Royal Rumble Thoughts (Spoilers)

One of the best title matches ever.

One of the worst Rumble matches ever.

Honestly that was horrificly booked.

they got rid of their most popular/exciting wrestlers early, eliminated bubba, ziggler, bryan, ambrose, harper, cesaro. all of them would be awesome to have watched for 30+ minutes. i was so excited to see that but instead we got 2 has beens eliminating everybody so that the Rock's cousin can get a match at WM.

other disappointments include a lack of NXT call ups, when we had 4 seconds of Titus and jack flipping swagger rather than Adrian Neville.

honestly after bryan was elimated i thought there was hope and that they were building for a huge heel victory for the likes of Wyatt or Rusev but instead theyve dropped us the worst wrestler on the roster

I'm in shock. Just tossed everyone out as if they were nothing. Bryan out early, no NXT, no Orton. Treated the 3 decent faces like absolute toss.

Rusev - Cena has just been set up for Mania on the post show. Cena was doing a backstage interview and Rusev angrily interrupted him.

Ahh the meltdown begins. Worst wrestler on the roster. Worst rumble ever candidate.

WWE's biggest mistake? Not chucking Bryan into the triple threat. If he had to be back, they should have thrown him into that and had Lesnar "injure" him again.

Disappointment of the night? "ECW" crowd.

Genuinely sad for Reigns.

I cannot wait to get up and read this thread. Whilst I'm asleep and people are berating me for not going mental people should just imagine me pulling this face

The undercard was meh, the world title match is a definite early candidate for match of the year, genuinely thought Lesnar was injured, then that he was going to be curb stomped on the briefcase, so delighted that he won. 

The Rumble match was atrociously booked, I wasn't expecting Bryan to win but the actual booking of it as a match was incredibly poor. The number of awful entrants was embarrassing. No idea why they didn't just have Titus O'Neill or whatever's spot be taken by D-Von or even just R-Truth's spot, rather than just having Bubba do it with the first black guy he could find. Bryan's elimination was poorly done, underwhelming and then Big Show and Kane dominating the match, in 2015 when they were washed up ten years ago is ridiculous. I don't even think Reigns winning was the problem, even if Reigns-Lesnar is one of the worst matches you could think for Lesnar, the booking was just awful. The ease at which Big Show and Kane eliminated the top stars of the company was unjustifiable. 

I think WWE dropped the ball again, they booked it really awfully and now they've got a job on their hands to either get people behind Reigns, which doesn't just mean associate him with The Rock or make it so Big Show and Kane are the alternatives, or to save the main event of their biggest show of the year. The booking teams have surely got to ask themselves why two years in a row the Rumble has been booed, when it has never happened before.

You are right Crimey. It's not Reigns winning that is the major problem, it's the booking of the match. Absolutely terrible.

the crowd disagreed. they ruined it for me

i havent watched alot tbh but watch the rumble every year. but, is reigns really that bad? bad enough to boo?

Excellent Title match, Terrible rumble - Enjoyed DDP

Vince needs to realise that he does not anymore choose who the fans will cheer or boo.
The fans choose who they cheer or boo and when the fans realise they're being force fed a star they will make their thoughts known.
Those that say audiences are none to the wise or aren't smarky stilll live in the last century, this is 2015, everyone has access to the Internet in the palm of their hand. 99% of that audience knew they were being given Reigns as champ as soon as Bryan was eliminated and especially when it got to n28 and Big Show and Ziggler were the only two remaining.
If people thought the crowd were harsh on Reigns last night then they'll be in for a shock at Mania when he pins Lesnar. The only redeeming part is that Rollins is surely going to cash in immediately afterwards and probably therefore get the biggest pop of the night.

Oh and Curtis Axel is technically still in the Rumble too.

I feel sorry for Reigns. He was thrown to the Wolves last night. Lesnar continues to be booked like a babyface, and will be the overwhelming fan favourite at WrestleMania. If the WWE ever want to make money out of Reigns, they should consider putting Lesnar over at Mania, and having Rollins cash in. Reigns needs to develop his character to get over with a portion of the crowd.

As for the PPV, everything aside from the title match, and the first half of the Rumble underwhelmed.

They surely would have known the crowd would be at Reigns for winning and with Lesnar now getting huge pops Id have had Rock come down to celebrate only for Reigns to turn on him, embracing the hate.

I feel bad for Reigns, the WWE are pushing him hard because they truly believe he can be the next 'john cena'. That's not his fault, it just shows the state the company is in when they only have one huge main event wrestler on the face side and can't replace him because of how awful they book anyone who gets a positive reaction.

BD21 wrote:One of the best title matches ever.

One of the worst Rumble matches ever.

Honestly that was horrificly booked.

This feels like a natural conclusion following the build up, where the title was built up well and the Rumble not.

WWE can't expect to win all ways round, they are not clever enough for that. So, they can't book this show for Philadelphia because they know that crowd will buy tickets, but then be surprised when that crowd is wrestling aware enough that they are not going to take Reigns to their hearts and want Bryan to win. Its almost like if they'd just had something similar happen last year, they might be able to learn from it.

I too feel sorry for Reigns. Because, if you are in the WWE then you do what you are told to do. "Go out and read nursery rhymes" - Yes, sir. "Job here, pick up a strap there" - Yessir, yessir. So, he's just doing what he's told to as any employee does. BUT, I feel more sorry for wrestlers like Bryan, Ziggler and I'd argue Ambrose who've got the crowd on their side, but not the management.

Hero wrote:They surely would have known the crowd would be at Reigns for winning and with Lesnar now getting huge pops Id have had Rock come down to celebrate only for Reigns to turn on him, embracing the hate.

If you cant' get over when you've got Rock with you. You've real problems. Maybe they should have gone all the way and have had Reigns eliminate Bryan, at least then if the crowd are going to boo him there's a legitimate heat reason.

Putting that aside. Lesnar was awesome. I've got to the point where it doesn't quite matter how much WWE has to pay to keep him in the organization, he's worth every cent. I genuinely do think that if Lesnar leaves my interest in WWE will drop by 80%.

Do you think Lesnar is watching all this and rubbing his hands with glee? He knows now he is in a seriously good bargaining position. If the thinking was for Reigns to beat Lesnar at WM, then there might be a serious rethink leading up to it based on 1) crowd reaction to Lesnar and 2) crowd reaction to Reigns.

You wouldnt see booking like this on TNA 8)

I thought "booking" was a dirty word on TNA?

Wrestling fans are not happy that Roman Reigns – former “muscle” of The Shield – is going to WrestleMania 31 to face Brock Lesnar for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Following Sunday’s Royal Rumble pay-per-view, discontent customers took to social media telling others to #CancelWWENetwork – the hashtag was resting comfortably as the third highest trending phrase in the world late Sunday.

Apparently, a large percentage of fans backed up their trash-talking game by actual cancelling their WWE Network subscriptions. Hundreds of images, showing users on the official network cancellation page, can be found on Twitter. In fact, so many people jumped on the anti-WWE bandwagon, the cancellation page crashed for over an hour.

Im starting to think people don't like Roman...

Another trend on Twitter was #curtisaxel apparently.

It would appear that fans were saying that he wasnt eliminated from the Rumble and is the real winner.

Things are bad for Reigns if fans would rather Lesnar vs Axel!

I think last year the build up between Rumble and Mania was at least as interesting to see if WWE would try to save themselves from their booking mistakes as it was to actually watch the shows. I can see that again this year.

And anyone who cancels their WWE network subscription before Feb 11th in my view is just not a wrestling fan.

Prometheus wrote:I think last year the build up between Rumble and Mania was at least as interesting to see if WWE would try to save themselves from their booking mistakes as it was to actually watch the shows.  I can see that again this year.

And anyone who cancels their WWE network subscription before Feb 11th in my view is just not a wrestling fan.

American's don't care they have Hulu for NXT

Booking writes itself for that, abandoned by Heyman Axel seeks revenge against his golden child.

Fernando wrote:Following Sunday’s Royal Rumble pay-per-view, discontent customers took to social media telling others to #CancelWWENetwork – the hashtag was resting comfortably as the third highest trending phrase in the world late Sunday.

Adam D wrote:Another trend on Twitter was #curtisaxel apparently.

I would love Michael Cole to be reading out those 2

Fernando wrote:

Prometheus wrote:I think last year the build up between Rumble and Mania was at least as interesting to see if WWE would try to save themselves from their booking mistakes as it was to actually watch the shows.  I can see that again this year.

And anyone who cancels their WWE network subscription before Feb 11th in my view is just not a wrestling fan.

American's don't care they have Hulu for NXT

Oh, that I did not know. Actually, that is interesting. Very interesting for me. Thx

Gonna watch it again this afternoon to see if the reaction was warranted or just a heat of the moment kinda thing. I wouldn't have minded a Reigns win if the 3 people the crowd cared about weren't just tossed over the top like they were nothing. Even Wyatt deserved a better elimination. Rusev will probably never get a better crowd reaction in his career.



Rollins was the MVP of the night. A few people were sceptical about him being added to that match but he was brilliant. I called him cashing in on Reigns at Mania a few months ago, it has to happen now.


Where an NXT entrant? Titus O'Neill's spot could have been used by Zayn and have Owens eliminate him, been saying this for weeks. Even if only 2 or 3 people buy the Network to watch NXT, it's more money than they'll ever make from Titus.

Thinking back on it I think the rumble wasn't as bad as people think. I think there was a few bad mistakes with Daniel Bryan, Dean Ambrose and Dolph Ziggler. But asides from that I actually enjoyed the ending and it sets up a few more routes for wrestle mania where the great one could be involved. Really do feel for Roman
Reigns, but at least he didn't break character like Batista did last year.

The title match though was just class. WWE get Lesnar on a contract now. Best wrestler around in the world today.

Hero wrote:Oh and Curtis Axel is technically still in the Rumble too.

Its quite obvious that Erick Rowan stole his spot.

The commentary made a big deal over the fact that Rowan didn't to be fair. I think Axel never entered because he didn't get into the ring in the first place.

Lesnar is a beast and they have booked him ridiculously well, the main issue they have now is that he looks actually indestructible. How can they have Reigns beat him when he took three AAs in a row, a curb stomp, went through the barrier, the table, knee to the head, steps to the face, two briefcases to the face and still win. A superman punch and spear? It would just look ridiculous.

How from a kayfabe perspective is Reigns at all a threat to Lesnar, he wasn't dominant in the Rumble match, he had very little big spots and he's had one singles victory against a big star in Orton, months and months ago. They've got a few months now to try to resurrect their Wrestlemania main event....again!

If Rowan wasn't ever in the match, how come he left after he was thrown over the top rope? He stole Axel's place

Crimey wrote:How from a kayfabe perspective is Reigns at all a threat to Lesnar, he wasn't dominant in the Rumble match

You're looking at what he didn't do.

He entered the match, eliminated a few guys, survived a double team from Kane and Big Show before eliminating both at the same time, and then Rusev, to win.

Marky wrote:If Rowan wasn't ever in the match, how come he left after he was thrown over the top rope? He stole Axel's place

I don't know, but watch it again, Cole says repeatedly that Rowan is not officially in the match.

Crimey wrote:The commentary made a big deal over the fact that Rowan didn't to be fair. I think Axel never entered because he didn't get into the ring in the first place.

Lesnar is a beast and they have booked him ridiculously well, the main issue they have now is that he looks actually indestructible. How can they have Reigns beat him when he took three AAs in a row, a curb stomp, went through the barrier, the table, knee to the head, steps to the face, two briefcases to the face and still win. A superman punch and spear? It would just look ridiculous.

How from a kayfabe perspective is Reigns at all a threat to Lesnar, he wasn't dominant in the Rumble match, he had very little big spots and he's had one singles victory against a big star in Orton, months and months ago. They've got a few months now to try to resurrect their Wrestlemania main event....again!

This didn't really bother WWE when Lesnar destroyed Cena at Summerslam and then a few weeks later at NoC Cena was booked strong.

To me, I agree its a problem. But I think to WWE its just another match and they book on a match by match basis.

Crimey wrote:

Marky wrote:If Rowan wasn't ever in the match, how come he left after he was thrown over the top rope? He stole Axel's place

I don't know, but watch it again, Cole says repeatedly that Rowan is not officially in the match.

I know, and he wasn't officially in the match. But he obviously stole Axel's place, in the WWE world where you can attack someone and steal their spot in a match.

Title match was great. Lesnar is an absolute animal, great to watch. Rollins is a star, think he's going to be at the top for a while ad once again, on the big stage, Cena raised his game and played his part in one of the best title matches in a long time.

Shame it was ruined by the Rumble match. I don't really think that Reigns is ready to main event Wrestlemania, still think his character and in-ring work needs developing, but I wasn't totally against him winning the rumble. Would really have liked Bryan to have won it though, huge fan of his and I think vs Lesnar would have been excellent.

Issue is more with the match itself. Firstly, thought the ending was an absolute cluster Frak, particularly Rusev re-entering and not helped by the bell being rung after Reigns eliminated Kane and Big Show. Which brings me on to why are those two, in 2015 and a long way past their prime, being given such a prominent role?

There's no way Bryan should have been eliminated so early, put Reigns in a terrible position with the crowd who were inevitably going to Poopie all over him winning, particularly with the way other crowd favourites like Ziggler did. Not just Reigns though, it would have been the same for the majority of the roster after that.

Wyatt had a long stint in the match, but after his initial eliminations didn't really do much. Titus O'Neill was an utter waste of space, and R-Truth. Mizdow and Miz should have been in the match at the same time, more should have been made of Stardust trying to eliminate Goldust.

Bubba Ray coming back was awesome, but would have been better if D'Von was there instead of Truth. The Rock as ever was great to see, but even he couldn't get the crowd to get behind Reigns, might as well have had him laid out by Reigns than try and transfer his pop to him. What's everyone thoughts on the Mania card now?

Guess Lesnar vs Reigns is nailed on. HHH vs Sting. I'd quite like to see Bryan vs Cena and Rollins vs Orton, but think Cena will be up against Rusev so there could be one of Bryan/Rollins/Orton left-over. Also think a Rollins cash-in at the end of Mania is inevitable now, and might be needed to save the night.

I'm just going to leave my thoughts here...

Spoiler:

I think with Cena being set up for Rusev we could somehow end up with HHH vs Rock...quite how they get to this is anyone's guess but in the world of wwe, and after last night especially..plausible explanations is a non existent term in that universe.

Sting vs Taker
Rock vs HHH
Brock vs Reigns
Rusev vs Cena

That would be one of the biggest PPV on paper for sure! Could slide in Bryan into title match or indeed Rollins...could have Orton vs Rollins for the briefcase with Bryan in title match. Plenty of ways to go...could even have Bryan turn heel and align with authority and take on Sting..

Quick way to get fans onside and a good way to write it...

Have Reigns turn heel tonight by demolishing Bryan..claiming that since the fans won't get behind anyone but there beloved hero he will take matters into his own hands and get rid of him himself.

At Fast Lane could have Reigns vs Bryan with the winner going on to Mania....Bryan picks up the win after a back and forth match..

Next night on Raw The Rock comes down to ring to discuss the night of the rumble and how disappointed he is in Reigns and his decisions post Rumble....Reigns comes down to the ring and after some promo back and forth he goes to leave...Rock turns to hand the Mic back to ringside as he turns round boom superman punch then spear...

Brock vs Bryan (Rollins cash in after Bryan wins)
Reigns vs Rock
HHH vs Sting
Cena vs Rusev
Orton v Ambrose vs Rollins

To clear up the whole Curtis Axel thing, I'm pretty sure the rules ofnthe Rumble are a participant has to enter the ring before the next number is out so the fact he was 6 and didn't enter the ring within the allocated time meant he was disqualified, I know the commentators didn't touch on this but I'm pretty sure thats a historic rule.

The Rumble match, I was really impressed with Bray Wyatt's contribution, the star of the match in my opinion, it felt like a play on CM Punk's Rumble in 2009, I enjoyed what he did, I didn't like what happened with Daniel Bryan, I think its obvious that he still isn't near 100% and they've got him in and out the match, he was a draw for the Rumble for a lot of fans but dont think hebwas seen as anything other than that, he's back now, he needs a nice slow and ateady few months and build up a good feud for Mania.

The ending of the Rumble was rotten, I'd bet the vast majority of people watching knew when Show and Kane eliminated Ambrose that they were basically crowning Reigns the winner well before the end of the match, I think that was the problem, Reigns may not have been everyone's cup of tea but I don't think his reaction would have been anywhere near as bad if the last 4 had been Reigns, Ziggler, Wyatt and Ambrose - Personally I think it would have been a good story ark if Reigns had won by eliminating Ambrose, the fans were well and truly behind Ambrose and when they both teamed up in the Rumble the crowd really got behind both of them as a wee nostaligic doff of the cap to The Shield - I get why they did it, it was to get The Rock involved, they thought Rock's involvement would get Reigns over, I feel it had the polar opposite effect and the worrying thing is if you asked me before hand, or most people on this forum they would have told you it would have had a negative effect, how Vince didn't get that I'll never know.

I feel when Dolph went out an audiable should have been called.

the Triple Threat was brilliant, again though, I feel the result of matches often dictate how the whole landscape is percieved, if we were sitting here and Cena had won I doubt most would be praising the match, it was excellent, Lesnar is just a true phenomenon, he just makes things look and feel legitimate, he had to be the World Champion at WrestleMania, the guy just oozes "IT"

.24 drop in wwe share price in first hour of trading today. Be interesting to see how that moves in the coming 24 hours as cancellations to network and media coverage of the wwecancellation trend continue to pick up.

Agree Kayfabe; I mentioned it on the chat box last night,it's easy to sit and say the crowd were full of smarks who were never going to be happy unless Bryan won...but for me that wasn't the case at all. Truth is most people knew Reigns was going to win it...the key became how they went about it. And they failed on that front massively. If your top babyface isn't going to win it...at least have him look good and give him time in the match. They used Bryan as nothing more than a marketing tool to get people to buy it and that's all...they had no plans to utilise him properly and that's what pis**d people off! Here's a guy who never lost his title in the first place and that's how you book him on his return...appalling. Throw in the fact that they stuck two fingers up to the adult audience with the way Ambrose, Sandow, Ziggler and even Cesaro were unceremoniously dumped out and the ending was a disaster waiting to happen. At least if Reigns had been in a final four with say Show, Ziggler and Ambrose...he could have been booed at end but come out on RAW and say people may not like it but he went in with the best and came out on top....could have even had Ziggler and Ambrose endorse the win...that would have worked better and gone over more with the fans than just ignorantly trying to rub The Rocks star power on him...that was the easy way to try and do it and I'm glad it failed.

Interestingly Raw may be canceled tonight due to the Blizzards in America...If i were WWE id take it & run and get my Poopie together over the week

Vince will put on a show eminating from somewhere

To be honest im looking for to the Austin/HHH podcast afterwards more then the show.

As Comic Book Guy would say, "worst Rumble match ever!"

As for the Axel thing. Didn't Mick Foley IIRC attack Test at the RR in2004 and Austin gave Mick Foley his spot? Something similar in a way.

I just don't understand the booking. Rumble winners are quite predictable normally. It's fair to say not many could decide the winner out of Bryan or Reigns and they totally killed it in the space of 20 minutes! They could've redeemed it with an Ambrose/Reigns showdown at the end. The ending was just horrible viewing. Having Kane and Big Show (who are past their prime) and done the square root of nought for the last 10 years hang in to end was just sh!t. No Orton or Sheamus, so god knows how Orton gets written onto the WM card with seemingly most of the talent tied up. wouldn't surprise me if Rollins cashed in MITB before Mania only for Orton to screw him.

Wyatt was fantastic. Certainly the best performer in the match. Wonder if we are going to get another Bryan/Wyatt feud.

Seems WWE didn't learn from 2014.

Admittedly I don't keep up with WWE much these days, but is this the internet hyping up a guy then doing a 180 after the WWE take notice again?

Fernando wrote:To be honest im looking for to the Austin/HHH podcast afterwards more then the show.

That's after next weeks show mate. After tonight it's the backstage stuff from Wrestlemania which looks phenomenal from the advert.

My bad either way it'll be an interesting listen.

WWE Stock was $10.72 and is now $10.48...#CancelTehNetwork is now costing them money which means they will probably listen now

GSC wrote:Admittedly I don't keep up with WWE much these days, but is this the internet hyping up a guy then doing a 180 after the WWE take notice again?

Not really, because there was a similar reaction last year when it was another guy. To me, the outcry is down to 3 factors:
- wrestlers who are over and fans have come/tuned in to cheer such as Ambrose and Daniel Bryan, not only didn't win, but didn't get close and were made to look quite weak
- the booking was quite poor throughout the Rumble and having Kane and Big Show in the ring at the end just seemed to typify how WWE moves on very, very slowly if it thinks fans really want to see these two in the final 4
- Reigns hasn't really done it as a singles competitor to fully connect with the crowd to be the next certified big thing and there's a feeling that he's been pushed on the audience more than the fans are pulling for him

I've been saying all through the build up that the Rumble was an after-thought against the title. And it really came off as that. This match is probably WWE's 2nd or 3rd biggest event of the year. Rollins/Cena/Lesnar put on what is arguably WWE's best in-ring action for several years, but no-one is talking about that because the Rumble and its conclusion was so poorly thought through.

GSC wrote:Admittedly I don't keep up with WWE much these days, but is this the internet hyping up a guy then doing a 180 after the WWE take notice again?

Yes

Jeez people like their hyperboles. This was far from the worst Rumble match. And people need to stop it with the Daniel Bryan nonsense. I like Bryan as much as anyone, but jesus christ get over it. Reigns biggest problem? Hes not Daniel Bryan. I dont agree its because we're having a star forced on us. The same thing happened last year.

I like Reigns, and he's being built up classically, with a Rumble win etc. Damned if you do damned if you dont.

Tripke threat match was excellent.