Royal Rumble (2025)

Royal Rumble
Royal Rumble
	Promotional poster featuring Bianca Belair, Rhea Ripley, Roman Reigns, Cody Rhodes, Liv Morgan, and CM Punk
Promotion	WWE
Brand(s)	Raw; SmackDown
Date	February 1, 2025
City	Indianapolis, Indiana
Venue	Lucas Oil Stadium
WWE Network event chronology
← Previous; Saturday Night's Main Event	Next →; Elimination Chamber: Toronto
Royal Rumble chronology
← Previous; 2024	Next →; —

The 2025 Royal Rumble, also promoted as Royal Rumble: Indianapolis, is an upcoming professional wrestling event produced by WWE. It will be the 38th annual Royal Rumble and it will take place on Saturday, February 1, 2025, at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana, marking the first Royal Rumble to not take place during the month of January. The event will air via pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming and feature wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. This will also be WWE's first PPV and livestreaming event to air on Netflix in most markets outside the US, following the WWE Network's move to the service in January 2025.

The event is based around the Royal Rumble match, and the winner traditionally receives a world championship match at that year's WrestleMania. For the 2025 event, the men's and women's winners receive a choice of which championship to challenge for at WrestleMania 41. The men's winner can choose to challenge for either Raw's World Heavyweight Championship or SmackDown's Undisputed WWE Championship, while the women have the choice between Raw's Women's World Championship and SmackDown's WWE Women's Championship.

Production

Background

The Royal Rumble is an annual professional wrestling event that was previously produced every January by WWE since 1988. It is one of the promotion's five biggest events of the year, along with WrestleMania, SummerSlam, Survivor Series, and Money in the Bank, referred to as the "Big Five".^[1]^[2] The concept of the event is based around the Royal Rumble match, a modified battle royal in which the participants enter at timed intervals instead of all beginning in the ring at the same time.^[3]^[4]

From the event's inception in 1988 up through the 2024 event, the Royal Rumble was held annually in late January. On June 24, 2024, WWE announced a partnership with the Indiana Sports Corp. which would see the 2025 Royal Rumble, as well as a future WrestleMania and a future SummerSlam, held at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana. The date for the 38th annual Royal Rumble was announced for Saturday, February 1, thus marking the first Royal Rumble held outside of January.^[5]^[6]^[7] It will feature wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brand divisions and in addition to airing on traditional pay-per-view (PPV) worldwide, it will be available to livestream on Peacock in the United States, and Netflix in most other international markets,^[6] marking the first WWE PPV and livestreaming event to air on Netflix following the WWE Network's merger under the service in January 2025.^[8] Tickets went on sale from November 15, 2024.^[9]

The Royal Rumble match generally features 30 wrestlers and the winner traditionally earns a world championship match at that year's WrestleMania. For 2025, the men and women can choose which world championship to challenge for at WrestleMania 41; the men can choose Raw's World Heavyweight Championship or SmackDown's Undisputed WWE Championship, while the women have the choice between Raw's Women's World Championship and SmackDown's WWE Women's Championship.^[3]^[4]

Storylines

The event will include matches that result from scripted storylines. Results are predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands,^[10]^[11] while storylines are produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown.^[12]

On November 13, 2024, it was announced that John Cena would be competing at the event, which would in turn be his last Royal Rumble appearance since Cena announced at the 2024 Money in the Bank PPV on July 6 that he will be retiring at the end of 2025. It is currently unclear whether Cena will be competing in the eponymous match or in another bout on the card.^[13]