WWE Royal Rumble 2015 **Official** General Discussion Aftermath Thread

[L@RISANO]

Hahahaha oh man, I feel so sorry for myself. I didn't come online the whole day so that the Rumble ending won't get spoiled for me... and then there was this shit match. The Rock's presence couldn't change the fact that the Rumble match sucked. My disappointments are as follows:
1. Wyatt lasted nearly an hour, eliminating many guys (including big names), only to get eliminated by the authority's goons (that get their ass kicked on most RAWs and SDs) with ease. What was the use?
2. Rusev showed what he could do, but got one-sidedly owned by a tired Reigns in the end, as if Reigns drew power from Rock like Abyss drew power from Hogan's ring (sorry for bringing that up).
3. Entry number 29 and 30 were obvious since both Dolph and Show had qualified for the match. No suspense there.
4. No surprise returns or anything in the final 10 entries. In fact, we knew the names of about 7-8 of them beforehand.
5. Once it went down to Reigns, Kane, Show and Rusev, I was very sure that Reigns would win this match.
6. The Kane-Show team work towards the end was painful to watch, especially the way they eliminated guys much more entertaining and worth watching, guys that could give a nail-biting final few minutes. It was obvious that neither of two would win the Rumble match anyway, this whole idea seemed futile.
7. Instead, I would have preferred to see Wyatt and Rusev instead, who worked as a team throughout the match, keep the teamwork going, before finally going after each other. It would have been much more logical. Then have the three of them give their everything for a good few minutes, before a winner is decided. Instead, they went with the cheap "typical Vince" route of bringing back an old megastar to compensate for the shit booking.
8. About 1/3rd of the competitors got eliminated before the next guy entered.
9. Even the pyro work on the WrestleMania 32 logo was mistimed and didn't start until Reigns brought his arms down.

You forgot the main point.... Roman Reigns got royally fucked by the poor illogical booking that has been his story since his return from injury. I'm looking forward to seeing how the more casual cities respond to him from here on in...

 

[stonecoldstunner]

I went to an event in LA...fans booed Cena (nothing new), cheered Rollins...booed New Day...chanted Lets go Rollins...its not just philly at all....they are just LOUDER.

 

[Reflection]

You forgot the main point.... Roman Reigns got royally fucked by the poor illogical booking that has been his story since his return from injury. I'm looking forward to seeing how the more casual cities respond to him from here on in...

I hope it was an one-time thing and fans will forgive and forget, and not give him the Batista treatment in the months to come. Winning the Rumble was probably a part of Batista's deal with the WWE, but Reigns is just doing what he is being asked to do. If the fans keep booing him in every city, it can have a really bad effect on his momentum. Maybe Bryan can request the fans to let Roman be, if it gets too bad.
One thing that I'm happy about is that WWE thought they were real smarty-pants by getting Bryan eliminated early and trying to work everyone (like they pretended they were doing all along last year), but instead getting their own a** fucked by all the network unsubscriptions.

 

[TWJC: The Beginning]

A lot of people bitchibg about the fans shitting on reigns because they wanted a DB win and thinking that's markish. No it's not. If I go to a concert and the headliner is playing drums instead for some mid level band and the headliner instead becomes some decent but not great band, I'd be pissed.

Not only that but DB wasn't the only option. Reigns isnt as over or as good (in any way) as Bryan, Ziggler, Wyatt, or Ambrose. ANY of those guys winning is better. Reigns is not over enough. Unlike Cena or Batista who can get away with being booed, Reigns isn't a draw. It's bad business

 

[jeffrey9800]

Totally agree with you,

Lesnar/Cena/Rollins should've been last, but like we said a thousand times, WWE is so out of touch, that they expected the crowd to cheer for a Reigns win ... and explode when the Rock appears. The Rock's appearance is the reason they triple threath didn't go last. Bad bad bad booking.

I don't understand people talking about Ambrose winning; the guy is on the worst losing streak in history for an upcoming star, and the crowd was booing even before e was eliminated ... when it was 2 on 2 ... the crowd didn't want any of those 2 guys to win. (Ambrose vs Lesnar ? That would've made no sense, he can't beat Wyatt and Lesnar suffers 5 AA and still can kick out)

Here's a few things I didnt get from the Rumble :

Bubba Ray looked weak, he still can wrestle and this would've been perfect to set up a decent mid-card Wrestlemania match vs Bray... in my book... all is not lost but he looked weak.. and he was the best thing in TNA for a while,....

Daniel Bryan, why , why , why , why , why , why :
1 - Was his comeback match not on PPV
2 - Was it before the Rumble if he was going to have NO IMPACT at the PPV
3 - Why does WWE never learn

Mizdow, I would've kept him for a few more minutes in the Rumble, It would've been funny that he jumps in... and Miz not wanting him to be in the Rumble jumps in the ring after his elimination, and throws him over the top rop only to make Mizdow do the same but he doesn't ... he tells him to go to hell and starts fighting... I would've want to see him in the final 5 ... would've been awesome.

The final 4.... including Kane and BS... what a bad idea... we legit know they have no shot NO SHOT= IMPOSSIBLE of winning... what a major fock up.... I would've loved to see as the final 4 : Cena, Rusev, Wyatt and Reigns....

With Cena and Reigns as the final 2 : This way you are SURE that the heat is on Cena and you get a good reaction for Reigns, people hated Reigns winning, but compare to a Cena win.... it would've been a fkin major party...

You have Cena cut a promo being pissed off after the triple threat match... and the reporter asks him : what are you going to do about it ? He says : You'll see... and enters at number 30 to a massive boooooooooo because the crowd will assume that he's going to win.... but you have Reigns eliminate him....

Anyways.... just my 2 cents...

 

[Clopin]

I am Suprised...I have been watching WWF since WM1 and I just connot believe the moronic audience during last nights Rumble

So Brock is still the Champ. Who else could win the Rumble then Reigns. Al those pigheaded people canting for Bryan to win it.. come on

I love Daniel Bryan and think he is one of the best..if not the best in the business today.

But... WM Brock vs Bryan would be a gigantic failure.. no way Brock would do anyting but destroy Daniels within 5 minutes. We are talking about the guy who killed John Cena twice and even more important ended te streak. No way Daniels could win, and if he does everything Brock as done will be a joke.

So Reigns is te only one who could win.. and the crowd booed him out of the building... all the Bryan marks

But lets go to WM.. Main event.. Brock is leaving so he has to lose. A epic battle between im and reigns with Reigns coming out on top. There is a certain wrestler who still has the MITB briefcase. He cashes in, wins the title ... and then the World title picture is open again.. who better then Bryan to challenge Rollins. Those matches will be 5 star everytime.. So when summerslam comes around, Bryan willl be on top again.

Everybody is happy. But with Brock still as Champ Bryan is not getting his shot and that is as it should be.

Best ending would have been Like Jeffrey said

The final 4.... including Kane and BS... what a bad idea... we legit know they have no shot NO SHOT= IMPOSSIBLE of winning... what a major fock up.... I would've loved to see as the final 4 : Cena, Rusev, Wyatt and Reigns....

With Cena and Reigns as the final 2 : This way you are SURE that the heat is on Cena and you get a good reaction for Reigns, people hated Reigns winning, but compare to a Cena win.... it would've been a fkin major party...

 

[MWRedskins]

This Philly crowd was so annoying. CM punk, booing reigns, cena, cheering Seth Rollins, booing NEW DAY? Lol what the heck. Look the WWE pushes people just as they always have. But now we have entitled fans that apparently think daniel bryan should get everything.

the fans pay good money to see the show, they can cheer/boo who they want. if they don't like Reigns, they can boo him. if they like Rollins, they can cheer him. not many like Cena, you can go to any arena and he gets booed by most male adults, mainly because his character hasn't changed. as for booing New Day, the issue with New Day isn't New Day, it's their gimmick. they claim it's a New Day, but it's more like a bad Too Cool rip-off. New Day's gimmick should be 3 wrestlers (you can make them face still) who feel underused and instead of being cartoony are now serious and are on a mission to make this a new day in their lives and have Woods and Kingston as an athletic tag team while Big E is the powerhouse who wants the IC title. make them serious and angry, not cartoony and playful.

 

[ttdg]

My RR storyline with Mizdow would have been have Miz force Mizdow to take his number 2 spot and have Mizdow last for the longest time in the Rumble. Add in him "accidently" toss out the Miz and leading to a Miz/Sandow match at WM.

 

[MWRedskins]

Fact # 2: last yeah at the RR y'all were cheering for Roman Reigns and booed when he got eliminated but this year you booed him for WINNING because he is NOT READY. So it was better fir him to win with a YEARS LESS EXPERIENCE HUH?

Fact # 3: Now all of a sudden Roman can't talk. Can't wrestle and can't move and is stale but he has only wrestled about 10 matches since y'all were all on his duck sick!!!!

Fact # 4: you guys hate Super Cena and Roman for being too strong and always winning yet riot when a 5'6 guy who single handedly beat THE ENTIRE EVOLUTION in One night to win the title doesn't get a chance to the VERY NEXT YEAR Beat BROCK LESNAR!!!

firstly, i didnt want Reigns winning last year, last year i wanted one guy to win the Rumble and his name was Daniel Bryan......now this year, i thought the BEST thing to do (if they wanted Reigns to win it) was to NOT have Bryan at the ppv at all, have ORTON in his spot and have Bryan return at WM to get his payback on Kane, but nope, they brought him back (stupidly i might add) and set themselves up for this. as for Fact 3, i don't hate Reigns, but i feel that WWE made a huge mistake by putting Bryan in the match....if Bryan wasn't pegged to win it, don't put him in it. it sets up what happened and as for fact 4, Cena is hated due to he's the same guy. he's hustle, loyalty and respect, he never gives up or never quits (so you can't have him in an i quit match) and he acts too cartoony. that's why he's hated, Roman's not hated....i sure don't hate him, i just think WWE set him up for huge booing by putting a hugely over guy in the match. they should've kept it simple and had Reigns winning it with Bryan still being "injured"

 

[L@RISANO]

I hope it was an one-time thing and fans will forgive and forget, and not give him the Batista treatment in the months to come. Winning the Rumble was probably a part of Batista's deal with the WWE, but Reigns is just doing what he is being asked to do. If the fans keep booing him in every city, it can have a really bad effect on his momentum. Maybe Bryan can request the fans to let Roman be, if it gets too bad.
One thing that I'm happy about is that WWE thought they were real smarty-pants by getting Bryan eliminated early and trying to work everyone (like they pretended they were doing all along last year), but instead getting their own a** fucked by all the network unsubscriptions.

I'm looking forward to seeing how the WWE will combat possible booing of Roman after last night. If that interview on the fallout show was anything to go by, maybe a heel run could be an option.
However, as long as Roman remains a major focus of the show, it will be difficult to get off the kind of heat he generated last night.

Hopefully, like you said, it could just be a one-time thing and could be different in more casual arenas.

As for the Bryan elimination... I felt the elimination of the "smark" favs as a whole, was an attempt by the WWE to give an F*** YOU to the fans and boy, did it backfire. Either Bryan should have been left off the Rumble, or he should have lasted till the end, but get screwed by whoever his Mania opponent would have been, that would have lessened the heat on Reigns, lMO.

 

[Rykerzane]

First of all I'm aware that the crowd pays good money and can cheer and boo whoever they want. I'm not dumb haha.

What I'm saying is it seems like, as someone already pointed out, WWE can't do anything right for certain fans. Everything people want to happen, happens then a little late they dont like that it happened so then they want what happened not to have happened. It's really ludicrous.

That being said I agree with the article posted today that with that hashtag about cancel WWE network trending, creative team HAS to pay attention. I know that boos happen and they're used to that but the crowd was REALLLLY strong about their feelings on TV, on social media, etc. It wasn't just a little boo for Cena. Something has to be done. They may want to make "lower tiered" pay per views more surprising that way people wish they would've watched it.

 

[laodaron]

As for the Bryan elimination... I felt the elimination of the "smark" favs as a whole, was an attempt by the WWE to give an F*** YOU to the fans and boy, did it backfire. Either Bryan should have been left off the Rumble, or he should have lasted till the end, but get screwed by whoever his Mania opponent would have been, that would have lessened the heat on Reigns, lMO.

Personally, I was happy to see the WWE telling the marks in Philly that they do not control booking. The WWE will always make money. The casuals are the primary sources of tickets and merch. However, the amounts of rage this morning in the aftermath makes the booking worth it to me, even if it does really suck to be Roman Reigns right now.

 

[d_henderson1810]

This is what a lot of DB fans want as a RR next year.

Match 1:- Daniel Bryan v Daniel Bryan

Match 2:- Daniel Bryan & Daniel Bryan v Daniel Bryan & Daniel Bryan

Match 3:- Divas Match for WWE Divas Title in an Evening Gown Match
Danielle Bryan (Daniel Bryan in drag) v Daniella Bryan (a bearded woman who looks a lot like Daniel Bryan in a dress).
(One "lady" will rip off the others' evening gown, revealing the other person to be Daniel Bryan. Meanwhile, DB fans in the crowd blow their wad).

Match 4:- WWE World Title Triple Threat Match
Daniel Bryan v Daniel Bryan v Daniel Bryan
(Special Referee:- Daniel Bryan)

After the match, Daniel Bryan cashes in and pins Daniel Bryan to win the WWE Title Match.

Match 5:- 30-DB Royal Rumble

30 Daniel Bryans fight to see who headlines Wrestlemania.
(At one stage, Daniel Bryan is thrown out and the fans are upset, because they wanted that particular Daniel Bryan to win. So when Daniel Bryan wins the Rumble, the fans boo because they didn't want this Daniel Bryan to win, they wanted that one to win. Fans are angry and say that they will never watch WWE again and cancel their Network subscription (until next month that is).

The fans carry on so much that they hijack shows, and the WWE are forced to add the wrestling smarks favourite Daniel Bryan to a the WM main event, making it Daniel Bryan v Daniel Bryan v Daniel Bryan for the title. But first DB must beat the man holding him down, his sworn enemy, Authority head Daniel Bryan.

After that, you decide to watch your favourite movie-Being Daniel Bryan.


(By this time, a lot of you may have stopped reading this, since you are cleaning your jeans after jerking off to this fantasy).

 

[BillAlfonsos_Whistle]

Philly was NOT being unreasonable either.
All they wanted was ANYTHING but the silly scripted bullshit that anyone above age 5 can see coming three miles (or months if you prefer) away.

They got behind Bryan, Ziggler, and Ambrose throughout the match. Wyatt winning from #5 would have been legendary. SO MANY OPTIONS yet Vince jams his golden boy down our throats again. It's been 15 years of this stupid nonsense. I hope most of the #CancelWWENetwork trending on Twitter wasn't just blowhard BS. HOpe they suffer MILLIONS of cancellations.

 

[L@RISANO]

Personally, I was happy to see the WWE telling the marks in Philly that they do not control booking. The WWE will always make money. The casuals are the primary sources of tickets and merch. However, the amounts of rage this morning in the aftermath makes the booking worth it to me, even if it does really suck to be Roman Reigns right now.

Like you, I did find it funny at times how it went. But I think they could have booked it much better and still have Reigns win the whole thing.

You are right about the casuals part, and after checking, I have seen that Reigns has had a sharp increase in fan following by way of casuals after last night. However, I still hate how they have booked him since his return from injury, with the Big Slow and all...

 

[laodaron]

No, I agree. They booked so terribly as to get The Rock booed. However, we all knew Reigns was winning, and we all knew that Reigns v. Lesnar is the direction for WM31.

 

[d_henderson1810]

Philly was NOT being unreasonable either.
All they wanted was ANYTHING but the silly scripted bullshit that anyone above age 5 can see coming three miles (or months if you prefer) away.

They got behind Bryan, Ziggler, and Ambrose throughout the match. Wyatt winning from #5 would have been legendary. SO MANY OPTIONS yet Vince jams his golden boy down our throats again. It's been 15 years of this stupid nonsense. I hope most of the #CancelWWENetwork trending on Twitter wasn't just blowhard BS. HOpe they suffer MILLIONS of cancellations.

But if millions cancel their subscriptions, how will they be able to watch all of their favourite Daniel B-Lister matches? It is like porn to most of them.

 

[Cub McCallister]

It was a pretty bad Rumble tbh I only cared for the triple threat match and knew that outcome from the get go, I wanted Bryan to win the rumble because I felt he did deserve to win it and because there is no other credible person to win it, I love Reigns as well he has the look of a great champion BUT he isn't ready for that role yet bring him in slowly and build him up on the mic and expand his move set, now to make the Rumble better with only 5 points they are:

1) Reigns, Bryan, Ziggler & Wyatt are the final four
Here you have 4 of the top and future talents in the wwe and young up comers with very bright futures, if these four are left in the rumble it'll go either way and I would have Bryan win the rumble by eliminating Wyatt last, sorry if that hurt anyone but again Reign's is not ready yet.

2) Bring Daniel Bryan back at the Royal Rumble
Don't bring him back 2 weeks before the match you bring him back at the Rumble to a massive ovation, have him come in at an early number and make him go the distance by reaching 7 or 8 eliminations in the process.

3) Randy Orton Screws Seth Rollins
During the match you have Rollins dominate Cena whilst Lesnar is on the outside and have him RKO Rollins and then have Brock come in and give not 1 but 2 F5'S to Rollins and have him staredown after with Orton.

4) The Miz & Mizdow start the rumble
At the beginning of the Rumble match you have Miz and Mizdow start the match and get the crowd going again and have Mizdow eliminate Miz.

5) Don't have so many tag team matches
I would have 2 at the very least with the tag straps and the NAO Vs The Ascensions THAT'S IT and I would add the IC belt to the card or possibly the US title.

 

[CKDaimen702]

firstly, i didnt want Reigns winning last year, last year i wanted one guy to win the Rumble and his name was Daniel Bryan......now this year, i thought the BEST thing to do (if they wanted Reigns to win it) was to NOT have Bryan at the ppv at all, have ORTON in his spot and have Bryan return at WM to get his payback on Kane, but nope, they brought him back (stupidly i might add) and set themselves up for this. as for Fact 3, i don't hate Reigns, but i feel that WWE made a huge mistake by putting Bryan in the match....if Bryan wasn't pegged to win it, don't put him in it. it sets up what happened and as for fact 4, Cena is hated due to he's the same guy. he's hustle, loyalty and respect, he never gives up or never quits (so you can't have him in an i quit match) and he acts too cartoony. that's why he's hated, Roman's not hated....i sure don't hate him, i just think WWE set him up for huge booing by putting a hugely over guy in the match. they should've kept it simple and had Reigns winning it with Bryan still being "injured"

Obviously when he said "ya'll" he was talking about the general fanbase, as evident by the fan reaction when Reigns got eliminated last year vs. the fan reaction when Reigns won this year. If that comment doesn't apply to you personally, then why respond to it?

Second, again, the poster was talking about the fans who boo Reigns. Booing the man out of the building after he wins the Royal Rumble is the equivalent to hate, whether or not the emotion itself is hate.

FreezeisGAWD is right about everything he said. But what many rational fans must understand, and will eventually come to realize as I did years ago, is that the IWC does not follow logic, and that will never change. Fact #4 illustrates this best, and is my favorite of the facts he presented.

 

[Wrestlingaholic]

Regarding Miz and Mizdow: surely if they were not going to show tension between the two, the logical result should have been both to be in the ring at the same time, Miz to get eliminated and Mizdow to therefore respond by eliminating himself. At least that would have been funny. What actually happened was pointless.

 

[sMark]

My 5 fixes:
1) more star power and surprises in RR match, there were like 20 people who nobody cared about, was it hard to pay some $ to D'von and get Dudleys face Wyatt Family hitting signature spots on each other, was it hard to pay something to Jericho, RVD, Sabu, Rhino and Dreamer to appear, you know there was this ECW promotion some time ago, couldn't Razor Ramon to appear for 2 minutes, hell why don't let Rusev to eliminate The Rock and to give him an instant push? Every fan knew more than a half of these guys didn't have a slightest chance to win even in a dream.
2) great wrestling opening for RR match, Miz and R-Truth as opener was boring as hell, like you couldn't put in Bryan and Ambrose #1 and 2, so they can carry most of the match.
3) if you knew crowd will riot against Bryan's elimination, why you didn't put that heat on someone who could benefit from it, why Brock couldn't eliminate him and then face him at Fastline for the title so he will go as a heel in WM main event.
4) why no midcard or any other feuds were featured or progressed, Miz and Mizdow scene was wasted so much, it made me facepalm myself.
5) why so many tag matches that nobody cares about? Nobody could do a double duty? You know Barrett could defend his title against someone like Ambrose. Ziggler could face someone. In Attitude era times the RR card always had couple of great matches outside of the main thing, now you can do a 2 matches PPV - Title match & RR match and nobody will be against it, because everything else is a waste of time.

Roman already began to get bad reaction, this RR match booking didn't help him 1 bit, it didn't make him a guy who overcomed the odds, it didn't show anything new about him, it didn't people in the crowd and over the world respect him more...the last time fast push did work was in 2002 with Brock Lesnar, but it did work because Brock was really strong and agile for his size, Brock was hated right away, but 6 months later he was able to get people on his side, because he showed quick progress and things the crowd couldn't imagine to see - throwing Big Show and other heavyweights around the ring like midgets certainly helped Lesnar alot, plus he had Heyman on his side and could "destroy" other wrestlers, giving them a believable beatings...nothing was done to make Reigns respected by the fans, quite contrary.

I don't hate Reigns, but hell, WWE booking team is awful and need to be changed ASAP.

 

[#1druid]

Obviously when he said "ya'll" he was talking about the general fanbase, as evident by the fan reaction when Reigns got eliminated last year vs. the fan reaction when Reigns won this year. If that comment doesn't apply to you personally, then why respond to it?

Second, again, the poster was talking about the fans who boo Reigns. Booing the man out of the building after he wins the Royal Rumble is the equivalent to hate, whether or not the emotion itself is hate.

FreezeisGAWD is right about everything he said. But what many rational fans must understand, and will eventually come to realize as I did years ago, is that the IWC does not follow logic, and that will never change. Fact #4 illustrates this best, and is my favorite of the facts he presented.

Reigns was not Reigns last year. Reigns was not-batista when batista was obviously winning. Similar to this year when Rusev was not-reigns when reigns was obviously winning. The fans want daniel bryan can't say I blame them, he's a top talent and got over organically instead of rocketship booking. The guy hasn't been pinned in 11 months. Daniel Bryan is being made to look like a chump.

 

[capnwillie]

It all could have been fixed by one single thing - not having a WWE event in one of the shittiest fan cities in America.

That's an obtuse statement. Shittiest fan city? Sure... Philly fans get overzealous and downright criminally violent about the Eagles, Flyers, Phillies and their major sports teams in general... but they're a PERFECT wrasslin' crowd because of that. They're honest, and if that means they shit all over a poor ending, so be it. That's called instant feedback. They would've had the same reaction in New York, Atlanta, Miami, Orlando, Dallas and any other city where the fans actually react to the product.

Now as for the point of the thread... the Rumble match was so poorly booked across the board I don't think five things could have saved it. The worst thing about it is that they obviously KNEW the crowd was going to shit all over it or else they wouldn't have had Dwayne come out to try and save face. Daniel Bryan winning would have been the best case scenario, no matter what anyone says. That's where the fanbase is and therefore, the money. Even if Bryan was still to lose, what would the problem have been with keeping him in the ring and including him in the final four? At the very least, it would have kept the train from going completely off the rails until the finish.

Getting off the D-Bry subject, there were a lot of other storyline elements that seemed to be completely ignored or at least treated as afterthoughts. Miz and Mizdow should have been in the ring at the same time to create more tension between them and lay the foundation for their split and a match that would make sense on the Mania undercard. Cesaro should have been featured better in the match as well, bringing him back to his Andre The Giant Memorial form and eliminating Big Show. Those were just a few ideas that came to mind while I was watching.

The final four should have been based around the guys who are actually getting good reactions and fan support. Bryan, Ziggler and Ambrose would have kept the crowd invested. Insert Bray Wyatt into any of those spots along with Reigns. Again, even if Reigns won in that scenario, the finish would have seemed more like a minor cut than the bloody, hemmoraging wound that it became. That ending was chaotic and bad... not unpredictable as it could have been... just poorly, poorly executed. I've always thought the point of the final four should be that nobody's quite sure who is going to win. Once you have Kane and Big Show... and Rusev (what the hell was the point of that?)... it's painfully obvious and predictable what's going to happen. If they had made the final four a little more along the lines of what I mentioned above, then at least the crowd still has a dog in the fight. Reigns just isn't winning anyone over outside of Cena kids and their moms.

And what if Daniel Bryan did win it? It's what the fans would have wanted the most and is therefore good for business. Some say it's too unbelievable... well, news break... but it's pretty unbelievable for anyone on the roster to go over on Lesnar at this point. He's the fucking Terminator. But this is "fake" wrestling and there are always options to explore, why not go with the option that guarantees a positive fan reaction and possibly more Network buys, ticket sales and increased revenues in general? Like it or not, there was serious money to be made with a Lesnar vs. Bryan main event. After all, we're talking about the guy who beat Triple H, Randy Orton and Batista in the same night at last year's event.

I feel bad for Reigns because this wasn't his decision, and I fear that this is going to seriously hinder his career and he's going to end up like his cousin (Manu, NOT The Rock). I'm not his biggest fan, but if they had kept him on ice for just one more year and let him work out the kinks in his performance, he could have had the right kind of momentum to win next year's Rumble and main event next year's Mania.

 

[CKDaimen702]

Reigns was not Reigns last year. Reigns was not-batista when batista was obviously winning. Similar to this year when Rusev was not-reigns when reigns was obviously winning. The fans want daniel bryan can't say I blame them, he's a top talent and got over organically instead of rocketship booking. The guy hasn't been pinned in 11 months. Daniel Bryan is being made to look like a chump.

This does not follow. Reigns has traditionally been cheered and has been very over for most of his career up until maybe a couple of weeks ago. Rusev was not. Batista had not been cheered as a face for several years. Therefore, this is a faulty comparison. The only "not" that applies is "Reigns is not Bryan' thus Reigns is booed. Reigns is a "Superman character" who they are "Forcing Down our Throats," when over the years, the IWC always asks for new stars to be made. When they do make a new star, all that will happen is they will complain about him, especially and particularly if he is not a cruiserweight in size. The term "cruiserweight" is not to be disparaging. I'm a fan of Bryan, Punk, Ziggler, etc. But basically, anybody who is not a cruiserweight and is getting a super push, is destined to be booed. Especially if said wrestler is not Daniel Bryan.

 

[capnwillie]

What I'm saying is it seems like, as someone already pointed out, WWE can't do anything right for certain fans.

This is true when you're talking about the fans who are in the minority... but for the last TWO YEARS the majority of fans have been clamoring for Daniel Bryan. This is not something that's hard to tell for the company, for fucks sake! When D-Bry is in the building, he's usually getting the biggest pops of the night. Last year they cut off the legs of his feud with Orton/Authority and then had to shoe horn him into the main event. This year, all they had to do was keep him in the Rumble until the final four... but what happened? They had him unceremoniously eliminated in a throwaway spot. THAT'S STUPID. He saved Wrestlemania last year, the least they could do is make him look as strong as possible.

The E can't please everyone all of the time, but with that kind of booking they're just not pleasing anyone at all.