Who's WWE's Real Breakout Star of 2025?
With John Cena, Goldberg, CM Punk and other seasoned stars stealing the spotlight in 2025, WWE's focus on the future has been called into question by fans.
SmackDown and Raw's rosters have arguably have been more stacked with potential prospects, in addition to all of the up-and-comers waiting in the wings in NXT. Despite that, a vast majority of the men's main-event scene on both brands currently consists of talent in their late 30s and early 40s.
All of their respective spots and pushes are justified, but WWE should simultaneously be doing a better job of building up fresher faces while continuing to prominently feature those whose time on top is more limited.
There's a plethora of promising Superstars on SmackDown and Raw at the moment that have already enjoyed a successful year. Certain competitors' ascents were expected, others have overdelivered, and an unfortunate few have failed to make an impact despite glimmers of greatness at various points.
In order to determine WWE's real male and female breakout stars so far in 2025, it's important to acknowledge everyone who has impressed this year and narrow it down to those who have truly seen their stocks skyrocket.
Stars Cemented: Jey Uso, Bron Breakker, Tiffany Stratton
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Tiffany Stratton and Bron Breakker both started 2024 as members of the NXT roster but were officially called up to the main roster by the Royal Rumble in late January. As the year progressed, Stratton became Ms. Money in the Bank and Breakker captured the Intercontinental Championship twice.
Coming into 2025, it was already assumed they'd have massive years, and they definitely haven't disappointed.
Stratton cashed in her contract to clinch the WWE Women's Championship on the very first SmackDown of 2025 and has held the gold ever since. Although Breakker lost the Intercontinental title at WrestleMania 41, he has remained a main-event fixture on Raw as part of Seth Rollins' new group, The Vision.
Jey Uso falls into this same category in that, while he won his first WWE world title this year after reigning supreme in the men's Royal Rumble, he was well on his way to main-event stardom prior to 2025. He's had no issue maintaining his immense level of popularity, but his biggest breakout years were 2020 through 2023 when he showed what he was capable of on his own in The Bloodline.
All three of them will be significant cornerstones of the company for years to come, but 2025 was not when they technically "arrived" as top talent.
On the Cusp: Domink Mysterio, Jacob Fatu
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Dominik Mysterio has legitimately had one of the greatest transformations in recent WWE history.
He spent the first two years of his WWE run as a generic babyface struggling to establish his own identity and failing to follow in his footsteps only to be salvaged by turning heel and joining The Judgment Day.
While with the group, he's completely come out of his shell as a character and become a genuinely beloved figure, or at least someone fans love to hate. He previously held the SmackDown Tag Team Championship and the NXT North American Championship but never singles gold on the main roster prior to 2025.
That changed at WrestleMania 41 when he walked away the new Intercontinental champion. He's had a solid title run since then, but until he makes that next step toward the top of the card, he won't have fully broken out.
Jacob Fatu finds himself in a similar spot these days, though he made his mark on WWE much quicker than Mysterio. His SmackDown debut in June 2024 cemented him as a main-event-level threat from the get-go and he was a recurring highlight on WWE TV for the remainder of the year.
In 2025, he's distanced himself from Solo Sikoa and secured the United States Championship, albeit briefly. He, too, will be a headliner for the company sooner rather than later but is merely on the main-event cusp for the time being.
Promising Starts: Stephanie Vaquer, Roxanne Perez
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Stephanie Vaquer and Roxanne Perez are new to WWE's main roster in 2025 coming off extremely successful stints on the NXT brand.
Perez put pen to paper with the promotion back in 2022 and dominated the women's division down in NXT before finally becoming a regular on Raw and SmackDown on the road to WrestleMania 41. She was officially made a member of the Raw roster in the wake of WrestleMania and has adapted exceptionally well, specifically since being recruited into The Judgment Day and filling in for Liv Morgan.
Meanwhile, Vaquer has been with WWE for a much shorter span of time, only having debuted less than a year ago on NXT TV. She quickly won over the audience as well as the NXT Women's North American Championship before dethroning Giulia for the NXT Women's Championship in April.
Vaquer's title reigns were cut short to allow her to debut on Raw ahead of Money in the Bank in June. She was the last woman standing in a massive Battle Royal at Evolution, and at Wrestlepalooza, she'll be facing Iyo Sky for the vacant Women's World Championship.
Both have had strong starts on the main roster this year and aren't far off from reaching that next level but haven't accomplished enough yet to be considered quite there yet.
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What Could Have Been: Carmelo Hayes, R-Truth
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Triple H and WWE as a whole have dropped the ball on several storylines this year, most notably the heel turns of John Cena and The New Day. Two stars who could and should have gone further than they did with the amount of buzz they had at one point in time were Carmelo Hayes and R-Truth.
Being in the twilight of his in-ring career, it's difficult to label Truth a "breakout" star in any sense, but he definitely did have the opportunity to be elevated. Following the outburst from fans and talent alike online when he announced his contract wasn't being renewed, he was brought back within days and attacked Cena to close the Money in the Bank event.
His subsequent promo on Raw where he symbolically cut his hair and came across as serious for a change gave fans hope his comedy days were behind him. Ultimately, subpar booking led to him losing his hot momentum and any shot of him being featured in more main-events went down the drain.
Hayes spun his wheels for the better part of 2024 after being a first-round draft pick to SmackDown that April but appeared to be on the brink of breaking through as a singles star earlier in 2025 when he won the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal.
He was instead relegated to a tag team with The Miz and has yet to escape undercard purgatory. Hayes can still be redeemed, but he should have been in the same main-event mix as Bron Breakker and Jacob Fatu a long time ago.
A Bona Fide Breakout Year: Lyra Valkyria, Penta
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No one has come farther from where they were in WWE at the onset of 2025 to where they are today than Lyra Valkyria.
The former NXT Women's champion was drafted to Raw in the spring of 2024 but was largely a non-factor for her first seven months on the brand. It wasn't until the Women's Intercontinental Championship Tournament was announced and got underway that she was able to start gaining some traction with wins over Ivy Nile, Zelina Vega, Iyo Sky and ultimately Dakota Kai.
She went on to have a quality run as champion that only improved once she entered a rivalry with Becky Lynch, who betrayed her on the post-WrestleMania Raw and beat her for the belt at Money in the Bank. Between a majority of their encounters being show-stealers and their weekly segments allowing Valkyria to showcase more of her personality, the feud was effective in getting Valkyria over as a fan favorite.
On the men's side, Penta has a much bigger hit in WWE than anyone could have imagined.
Soon after he was free from his AEW contract, Penta made the jump to WWE and debuted in grand fashion on Raw's second-ever episode on Netflix. He was presented as a total star and racked up wins in the weeks and months that followed, earning him a spot on the WrestleMania 41 card in the Intercontinental Championship Fatal 4-Way.
Although Penta would benefit from better direction at the moment and a more meaningful program with a notable name, he's had an outstanding year considering he wasn't even on television at this time a year ago.
Valkyria and Penta have barely scratched the surface of what they can do in WWE and should see their respective rises continue well into 2026.
Graham Mirmina, aka Graham "GSM" Matthews, has specialized in sports and entertainment writing since 2010. Visit his website, WrestleRant, and subscribe to his YouTube channel for more wrestling-related content.
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