The field for the 2025 Men's Royal Rumble match is quickly filling up with some heavy hitters, as Rey Mysterio is the latest WWE Superstar to declare he will be participating this year.
He joins a lineup of seven other Superstars previously announced over the past few weeks, being CM Punk, Drew McIntyre, Jey Uso, John Cena, LA Knight, Roman Reigns and Seth "Freakin'" Rollins.
Mysterio opened tonight's episode of Friday Night SmackDown, having requested that time to speak in part because this is in San Diego, where Rey Mysterio is a hometown hero. He spoke about how he had won the 2006 Royal Rumble match, entering at the unfortunate #2 spot, but going the distance to overtake Triple H and all 29 other men as the biggest underdog imaginable to come out on top. Rey would even go on to win the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 22 that year, when he defeated Kurt Angle and Randy Orton in a Triple Threat match.
As Rey was talking about how the group of competitors this year will pose a tough task to overcome, he was interrupted by Kevin Owens, who spoke about how he's always looked up to Mysterio and is rooting for him to win. That way, he can have one of his dream matches by facing Rey at WrestleMania 41, since Owens considers himself the rightful WWE champion after the chaos that happened at WWE Saturday Night's Main Event with Cody Rhodes.
Naturally, Mysterio reminded Owens that he isn't actually the WWE champion, and The American Nightmare is, which upset Owens to the point that he tried to hit Mysterio with the Winged Eagle title belt. This led to Mysterio approaching SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis backstage after the commercial break to request a match against Owens for later on, meaning The Prizefighter got his wish for a one-on-one, but under different circumstances.
As of this publication, that match has not yet happened, so stay tuned to here for updates as well as the live SmackDown results page for more!
Do you think Rey Mysterio has much of a chance to win this year's Royal Rumble match? If so, who do you think he would pick to challenge? Drop your thoughts and predictions in the comments below!