serve as the Wrestlemania challenger to Cody Rhodes’ title (sans the actual Royal Rumble 2025 winner)
- Roman Reigns – While Roman never received his return match after being defeated, Romans did declare himself as a participant in the Royal Rumble via Paul Heyman. In all likelihood, Roman Reigns would be a great top challenger but he’s barely around and works a part time schedule at this stage of his career. He would be an intriguing choice but not my top one right now with the way things are going.
- John Cena – As this will be Cena’s retirement tour, one could imagine him being a top challenger to Cody’s title. And like Roman, Cena entered himself as a participant in the Royal Rumble 2025. While I doubt John Cena would be the one to eventually knock Cody off for the title, it would be a great way for Cena to go out in putting Cody over as the #1 person in the WWE. So he’s got a really high chance of facing Cody in my book.
- CM Punk – Like the other three, CM Punk has declared himself for the Royal Rumble. And CM Punk has confronted Cody in the past while making it known he wants to headline a Wrestlemania. The problem is that I don’t think his feud with Seth Rollins is over. I still think despite defeating Rollins, we’ll see the end of Rollins. But that still could mean Punk gets a main event spot at Wrestlemania, it’ll just be on night one and not for the title.
- Gunther – If John Cena wasn’t around, Gunther would be my #1 choice overall to face Cody. He was beaten by Cody in Saudi Arabia and he is in a bizarre spot where I can’t tell if they’re turning him face. But there was a moment a while back in a previous RR where Cody and Gunther faced off as the last two. Gunther already has the World Heavyweight championship and in my book is close to being ready to be the top guy. The problem is that given all the other circumstances, it simply does not feel like his time. Since his last match with Cody, Gunther hasn’t been built up as a possible contender to Cody and they still have him with the World Heavyweight championship which means he either gets night one as part of a main event or a top tier match on the card.
- The Rock – No one knows if The Rock will be involved with Wrestlemania at all. Some say that he will be doing shoots for the next Moana movie. But in reality at this stage of The Rock’s life and career, it would feel moot for him to face Cody for the title. Also, if there are plans for The Rock, I doubt they’ll involve anything more with Cody at this stage (outside of him goofing around backstage with Cody)
So that leaves the Royal Rumble as the thing that creates the path into Wrestlemania’s actual main event. If we look at people above, the only one that won’t participate is The Rock for certain. Since Gunther has the World Heavyweight championship, I don’t know if they’ll let him participate or if he’ll have his own challenger at the Royal Rumble. So in reality, that leaves just CM Punk, John Cena and Roman Reigns. The way I see CM Punk and Roman Reigns’ involvement in the Royal Rumble, they’ll get eliminated by interference or some other rivalry that will lead into a top spot match at Wrestlemania. In the case of CM Punk, I can see Seth Rollins being the one eliminating him or sneaking in and causing an issue similar to what happened with Randy Savage and Jake Roberts at RR’92.
With Roman Reigns, I mentioned that The Rock did not seem all the way done with him. While Roman Reigns did reclaim the Ula Fala (or however you spell that), there’s a different story that never failed to manifest which was The Rock vs Roman Reigns at last year’s Wrestlemania. Now that Cody Rhodes has become the WWE’s top guy, it opens up the possibility of The Rock being able to put Roman Reigns over. I don’t think Roman Reigns needs the win itself but I can see how The Rock might want to help cement Roman Reigns’ legacy similar to how Hulk Hogan put The Rock over at Wrestlemania 18. It does feel like if The Rock wanted one last meaningful match in wrestling, he needs to do it sooner or later (btw I caught that embarrassing fiasco of a match between Dax Harwood and Chris Jericho from a clip on AEW Collision. The Rock isn’t going to do much better at this point). So that’s why I don’t think the issue is over just yet with Roman Reigns and The Rock. So to prevent Roman from winning the Rumble, The Rock will be the one preventing him.
Logically, that leaves John Cena as the winner, even though I think it would be a wasted opportunity. Again though, with the way story lines are being handled, I can’t see (no pun intended) anyone else winning at this stage. Punk would be #2 choice given the circumstances and be an excellent opponent against Cody but a long standing blood feud in the coming months between Punk and Seth Rollins seems like a better money opportunity than Punk beating Cody flat at Wrestlemania. Also, if Punk goes for a top title, I think Gunther’s World Heavyweight championship would be a better goal for him since his cage match with Gunther demonstrated to me what I think would be the better and more impactful match.
The New Bloodline Story Line
Since Solo Sikoa was defeated by Roman Reigns in Tribal Combat rules on Netflix for the Ula Fala, I really don’t think the New Bloodline will be the top story line/feud anymore unless The Rock becomes involved. My theory about the New Bloodline story was that The Rock would eventually be revealed as the true mastermind and sponsor behind the New Bloodline seeing what Roman Reigns and his group had become. Only if The Rock gets involved will the New Bloodline continue to be a top story because it’ll keep the spotlight on the group.
That said, while Solo Sikoa has grown as a talker, has become a heat magnet and elevated through all of this, the raw truth is that he’s not a great wrestler. By himself at this moment, Solo Sikoa is not a main eventer. It’s his group as a collective and really Jacob Fatu is the one I think they’re going to push to the stars in singles eventually. The other two of Tama Tonga and Tonga Loa have a very long way to go (not to mention one is injured). Then there’s the addition of Bronson Reed who ended up getting injured as he was starting to get a push. Unless they get the rumored addition of Hikuleo (Haku/Meng’s son), this group looks very weak outside of Jacob Fatu. And only if The Rock gets involved will the New Bloodline have anything because this group currently has no titles. If anything they could be a very good midcard faction if the focus goes to Jacob and have him face off against say Bron Breaker for the IC title. Other than that, this group will have to wait until the others are healed to be back on top.
The OG Bloodline
I think the Survivor Series 2024 scenario was going to be a one time thing since most of the members are pretty much focused on their own thing. Roman is going to be mostly involved in the main event along with Paul Heyman. So the only three remaining in the group itself will be Sami Zayn, Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso. Because two members of the New Bloodline are out, that puts this group (sans Roman) at even odds against them. I can see them continuing in an upper midcard feud but nothing extraordinary except to give these guys people to work with until the dust is settled.
The New New Day
The heel turn was one of the best things I’ve seen with these guys. But it feels like they’re still trying to warm themselves up and find the right opponent(s). With Penta El Cero Miedo on his way in, I can see them working with him to help establish the guy. But truthfully I think that with all the heat these two have earned, they really deserve to get better opponents. My pick would have been the Motor City Machine Guns since Xavier Woods did have a period in TNA (although I can’t recall if he worked with either MCMG member). Of course, the other pick would be the War Raiders which might mean for a very short title reign. But I think MCMG would potentially be the better match that’s better suited to Koji and Xavier.
Rhea Ripley
Since Rhea beat Liv Morgan to regain the Women’s World Championship, I can’t see any major feuds on the horizon. I felt that both need to go their separate ways. Liv Morgan has more upside as a challenger right now against say the newly crowned Tiffany Stratton than continuing her feud against Rhea. But I’ll get to Tiffany Stratton after Rhea. The only other two potential big match opponents for Rhea at Wrestlemania (assuming Rhea does not need to enter the Royal Rumble) are Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch. But what else could Rhea gain from those matches? They could add more stipulations (the hat on a hat trick!) and the matches would be good. Yet it would feel rehashed.
The only other person that Rhea could have a main event level match that is different would be against Jade Cargill. But Jade Cargill has been hurt and off TV and is nowhere ready to be in a singles main event for a Wrestlemania match. Rhea could face Bayley but that feels more like filler where Bayley has taken the latest “Natalya spot” role of being the veteran getting the younger wrestlers over. But there’s just nothing for either to really do at this stage that would help the other. If Chelsea Green had been previously pushed, she might make for an intriguing challenger (not for good matches).
The only other remote name I’ve seen is Alexa Bliss. The problem is that Alexa had been gone for so long that her return would receive a huge babyface reaction. With only two months or so out from Wrestlemania, I don’t think there’s enough time to rebuild Alexa into a top spot. Also, the last I remember of her she had that stupid doll gimmick going and I think they need to get past that for her to grow just because she already did that gimmick/story with Becky.
Tiffany Stratton
Besides, Rhea Ripley, I think Tiffany Stratton might be one of the better women on the roster right now because of her upside. I don’t think she’s a great wrestler/worker but she’s athletic and she received a HUGE pop in beating Nia Jax. Before talking about that upside, let me discuss why people popped for Tiffany: Nia Jax really sucks. I don’t think anyone really wants to see her talk nor wrestle. Her interviews are lame and she can’t wrestle. I’m not apologetic for being blunt here but she’s just god awful and they need to sweep her under the rug fast now that she got her little title reign. Unfortunately, I don’t think Tiffany Stratton is out of the water from Nia just yet which blows because she needs fresh meat that can put her over.
The thing about Tiffany Stratton that I’ve seen is that she’s very athletic, young and reasonably good looking. She’s got decent size to her (not puny like Kairi Sane or Liv Morgan) and was the only person in that disastrous Survivor Series 2024 War Games women’s match that looked decent. I think she does NOT need a feud with Nia Jax at all and that her better challenger would be Liv Morgan to help develop Stratton as a babyface character. Down the line, once Tiffany Stratton is better established, I think Rhea will be her natural opponent because of the attribute match up. But that could be a year or two later.
Jade Cargill
I want to keep my eye on Jade because I think she’s got most of the qualities that could make her into a top star in the WWE. The only thing she’s really lacking is the actual in ring ability. She has gotten better but there’s too much missing for her to go on her own unfortunately, which is why they paired her up with Bianca Belair. The problem then becomes precluding Bianca from going singles, which I think is better suited for her than being in a tag team. She could have been a great challenger to Rhea but it makes more sense for her to stick with the tag team with Jade around. But I can’t tell if the story line going on involving Bianca, Naomi, Nia, Bayley and Jade will have Jade returning and turning on Bianca and/or Naomi or what. Also, I still think the big money match with Jade is going to be against Charlotte Flair down the road.
Bron Breaker
This guy is tremendous. The one match I think everyone wants to see is Bron vs Gunther. Is Bron ready to be part of the main event? Is he ready to be the top guy on one of the rosters? Athletically, I think he’s there. As the overall package, my gut feeling is that he’s a year away from getting the World Heavyweight title. I’d much prefer seeing Gunther and Bron in a title vs title scenario at Wrestlemania than the forever feud with Gunther and Damien Priest. I think Bron will be part of the Royal Rumble this year as well and make a bigger impact than in previous years but won’t win it. Not unless the WWE decides to pull the trigger early and have Bron face Cody. Gunther yes and Cody no for me at this stage.
LA Knight
So it looks like he’s mixed up in the midcard again but becoming involved in the New Bloodline. I guess Shinsuke is becoming a surrogate member of the New Bloodline which I hate because he has nothing in common with those guys. But the real story is that LA Knight shouldn’t have lost the title that quickly. Either that or someone inside just doesn’t see as much of an upside in the long haul for this guy. And having him team with Andrade and Santos Escobar made no sense. I’d prefer LA Knight to start teaming with Sami and the Usos so he gets a better story line to elevate him since Andrade and Santos aren’t going anywhere in all honesty.
Becky Lynch
So I read that she was scheduled to have her return on the Netflix addition but her return got nixed in favor of the Undertaker. I don’t mind in all honesty that her return was delayed because there was too many things happening that would have side stepped her return. And I’d prefer to see her make a big impact. That said, I don’t know whom she should face. The natural inclination would be to say she’s going to face either Tiffany Stratton or Rhea Ripley but she’s been away long enough where it won’t make sense to push her to the top immediately.
Also, in her position, Becky Lynch feels like she’s approaching a Roman Reigns level of being a legend where she doesn’t need to work full time and limited appearances make her showing up feel special. That said, I do think having her enter the Royal Rumble might be the best option to keep things up in the air. I’d prefer Becky to face Tiffany Stratton than say Nia Jax to help really establish Tiffany if Becky decides to focus more on her family and acting than on wrestling at this stage of her career. I just think that Tiffany needs more key wins under her belt before she deserves to beat Becky at the same time.
Giulia
She’s the only NXT person worth mentioning to me. I got the opportunity to see her match against Roxanne Perez and thought it was a damn good modern wrestling match. I haven’t seen enough of Giulia to convince me she’s the best in the world but the little I have seen (except the stupid garbage stuff in Japan), I felt wasn’t bad. I don’t want to see her rushed to the main roster but she seems like someone who, if she can improve her English, would have a reasonable upside once she switches.
Giulia isn’t the biggest (my size I believe or maybe a little smaller) and her English isn’t great. She really needs to work on her English more than anything. Also, I think she needs to get a little more definition in her muscles. She’s very good looking but because of her size, she isn’t intimidating once you realize she isn’t the size of a Rhea Ripley or Tiffany Stratton. To make up for that, she needs to improve her body size. I can see her beating say Chelsea Green (who is too skinny for my taste) but not a Jade Cargill or even a Nia Jax based on appearance alone.
Seth Rollins
I talked quite a bit about Seth before. With all the talk he did about CM Punk and Seth having more main events at WM than Punk, it leads me to believe that these two will headline one of the Wrestlemanias. I just can’t see how Punk’s flat victory at the Netflix debut will be the end of this feud. I don’t see Seth becoming involved with Cody at this stage and I doubt he’ll face Gunther anytime soon. But the best feud the WWE has seen in ages was with Punk and Drew McIntyre, which did not involve a title at all. Neither Punk nor Rollins actually need a title (maybe Rollins could get the Undisputed title down the line but not this very second) but based on the words exchanged with these two, I can see a blood feud potentially last until Summer Slam if the WWE is open to it. Either way, I’m almost dead sure Seth will try to embarrass Punk at the Royal Rumble and cause him to be eliminated. I can’t see any other scenario at this stage.
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