Cody Rhodes defended his WWE Championship against Kevin Owens at WWE Royal Rumble 2025.
Credit: WWE
Cody Rhodes won a highly physical, and at-times dangerous Ladder Match to retain the WWE Championship over Kevin Owens at the 2025 WWE Royal Rumble.
Both rivals took multiple risky and scary bumps onto ladders despite WrestleMania being right around the corner.
After an insane Fisherman’s Buster onto a ladder from KO, Sami Zayn joined WWE officials to check on his two friends. With his alliance in question leading into the Royal Rumble, Zayn—dressed in a black hoodie—remained impartial as he watched Owens and Rhodes beat the hell out of each other. Cody Rhodes retained the WWE Championship after an Alabama Slam on Owens through a ladder.
Cody Rhodes and Kevin Owens’ feud has been one of the more innovative, if not underrated, of Rhodes’ world title run. When you set the gold standard with quite possibly the greatest story WWE ever told, overlooked (albeit outstanding) feuds is the price you pay.
Owens began his rift with Rhodes in a rare off-camera heel-turn. Owens’ attacking Rhodes after WWE Bad Blood 2024 did not happen in a big angle on television or pay-per-view, but rather a parking lot “segment” that relied on viral smartphone footage. Though WWE’s Twitter account was among those posting the clip of Kevin attacking Cody outside Cody’s tourbus, WWE’s bold booking of a guerrilla-marketed heel-turn was one of its most creative choices to date.
Owens’ theme as a newly minted heel was off-the-cuff, worked-shoot promos. Owens often interrupted ongoing segments, and some of his diatribes aired via grainy smartphone footage filmed in his car. For all its innovations, Kevin vs. Cody also implemented nostalgia. The WWE Championship Ladder Match will crown an undisputed WWE champion with both the WWE Title and the Winged Eagle Championship hanging above.
Rhodes and Owens signed an addendum to their contract for tonight’s matchup, and it’s possible that addendum could be used to reinstate the Winged Eagle Championship moving forward. Something Rhodes has publicly lobbied for in the past. Rhodes entered the Royal Rumble as a massive -4000 favorite to retain the WWE Championship. This would make him undefeated at the Royal Rumble since his game-changing return in 2022.
Sami Zayn Does Not Turn Heel In WWE Title Match
As a possible monkey wrench to lead to an upset, WWE teased Sami Zayn as a possible disrupter. Ahead of an every-man-for-himself Royal Rumble where Zayn is one of several possible winners, Owens’ best frenemy has “accidentally” struck both Rhodes and Seth Rollins with the Helluva Kick. In a Ladder Match, where anything goes, the only scenario where Kevin Owens can spring the upset is through a shocking Sami Zayn heel-turn. Similar to Zayn’s turn (in a black hoodie) at WWE Hell in a Cell 2017 to help Owens defeat Shane McMahon.
Despite Rhodes’ predictable victory, there are now more questions than answers regarding Sami Zayn, who remained an intriguing darkhorse to win the 2025 Royal Rumble after watching Rhodes destroy is childhood friend.
