Deja Vu: The #WWE #RoyalRumble Debacle

Clearly, someone at Stamford has read - and re-read - Eric Bischoff's book, "Controversy Creates Cash".  It's the only logical explanation for what most of the WWE Universe witnessed with the Royal Rumble on January 25th.   To understand what I mean, we need to go back in time a bit.


2014.  Leading up to that Royal Rumble, you really had three top acts: Daniel Bryan, The Shield, and the Wyatt Family.  CM Punk was over, but even Daniel Bryan had surpassed him in crowd reaction.  The Shield had laid waste to everyone in their path including the Undertaker.  It felt at least on the surface that WWE was finally getting a clue.

Unfortunately, we also saw Bray Wyatt, who was RED HOT as a heel (And continues to be) get defeated easily by Cena and Daniel Bryan.   We saw what felt like a dead end for Ambrose and Reigns.  But beyond this...we saw Daniel Bryan get verbally buried by the Authority, who was starting to be shoved down our throats.

The Royal Rumble itself was a rather dull affair.  Batista had returned, and fans felt that he would be front and center of what was to be.  Through all of that, there was Daniel Bryan, and it became an argument between the part-timer and the full-timer getting the spotlight: some felt that the part-timer had more star power and thus deserved the spotlight more.  This was in spite of the fact that Daniel Bryan was what the Universe really wanted to see - for whatever reason.

Someone in WWE didn't get the memo, because they felt again that star power was needed, and regardless of the Pittsburgh crowd hotly chanting for Daniel Bryan as the clock ticked to zero for #30's entrance, someone felt that it made more sense to send Rey Mysterio out there.  What would happen afterwards was comical and part of WWE's history of bad business decisions, topped off by claims that they "didn't know" Rey would be booed out of the building.  Of course they did.  They just didn't care.

Fast forward to 2015.  In this Royal Rumble we see Daniel Bryan come into the event.  That's good, right? Except he was eliminated so fast and in such lackluster fashion that one wonders why he was even entered in the first place.  The same thing happened with Dolph Ziggler, another person that doesn't fit WWE's "star power" mythos yet is red hot with fans.  Most every star that fans really enjoyed seeing were tossed or knocked out of the ring in forgettable ways.  Meanwhile the people fans DON'T want to see, but that WWE staff seem to think are the "A+ Players" were front and center for half of the event.

The last four in the ring, after all of these unceremonious eliminations, were Dean Ambrose (yay) and Roman Reigns, working together against The Big Show (really?) and Kane (really?).  It's not too much to believe that this was an instant failure - of all of the four to win, people would naturally want Ambrose, but he's the lesser of evils.  The faces of the crowd in the background spoke volumes about how "excited" they were about this faceoff.

Eventually Ambrose would be dumped (since of course, the fans like him), leaving Reigns against these two behemoths.  A predictable outcome if there ever was one.  But lo and behold, a midst the sea of boos and "We Want Refunds" that flooded the arena, who'd they send out?  The Great One.  As if to say, "we have to stop this booing, we have to send in the Rock!".  The problem is, once you've ticked off fans this badly, nothing would fix it.  Rock's face after celebrating with Reigns tells a poignant story.  (PS, extra points for the thumbs down guys and the guy with his back turned watching something else.)

On Twitter, "#CancelWWENetwork" began trending worldwide, with fans sharing screenshots of their cancellations.  Eventually the site would crash under the load (indicating quite a lot of traffic), but the outcry continued.  Stories from inactive talents about Philadelphia fans halfway rioting, blocking wrestlers' cars from leaving the arena, throwing merchandise in the trash (which I find stupid, BTW), and so on.  January 25th, 2015 will go down in infamy as quite possibly the worst debacle since TNA's Victory Road 2011 PPV.  (I'm sure Sting would agree.)

What happened here?  How would WWE miss the ball so blatantly?  The answer: They didn't.  They knew exactly what they were doing.

The push of Roman Reigns has been in the works for some time.  He has "The Look" that they want. There's a feeling that he really could be iconic, like the Undertaker, or HBK, or Hogan.  To the WWE, he is larger than life, and someone that normal people would dream about.  Time will tell whether they're right or wrong, but for now, the general consensus (even from Steve Austin) is that Roman Reigns isn't yet ready for the big time.  I think it's more than that.  I think if the programming were not PG, and Reigns were allowed to basically be a new age version of what "Big Sexy" Kevin Nash was doing crossed with the "Legend Killer" Randy Orton, the guy would absolutely be huge for the business.  But these aren't those times anymore, and a child friendly gimmick doesn't match him at all, much less any Samoan, I would argue.

Daniel Bryan?  Dolph Ziggler?  The WWE just doesn't believe in these guys like they should.  Ziggler, for the most part, has been supported as a lead midcarder, and again, if WWE were not in a PG world, he'd be a much better version of Val Venis for sure.  Bryan's problem is easy: without CM Punk there to show and advocate for smaller "indy" guys, Bryan will never be higher than he is.  He's enhancement talent, without the frequent jobbing.

I don't for a moment believe Philly really wanted Bryan to win and nobody else, or that they blatantly hated Reigns.  I feel it's a couple of things.

1. The last four in the match should be strong, unexpected, exciting, anticipated.  Big Show and Kane should have LONG since been eliminated, because they are not exciting.
2. Daniel Bryan, Dolph Ziggler, and even Bully Ray should not have been eliminated as fast as they were.
3. The Rumble was padded with absolutely silly talent.  Boogeyman?  Sin Cara?  What about Finn Balor?  Hideo Itami?  The Ascension members?
4. No real "OMG WTF BBQ" moment from Kofi.  In fact he was treated probably the worst of the New Day members.
5. Curtis Axel being assaulted by Erick Rowan, who wasn't even in the Rumble, and Axel never getting a chance to participate (this could be a HUGE storyline, but WWE won't do it).
6. Erick Rowan attacking his former Wyatt Family members.  No crowd reaction because they didn't understand why this was happening besides Rowan being a face.  (My guess: WWE sent him out there to get the crowd hyped.  Fail.)
7. No Randy Orton.  This one is a big puzzle.  If anyone could have helped get the crowd back, it would have been him, ironically.  Especially if he faced off against DDP.
8. Damien Mizdow getting treated like a jobber despite him having one of the loudest crowd reactions of the night.

I mean it was so bad people didn't even notice that Rusev had slipped out and was never eliminated.  Reminded me of Gail Kim eliminating herself in the 2011 Divas Battle Royal with nobody noticing.

What could WWE have done better?  Easy.

1. The last entrant should have been someone huge.  Like Randy Orton.  Why?  Because it would have gotten the crowd hyped given the big surprise and him not being expected back so soon.
2. The last four guys should have been ones the WWE Universe would cheer for.  Yes, that means Reigns is not one.  Daniel Bryan, Dolph Ziggler, Dean Ambrose, and Randy Orton OR even Damien Mizdow would have worked here.  They could still do the Rusev slip out tactic, but then the camera workers need to subtly focus on this.  Either way, having four strong contenders at the end pushes all and buries none.  Better, it opens up tons of possibilities as to who would face Lesnar at Wrestlemania.
3. The participants should have been CREDIBLE.  Boogeyman is not one I would consider credible.
4. Big Show should have been eliminated by Cesaro AGAIN.
5. Kane should have been eliminated by Daniel Bryan, to further the feud.
6. Daniel Bryan should have been one of the last two standing, even if he didn't win.  The crowd would not have turned on that (unless Rusev came in to cheat and toss him out).

We'll never know now how things might have turned out differently if WWE had just put the right people in the spotlight.  But the fun has just begun, watching how they try to recover from the debacle.