Tag Archives: royal rumble 2015

Pro Wrestling

Ranting About What the Hell Happened At the 2015 Royal Rumble

Does WWE hate their audience?

               I seriously don’t get it.

               How does it make any sense to put Roman Reigns over in the Royal Rumble?

           This isn’t the same thing as 2003 Triple H and his reign of terror over the RAW roster. Whether fans liked it or didn’t, HHH was an established top guy. There was logic there.

            This isn’t the same thing even as HHH beating CM Punk during the Summer of Punk (although that was pretty bad anyway).

         This isn’t even the same thing as last year’s Royal Rumble, where Batista infamously won the Royal Rumble and Daniel Bryan, the clear crowd favorite, wasn’t even in the match. At least you can argue Batista being the returning star with a movie and all.

     This is, for all intents of purposes, outright ignoring your audience. There’s no argument here. There’s just no way could anyone think, at the moment of the 2015 Royal Rumble, that Roman Reigns going over was the way to go. Nothing has led to a point where this would be a remotely good idea. Let’s be clear though, there is money in Roman Reigns…he’s just not READY yet. And there is someone who is more than ready. Someone who is perhaps the most popular wrestler since Stone Cold and The Rock. That person is Daniel Bryan. He is practically a license to print money. The fans CLEARLY want him up top. I mean 2014 pretty much showed that Daniel Bryan should be the future of this company if he was healthy. Even if he isn’t healthy for the long term that’s fine. Let him be the top guy when Roman gets ready. Roman Reigns could be, and if he improves should be the face of Wrestlemania 32. Reigns’ 2015 should be similar to John Cena’s 2004.

     Let’s talk about the Rumble match itself. When Daniel Bryan came in at #10 I was sold that he was winning. When he starting doing all of his risky moves, I was sold he was winning. Obviously Bryan, the former World Champion who never lost the belt, who made a big retirement tease to come back and enter the Rumble, who is the MOST POPULAR PROFESSIONAL WRESTLER IN THE WORLD, was going to be there at the end. It seemed logical that Bryan being #10 meant he was going to be in there in the long run. And if WWE thought he had a long match in him, that could only be a positive thing.

 Daniel Bryan lasted only 10 minutes and 11 seconds. He was eliminated in such a boring manner as well, just being knocked off the apron by Bray Wyatt. It’s gotta be one of the most surprising moments I’ve ever seen as a wrestling fan. If Bryan wasn’t winning, I still fully expected him in the final four. I mean why wouldn’t we? HE’S THE MOST POPULAR WRESTLER IN THE PROMOTION! HE IS THE FORMER WORLD CHAMPION WHO DIDN’T LOSE THE TITLE IN THE RING! I mean what the hell?

      The Royal Rumble was dead at that moment. It’s a shame because it was quite fun up until that point. Still…there was hope. Dean Ambrose or Dolph Ziggler. The fans could buy one of those two. Especially Ziggler. But two men were set to ruin that.

              Look. It’s 2015. Enough with the Big Show and Kane. I’m sorry but we have to move on at some point. I wrote on a message board last year that WWE has to move on and stop with all the part timers. The time has passed. It really has. Kane debuted in 1997 and Glenn Jacobs actually start in 1995. That’s 20 years! Big Show debuted in 1999. Enough! How are we ever going to truly care about this generation and future generations when we can’t get past the Kane and Big Shows of the world? I can understand The Undertaker. I can understand The Rock and Triple H. Those three need to stop too, but at least they were the cream of the crop. But we need to move on. The wrestling business needs to move on. It just has to. I mean there’s more time between Kane’s debut and today than Hulk Hogan’s first World Title and his DEPARTURE from WCW. That’s insane. In no way should I be seeing The Rock beat up Big Show and Kane on a Pay-Per-View in 2015. Those three were in the final four of the Royal Rumble FIFTEEN YEARS ago.

   Let’s talk about our winner. Roman Reigns. Now, I have no problem with Reigns, and as recently as Summerslam I was all for him getting a push. I’m still for him getting a push. He’s got a great look. I can see him becoming a great promo guy (despite the comedy we have now). He should be feuding with the likes of Luke Harper, Bad News Barrett, Cesaro and all of those guys for the IC Title in the next 10 months. Instead he’s jackhammered down our throats. It’s crazy. It’s one thing to force someone down our throats. But at least some fans take to it. Lex Luger still got cheered in 1993 (and when he got booed at the Rumble, Bret Hart got the belt). Diesel was still cheered in 1995. No one is cheering Roman Reigns. No one!

          If you have to get The Rock to help you not get booed out of the building and you still get booed, you shouldn’t be in the main event of Wrestlemania.

          If you cause the fans to cheer for a guy whose gimmick is that he worships Vladimir Putin, you shouldn’t be in the main event of Wrestlemania.

         I don’t get it. Anyone watching the Royal Rumble. From a neutral standpoint. Tell me how Roman Reigns was a better choice than Daniel Bryan. Because I don’t get it. I just don’t.

Pro Wrestling

2015 WWE Royal Rumble Preview

royalrumble2015

The 2015 Royal Rumble is upon us. I will be attending the event, my 2nd Rumble (2008 in MSG), even though my interest in the current state of the WWE is at an all-time low. A great Royal Rumble though and all of that can change. To be honest, we haven’t had a real crowd pleasing winner of the Royal Rumble since 2010 when Edge returned from a seven month neck injury and won. In 2011 Alberto Del Rio won, opened Wrestlemania, lost to Edge and won Money in the Bank. In 2012 Sheamus surprisingly outlasted Chris Jericho, beat Daniel Bryan in 18 seconds at Wrestlemania and has had his career take a nosedive since. John Cena won the 2013 version just to set-up a rematch with The Rock at Wrestlemania XXIX. Batista made his return to the ring in 2014 to win the Rumble match, and pissed off the entire WWE Universe in the process. Fun fact here is that two of these Royal Rumble results cemented Daniel Bryan as a top guy, and yet he wasn’t apart of either of them (2012 because of what happened at Wrestlemania and 2014, which we will get to).

Let’s talk about the 2014 Royal Rumble. First, we’ll compare it to a scenario to a previous Royal Rumble: the 1998 version.

In 1998 there was clearly one man who was to win the Royal Rumble: Stone Cold Steve Austin. Any other situation would have made absolutely no sense. Business wise, logic wise, any of it. No sense whatsoever. Austin had to win. This was because of his anti-authority attitude that had been in place all the way back to the 1997 Royal Rumble. Austin was the most popular wrestler (really, in both major promotions at that time) in the WWF and a showdown with Shawn Michaels was where the obvious money was.

Daniel Bryan is perhaps the most popular wrestler since John Cena himself in 2005. The crowd has connected with him in an insane way that even CM Punk couldn’t accomplish in his 2011 run (matches in Chicago notwithstanding…and really this whole thing wasn’t his fault anyway). Bryan pretty much got his 2013 Summerslam World Title match because of his crowd reactions, and promptly beat Cena clean for the title. This led to a feud with The Authority when Triple H pedigreed Bryan and Randy Orton cashed in Money in the Bank to steal the title from him. Bryan would get close, but fail at regaining the title (except for one day) throughout the rest of 2013. The feud was clearly designed for Bryan to win the Royal Rumble and get one last shot at Orton, where he would ultimately win the title. Sometimes the obvious route is the best one.

Going back to 1998, imagine if The Ultimate Warrior returned and won that Royal Rumble while Stone Cold wasn’t in it? That would pretty much suck, wouldn’t it? Well we got the same thing in 2014 with Batista. And surprise surprise…it sucked. It did make it seem that there was a star in the making (who was already being pushed hard anyway) in Roman Reigns, as Reigns broke the elimination record and finished runner up to Batista. Still, the WWF had to rectify the situation, and Bryan got his World Title victory at Mania. And it was pretty awesome at that.

Austin vs. McMahon made the '98 Rumble obvious.
Austin vs. McMahon made the ’98 Rumble obvious.

Fast forward to 2015. We have a new obstacle in Bryan’s way, Diesel Power 2K15. I’ll explain in a moment, but first let’s go over why Daniel Bryan should be winning this match. For one, he’s still the most popular wrestler in the promotion. Now he has the injury comeback going for him. Bryan broke his neck and there were even retirement rumors for him throughout 2014, cutting short his title reign. How could there be any more money made than Bryan coming back in the Rumble and winning it outright? It’s a storyline that’s worked one way or another in 2001 with Austin, 2002 with Triple H, 2008 with Cena and 2010 with Edge. Once again Daniel Bryan is the clear path to an awesome Wrestlemania main event, where he could face Brock Lesnar for the WWE Title in a version of the Wrestlemania X Bret Hart vs. Yokozuna title match. We even have our Lex Luger in Roman Reigns.

I have no issues with Reigns, but the writing team has screwed him over a ton. He still doesn’t have the workrate down pat either. He had his Diesel Power moment at Summerslam when he kicked out of Randy Orton’s super RKO. The Diesel Power moment refers to Diesel strongly kicking out of Shawn Michaels’ superkick at Wrestlemania XI. He’s just not ready yet. I do think Roman Reigns has the tools to be a huge star down the line. He’s just not there yet. WWE has constantly blown top face runs by pushing them way too fast. Best example is Sheamus beating Bryan in 18 seconds. There’s big money in Reigns, but if he’s pushed way too fast too soon, he will fall. The best thing for Reigns to do is to fight someone like Big Show at Wrestlemania. It worked for Cena didn’t it? If Roman Reigns wins the 2015 Royal Rumble…he will be booed out of the building as fans chant “NO! NO! NO!” They want Bryan. He’s the logical choice once again.

Fans did not want Batista to win the Rumble
Fans did not want Batista to win the Rumble

The other key component of the Royal Rumble is the WWE World Title Match itself. There’s an argument for any of Cena, Lesnar or Seth Rollins to win the title. I’m pretty much the only person in the world who isn’t a huge fan of Rollins and I don’t think he’s quite earned the right to defend the WWE Title at Wrestlemania yet (he too can get there one day though. I just think he won MITB because Bad News Barrett got hurt). I don’t see Seth Rollins having the name value needed to main event a Wrestlemania in a World Title match yet (this is one of the drawbacks of having only one world title, although it’s still better that way). That leaves Cena and Lesnar. If Bryan wins the Rumble, either one of these winning the title will be fine. Cena vs. Bryan II would be awesome, and I already outline why Lesnar and Bryan would be awesome.

The other matches on the card don’t have huge implications. Mizdow seem to be breaking up soon, so I assume they aren’t winning the titles back from the Usos. I don’t even know why The Bellas are back together and I really don’t care. It’s a shame as I was a fan of the Bellas right up until Nikki turned on Brie. The New Age Outlaws being back last year and winning the tag titles was good for nostalgia, but hopefully The Ascension gets the win they need as they’ve been treated like a joke since their call up to WWE. I think the Outlaws are going to steal a Mania payday though. I’m not sure how Tyson Kidd, Cesaro and Adam Rose became a trio, but their match against The New Day seems irrelevant.

As for surprise Rumble entrants, I’ve heard about a couple but I’m trying to keep this spoiler free. I’ll just write for those I am hoping for that in no way have been confirmed or I’ve heard about. RVD (I’m a RVD mark and its Philly), The Sandman, Raven, The Dudley Boyz (all ECW talents. Raven is by far the least likely and Sandman isn’t likely either. The Dudleyz wouldn’t shock me now that they are free from TNA.), and someone totally out of nowhere, like Flash Funk (he was from Philly, right? He also has a Philly ECW rep).

But none of this matters unless Daniel Bryan wins at the end. Do the ring thing WWE.