WWE listed 15 confirmed entrants for the men’s Royal Rumble match this year going into tonight’s (Sat., Feb. 1, 2025) event at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. We had 18. Whoever was right, the door was open for a few returns and surprises.

To that end, here’s what we got:

• Like their Alpha Academy teammate Maxxine Dupri in the women’s Rumble, Otis and Akira Tozawa showed up despite not declaring. Well, Otis entered 6th. Tozawa tried to enter 8th but was attacked by Carmelo Hayes before he could get to the ring. Cameras took us to gorilla where Triple H waved in…
• IShowSpeed. Read more about the streamer’s rough night here.
• Ninth was Sheamus. Not a huge surprise, but not announced in advance so he qualifies.
• 10, 11, 13 and 14 were pretty much the same story: Jimmy Uso, Andrade, Ludwig Kaiser (eliminated in almost record time by Penta).
• TNA World champ Joe Hendry was here at 15. We say his name — and talk about his Rumble — more here.
• Finn Bálor made his first appearance since losing a Street Fight to Damian Priest on the Jan. 13 Raw. He entered 18th, and eliminated Penta.
• The Phenomenal AJ Styles didn’t want none when he entered 21st. More on that here.
• Braun Strowman was next. The 22nd entrant got revenge from last Saturday by eliminating Jacob Fatu, who had been dominant.

And that was it. Not quite as plentiful or as exciting as the women’s match, but there were some good ones. It’s notable the men’s Rumble didn’t have an NXT presence, while the women’s match did — which figures given the strength of the NXT women’s division, but it was still surprising to not see someone like Trick Williams or maybe Tony D’Angelo.

Let us know what you thought of the surprises in the mens match, and get complete Royal Rumble results and coverage of every match on the card by clicking here.