This will be your last post about this because you know you're wrong and fighting on the losing side. If tonight wasn't further evidence for you that the WWE has absolutely no clue, then I don't know what more you need to see. The Royal Rumble was nothing short of an embarrassment for this company. How many more of these guys with "the look" need to get embarrassed by the crowd insulting them before the WWE finally caves and listens to its damn audience? So what if Daniel Bryan is a vanilla midget with no personality? The crowd is telling you they want him. It is your job to satisfy them. When you don't satisfy them, they eventually turn off the channel - which, in case you hadn't noticed, they've been doing in droves over the past 7 years as guys like Cena, Orton and Batista have been shoved down our throats.
The fact that you continue to harp on this mainstream appeal is completely absurd since - short of Cena's pre-paid morning show appearances - none of your guys with "the look" actually bring any mainstream attention to the table. So how in the hell does it make sense to hold back Daniel Bryan for a lack of mainstream appeal when Batista and Orton have ABSOLUTELY NONE themselves? What you're suggesting is that the WWE continue to shit on their current fans in favor of guys who don't bring mainstream attention out of fear that giving their current audience what it actually wants might provide the exact same result of the mainstream not caring. How the hell does that make any sense?
You bring up guys like The Rock and Steve Austin. And those are nice names, but they have nothing in the world to do with this argument. They aren't preventing Bryan from reaching the top. They aren't even actively working for the company. Sure, if Austin and The Rock decide to come back tomorrow, then they can have the top spot for their mainstream appeal. Until that happens, the WWE should try to concentrate on satisfying its own fans. The longer they ignore them, the more risk there is that the WWE will lose them.
Do you ever feel like you're being trolled by the WWE? I got that feeling tonight when Damien Sandow gave a pre-Rumble interview. Granted, he butchered the quote, but what he meant to say was "Insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result." My God if that doesn't describe what's happening.
Did the WWE expect the crowd to react favorably during the Cena/Orton match? In case you missed it, and I'm guessing you might have since you're still in the boat of thinking they know what they're doing, the live crowd shit all over that match. They chanted almost the entire time. There were multiple chants for Daniel Bryan - between fans chanting his name and chanting Yes. There was even a chant for The Undertaker. What there wasn't was a chant for Orton or Cena. In fact, the only chant that was even directed toward them was a "This is awful" chant. The crowd was so opposed to that match that they didn't even deem it worthy of a "Boring" chant, instead rating it lower with a "This is awful...This is awful." You know why? Because it was awful. Listen to the crowd. They DO NOT want to see that match.
They furthered the insanity possibility when they let Batista win the Royal Rumble, and refused to give the fans what they wanted by keeping Daniel Bryan out of it altogether. The embarrassing part of it was how predictable the reaction would be when the crowed realized they weren't going to get Bryan.
Again, they wanted Bryan. They made their voice heard. And the WWE ignored them. Did they think the crowd would just let that slide? Just out of curiosity, but was the 15 minutes of the crowd alternating between moments of being dead and booing enough to make you realize that VKM and HHH either have no idea what the crowd wants or that they just don't care?
So now what? We're on course for a WrestleMania 30 main event of Batista vs Randy Orton for the WWE Title - two guys who bring ZERO mainstream appeal to the table. Why? Well, it's certainly not what the fans want to see, but hey - 10 years ago, Triple H predicted these two guys would be the future of the WWE and look at them now! They're main eventing WrestleMania 30 together! That's what this match is about. It's about validating an opinion Triple H had in 2003. The only reason I'll watch this match is because the crowd is sure to entertain. Look what happened in the Cena/Orton match, how the crowd responded to Bryan NOT being in the Rumble, how they responded to Batista's entrance and victory ... then figure the crowd will be 5 times larger and filled with the snarkiest wrestling fans in the world. The "This is awful" chants will be tame by comparison, and the WWE will flat be embarrassed during the main event of its biggest show. And you know what? They deserve it ... because they're absolutely insane.
They keep shoving these big guys down our throat, and no matter how much people tell them to stop, no matter how many people turn off the TV or shit all over their matches, they keep doing it and expecting a different result. The smart thing to do would be to try something different ... give the crowd what it wants and see where it goes. You don't think Daniel Bryan can bring mainstream appeal? Well, there's only one way to find out. And while you say it's obvious that he can't, I'd like to remind you that the only obvious thing in this situation is that Randy Orton and Batista clearly don't.
