diff --git a/change/rnpm-plugin-windows-2020-03-23-15-44-43-cli-versions.json b/change/rnpm-plugin-windows-2020-03-23-15-44-43-cli-versions.json
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..de494627be8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/change/rnpm-plugin-windows-2020-03-23-15-44-43-cli-versions.json
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+{
+  "type": "minor",
+  "comment": "Teach React Native CLI about master and 0.61 versions",
+  "packageName": "rnpm-plugin-windows",
+  "email": "ngerlem@microsoft.com",
+  "commit": "89e1071abb6ec12023ae422bda3e948f5cc5c2ea",
+  "dependentChangeType": "patch",
+  "date": "2020-03-23T22:44:43.124Z"
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/packages/rnpm-plugin-windows/src/common.js b/packages/rnpm-plugin-windows/src/common.js
index ed24c4f6ff2..653f6a25762 100644
--- a/packages/rnpm-plugin-windows/src/common.js
+++ b/packages/rnpm-plugin-windows/src/common.js
@@ -41,10 +41,18 @@ function getLatestVersion() {
 
 function isTagMatch(packageVersion, requestTag) {
   const prerelease = semver.prerelease(packageVersion);
-  return prerelease && prerelease[0] === requestTag;
+  if (prerelease === null && !requestTag) {
+    return true;
+  } else {
+    return prerelease && prerelease[0] === requestTag;
+  }
 }
 
 function isVersionMatch(packageVersion, requestVersion, requestTag) {
+  if (semver.parse(packageVersion) === null) {
+    return false;
+  }
+
   const { major, minor } = semver.parse(packageVersion);
   const minVersion = semver.minVersion(requestVersion);
   return major === minVersion.major &&
@@ -52,50 +60,86 @@ function isVersionMatch(packageVersion, requestVersion, requestTag) {
     isTagMatch(packageVersion, requestTag);
 }
 
-function getMatchingVersion(version, tag, ignoreStable) {
-  console.log(`Checking for react-native-windows version matching ${version}...`);
-  return new Promise(function (resolve, reject) {
-    npm.packages.range('react-native-windows', version, (err, release) => {
-      if (err || !release) {
-        return getLatestVersion()
-          .then(latestVersion => {
-            reject(new Error(`Could not find react-native-windows@${version}. ` +
-              `Latest version of react-native-windows is ${latestVersion}, try switching to ` +
-              `react-native@${semver.major(latestVersion)}.${semver.minor(latestVersion)}.*.`));
-            }).catch(error => reject(new Error(`Could not find react-native-windows@${version}.`)));
-      }
+function getLatestMatchingVersion(versionRange, tag) {
+  return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
+    // Ignore the version range of React Native if asking for master, since our
+    // RNW version may not align.
+    if (tag === 'master') {
+      npm.packages.release('react-native-windows', 'master', (err, rel) => {
+        if (err) {
+          reject(err);
+        } else {
+          resolve(rel[0].version);
+        }
+      });
+    } else {
+      npm.packages.releases('react-native-windows', (err, rels) => {
+        if (err) {
+          reject(err);
+        } else {
+          const matchingVersions = Object.keys(rels)
+            .filter(v => isVersionMatch(v, versionRange, tag))
+            .sort(semver.rcompare);
 
-      const matchedVersion = release.version;
-      const matchedPrerelease = semver.prerelease(matchedVersion);
-      const isPrerelease = tag && !!matchedPrerelease;
-      if (!isVersionMatch(matchedVersion, version, tag) && (ignoreStable || isPrerelease)) {
-        const versions = Object.keys(release.versions);
-        const candidates = versions.filter(v => isVersionMatch(v, version, tag)).sort(semver.rcompare);
-        if (candidates.length === 0) {
-          const tagMatches = versions.filter(v => isTagMatch(v, tag)).sort(semver.rcompare);
-          if (tagMatches.length === 0) {
-            reject(new Error(`Could not find react-native-windows@${version}-${tag}.*.`));
+          if (matchingVersions.length > 0) {
+            resolve(matchingVersions[0]);
           } else {
-            const latestVersion = tagMatches[0];
-            reject(new Error(`Could not find react-native-windows@${version}-${tag}.*. ` +
-              `Latest version of react-native-windows for tag '${tag}' is ${latestVersion}, try switching to ` +
-              `react-native@${semver.major(latestVersion)}.${semver.minor(latestVersion)}.*.`));
+            reject();
           }
         }
-        resolve(candidates[0]);
-      } else {
-        resolve(matchedVersion);
-      }
-    });
+      });
+    }
   });
 }
 
-const getInstallPackage = function (version, tag, useStable) {
+/**
+ * Matches a version range to a version of react-native-windows to install. This is a hairy process
+ * with a few different cases. Note that we will not run this at all if an exact version was given
+ * for --windowsVersion.
+ *
+ * - If no version was specified we are passed a range based on React Native version. E.g. "0.61.*".
+ *   We will try to match this against available packages, but need special rules for prerelease
+ *   tags since we use them for even stable releases for several versions. Because of that we cannot
+ *   use the semver range directly.
+ *
+ * - If our tag is "master", we grab the latest master label builds, since our RN version may not
+ *   correspond to our RNW version. This will change once we're aligned to Facebook's master builds.
+ *
+ * - Users can pass in a range to --windowsVersion and we will try to respect it according to above
+ *   matching logic. We likely do not do the right thing here in many cases sine we do not query the
+ *   registry for the range directly, instead using custom logic to also ensure tag matches.
+ */
+async function getMatchingVersion(versionRange, tag) {
+  const versionStr = tag === 'master' ? 'master' : versionRange;
+  console.log(`Checking for react-native-windows version matching ${versionStr}...`);
+
+  try {
+    return await getLatestMatchingVersion(versionRange, tag);
+  } catch (ex) {
+    const latestVersion = await getLatestVersion();
+    throw new Error(`Could not find react-native-windows@${versionStr}. ` +
+      `Latest version of react-native-windows is ${latestVersion}, try switching to ` +
+      `react-native@${semver.major(latestVersion)}.${semver.minor(latestVersion)}.*.`);
+  }
+}
+
+const isSupportedVersion = function(validVersion, validRange) {
+  // Allow 0.0.0-x master builds
+  if (validVersion) {
+    return semver.lt(validVersion, '0.0.0') || semver.gte(validVersion, '0.27.0');
+  } else if (validRange) {
+    return semver.gtr('0.0.0', validRange) || semver.ltr('0.27.0', validRange);
+  } else {
+    return false;
+  }
+};
+
+const getInstallPackage = function (version, tag) {
   const packageToInstall = 'react-native-windows';
   const validVersion = semver.valid(version);
   const validRange = semver.validRange(version);
-  if ((validVersion && !semver.gtr(validVersion, '0.26.*')) ||
-      (!validVersion && validRange && semver.gtr('0.27.0', validRange))) {
+
+  if (!isSupportedVersion(validVersion, validRange)) {
     console.error(
       'Please upgrade react-native to ^0.27 or specify a --windowsVersion that is >=0.27.0'
     );
@@ -104,11 +148,9 @@ const getInstallPackage = function (version, tag, useStable) {
 
   if (validVersion) {
     return Promise.resolve(`${packageToInstall}@${version}`);
-  } else if (validRange) {
-    return getMatchingVersion(version, tag, useStable)
-      .then(resultVersion => `${packageToInstall}@${resultVersion}`);
   } else {
-    return Promise.resolve(version);
+    return getMatchingVersion(version, tag)
+      .then(resultVersion => `${packageToInstall}@${resultVersion}`);
   }
 };
 
diff --git a/packages/rnpm-plugin-windows/src/windows.js b/packages/rnpm-plugin-windows/src/windows.js
index bfe15038647..ec8d44e58f1 100644
--- a/packages/rnpm-plugin-windows/src/windows.js
+++ b/packages/rnpm-plugin-windows/src/windows.js
@@ -21,38 +21,58 @@ const REACT_NATIVE_WINDOWS_GENERATE_PATH = function() {
   );
 };
 
-module.exports = async function (config, args, options) {
-  try {
-    const name = args[0] ? args[0] : Common.getReactNativeAppName();
-    const ns = options.namespace ? options.namespace : name;
-    let version = options.windowsVersion ? options.windowsVersion : Common.getReactNativeVersion();
+async function getDefaultVersionTag(version) {
+  const validVersion = semver.valid(version);
+  const validRange = semver.validRange(version);
+  if (!validVersion && !validRange) {
+    console.error(chalk.red(`'${version}' is not a valid version`));
+    process.exit(1);
+  }
 
-    let template = options.template;
-    if (!template) {
-      const validVersion = semver.valid(version);
-      const validRange = semver.validRange(version);
-      // If the RN version is >= 0.60 we know they have to use vnext
-      if ((validVersion && semver.gte(validVersion, '0.60')) ||
-          (!validVersion && validRange && semver.ltr('0.59.1000', validRange))) {
-            template = 'vnext';
-          }
+  // 0.57 and below had stable untagged releases
+  if ((validVersion && semver.lt(validVersion, '0.58.0'))
+    || (validRange && semver.gtr('0.58.0', validRange))) {
+    return null;
+  }
 
-      // If the RN version is >= 0.59 then we need to query which version the user wants
-      if (!template && ((validVersion && semver.gte(validVersion, '0.59.0')) ||
-          (!validVersion && validRange && semver.ltr('0.58.1000', validRange)))) {
-            template = (await prompts({
-              type: 'select',
-              name: 'template',
-              message: 'What version of react-native-windows would you like to install?',
-              choices: [
-                { value: 'vnext', title: ' Latest      - High performance react-native-windows built on a shared C++ core from facebook (supports C++ or C#).' },
-                { value: 'legacy', title: ' Legacy      - Older react-native-windows implementation - (C# only, react-native <= 0.59 only)' },
-              ],
-            })).template;
-      }
-    }
+  // 0.58 went to RC (See #2559)
+  if ((validVersion && semver.lt(validVersion, '0.59.0'))
+    || (validRange && semver.gtr('0.59.0', validRange))) {
+    return 'rc';
+  }
+
+  // 0.59 tags releases as "legacy" or "vnext"
+  if ((validVersion && semver.lt(validVersion, '0.60.0'))
+    || (validRange && semver.gtr('0.60.0', validRange))) {
+    return  (await prompts({
+      type: 'select',
+      name: 'template',
+      message: 'What version of react-native-windows would you like to install?',
+      choices: [
+        { value: 'vnext', title: ' Latest      - High performance react-native-windows built on a shared C++ core from facebook (supports C++ or C#).' },
+        { value: 'legacy', title: ' Legacy      - Older react-native-windows implementation - (C# only, react-native <= 0.59 only)' },
+      ],
+    })).template;
+  }
+
+  // 0.60 releases all use the vnext tag
+  if ((validVersion && semver.lt(validVersion, '0.61.0'))
+    || (validRange && semver.gtr('0.61.0', validRange))) {
+    return 'vnext';
+  }
+
+  // 0.61 and after don't tag stable releases
+  return null;
+}
+
+module.exports = async function (config, args, options) {
+  try {
+    const name = args[0] || Common.getReactNativeAppName();
+    const ns = options.namespace || name;
+    const version = options.windowsVersion || Common.getReactNativeVersion();
+    const versionTag = options.template || await getDefaultVersionTag(version);
 
-    let rnwPackage = await Common.getInstallPackage(version, template, !!template);
+    const rnwPackage = await Common.getInstallPackage(version, versionTag);
 
     console.log(`Installing ${rnwPackage}...`);
     const pkgmgr = Common.isGlobalCliUsingYarn(process.cwd()) ? 'yarn add' : 'npm install --save';
@@ -66,5 +86,6 @@ module.exports = async function (config, args, options) {
   } catch (error) {
     console.error(chalk.red(error.message));
     console.error(error);
+    process.exit(1);
   }
 };
diff --git a/packages/rnpm-plugin-windows/src/wpf.js b/packages/rnpm-plugin-windows/src/wpf.js
index 213032434be..3a6821c2e30 100644
--- a/packages/rnpm-plugin-windows/src/wpf.js
+++ b/packages/rnpm-plugin-windows/src/wpf.js
@@ -26,9 +26,8 @@ module.exports = function (config, args, options) {
 
   // If the template is not set, look for a stable or 'rc' version
   const template = options.template ? options.template : 'rc';
-  const ignoreStable = !!options.template;
 
-  return Common.getInstallPackage(version, template, ignoreStable)
+  return Common.getInstallPackage(version, template)
     .then(rnwPackage => {
       console.log(`Installing ${rnwPackage}...`);
       const pkgmgr = Common.isGlobalCliUsingYarn(process.cwd()) ? 'yarn add' : 'npm install --save';