WWE SmackDown Ratings (2/14/25), HBK To Return To The Ring?, GUNTHER Reacts To Jey Uso Winning The 2025 Men’s Royal Rumble Match

GUNTHER has chimed in on Jey Uso winning the 2025 men’s Royal Rumble match.

As you all know by now, GUNTHER will be facing off against Jey at WrestleMania 41 after Uso chose the reigning World Heavyweight Champion as his opponent.

While speaking with The Daily Mail, GUNTHER discussed the upcoming bout.

You can check out some highlights from the interview below:

On his match with Uso at WrestleMania 41: “I’m not interested in wrestling Jey at WrestleMania. I was looking for somebody who is one of the last few remaining guys on the roster that I would say are maybe one step ahead of me, and it would have been nice to be in there with one of them, to bring them down one inch and make a step up.”

On Uso winning the Royal Rumble: “I think the Rumble was packed like never before. With Jey, there was basically the underdog winning in all of this. But also, on the other hand, he’s maybe the most popular guy we have right now, and people would really want to see him succeed. And they’re strapped in to follow him along this whole ride to WrestleMania now. There’s all those dream matches out there. But on the other hand, I think if you have somebody like Jey that has such a movement behind him and such support from the audience, you have got to do something with that. And it just creates a special situation that you cannot make up. This either happens or it doesn’t happen, and when it’s there, you have to do something with it. I think it’s good that it happened. But on the other side, I say stay away from me. I must have wrestled him, I don’t know, 30, 40 times including live events. And I’ve got to give it to him, in general, he’s a very likable guy, easy to talk to, and very warm to other people, always very friendly and very nice. It almost reminds me a little bit when Daniel Bryan had the yes movement going. It’s a special situation right now. And good for him to be in that position right now. I think he deserves that. But like I said, leave me out.”

Friday night’s episode of WWE SmackDown did 1,384,000 viewers on the USA Network. This is down from the 1,507,000 viewers the show did the previous week.

WWE SmackDown pulled in a 0.42 rating in the key 18-49 demo, which is down from the 0.48 demo rating from one week ago.

Friday night’s episode of WWE SmackDown went head-to-head with the NBA All-Star Celebrity game. That game drew a 0.43 demo rating and 1,208,000 viewers.

WWE SmackDown is averaging a 0.446 demo rating and 1,470,000 viewers in 2025 to date.

During a Q&A at For The Love of Wrestling, JDC (Fandango in WWE) shared his dream match in NXT, revealing that Shawn Michaels told him just last week that he has “one or two matches left in him.”

JDC, who was inspired by Michaels to pursue wrestling, expressed that while it’s unlikely to happen, facing Michaels would be his ultimate dream match. Despite Michaels’ retirement and his role overseeing WWE NXT, he has hinted at a possible return to the ring.

JDC said, “You know who I talked to [at NXT] last week, who said he’s got one or two matches left in him? Shawn Michaels. Yeah, and that’s a guy, he’s the reason why I got into the business. So honestly, it’d probably never happen, but that would be my dream match.”