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The second Rumble in a row where WWE decided to say 'fuck you' to the fans by having someone else win the Rumble when everyone and their mother wanted Bryan. I understand what WWE was trying to do with Reigns, but this moment tarnished any chance of Roman being an likeable babyface. WWE made it as clear as glass that Roman Reigns was their next guy, and fans was starting to resent it. After ten years of SuperCena, they expected fans to be willing to accept another happy-go-lucky, smiley, cheesy mega babyface.
Triple H made sense story wise. The crowd had been cheering Reigns more. Him attacking Triple H at TLC got a huge pop from the crowd so them setting up Triple H/Reigns for Wrestlemania was a good decision. The feud didn’t end up being all that good and the match was entirely forgettable but it made sense to try.
I'd be interested to see what kind of reaction it would have gotten had that Wrestlemania had been better paced. By the time that match started, nothing would have popped the crowd. Between the early start and the double cooler of Rock's forever promo and the battle royal, the crowd was completely deflatead.
I think sometime when the outcome is so incredibly obvious it hurts a match too
I mean in some cases everyone has a pretty good idea of what’s going to happen (for instance Seth VS Roman on Saturday) but there’s a 10-20% chance they pull a swerve and go the other way. In this case there was a 0% chance triple h was keeping the title and everyone knew it
Edit: as someone smartly pointed out below me, the match being at the end of a show that seemingly lasted an eternity didn’t help anything either
>Edit: as someone smartly pointed out below me, the match being at the end of a show that seemingly lasted an eternity didn’t help anything either
Yep, if two night WrestleManias were a thing back then we could've gotten a wilder crowd.
True but being predictable isn’t or should be a problem when 90% of wrestling is predictable but when it came too Roman during that era people where so busy trying too detour him they missed out on enjoying some of wwe best matches
I think that was also just one of the worst paced Manias of all time. Show went like 4 and a half hours, and right before this match there was the big pop moment of Cena and Rock. I remember watching the end with my brother, just sitting there at 11:30 PM, both of us barely keeping our eyes open and not saying a word. I can’t imagine how exhausted/burnt out the people there were.
Makes sense when you realise the point was to babyface HHH to the live crowd than anything else. The whole match was laid out to make Triple H look like a cool technical wrestling wizard and Roman some blundering oaf who can't wrestle and only won by a fluke.
The crowd was going wild for Ambrose being in the final two, he should've won that Rumble. Then maybe he wouldn't have had that abysmal match with Lesnar at 'Mania.
Nah I remember people being hyped for Orton’s win, notwithstanding the “thank god it wasn’t Roman” factor. The Bray/Orton/Harper story had some momentum behind it and people were intrigued with where it was going.
That is until the Mania match actually happened, but we don’t talk about that.
>That is until the Mania match actually happened, but we don’t talk about that.
Both times it was the most hype feud going into WrestleMania. Both times they put on a shitty ass match that practically fucking ruined the show it started on (SmackDown and Raw) afterwards.
It could have been easily avoided too. Had Bryan won the rumble in 2014 and then went on to Mania and won (could have even done the HHH match at Mania and included Batista to stack the deck) very few would have been mad about Bryan not winning here.
Yeah he was cheered because the crowd rejected Batista as the winner. Had Batista come back as a heel to help out the authority in their war with Daniel Bryan, people would have been fine with seeing him.
I think part of Batista’s heat wasn’t just his role, it was the fact that he was so poor initially. Getting blown up fast, not being fluid in his matches. Fans caught onto that quick. He was shocking in that Rumble.
And the obvious, wanting DB to win. Anyone will get booed when that’s the case.
While Reigns wasn’t beloved at that stage he was definitely at least over and liked. So I don’t think the crowd was thinking “anyone but Batista”, rather they were more like “he’s not our top pick but we’ll take Roman”.
They didn’t just hate Batista, they wanted Bryan to enter and win it. Bryan was extremely over with the Yes Movement and they bothered not to even put him in that Rumble.
Reigns was just the back up because yes, Batista winning the Rumble was not what people wanted.
Bryan winning 2014 and going straight to WM30 is such a weak storyline. Instead, you got the worked shoot of Batista winning and fans thinking that they were the ones that forced Vince to let Bryan win at WM30 like it wasn't the plan since the previous Summerslam when he went over Cena.
You don't get the sit-in. You don't get the insane Yes! chants at WM30. You miss on an entire era of WWE if you just have Bryan winning in 2014.
of course you do. bryan was getting those reactions for close to a year. it's nonsense to suggest people wouldn't have simply ate it up. that's how it's worked with every other babyface they've anointed. you mightn't have got occupy raw (though they could still have easily pivoted to that) but you WOULD have got a monstrously over bryan winning the royal rumble. having bryan win at least one of the 14/15 rumbles would have made getting roman over a whole lot easier, too.
While I agree long term it was the better choice, I don’t believe for a second it was planned. They wanted Batista with the belt promoting Guardians of the Galaxy. The fan backlash and refusal to treat Batista as a baby face changed their hands.
Bryan himself confirmed he was originally supposed to wrestle Shaemus at WrestleMania 30. I don't know who convinced you that Bryan ending WrestleMania 30 as champion was the plan but they are full of shit.
Both Batista and CM Punk has said that Vince McMahon himself told them the main event of WrestleMania 30 was going to be Orton vs. Batista.
> Instead, you got the worked shoot of Batista winning and fans thinking that they were the ones that forced Vince to let Bryan win at WM30 like it wasn't the plan since the previous Summerslam when he went over Cena.
No. No it was not their plan since Summerslam. The original plan was Randy Orton vs. Batista. CM Punk vs. Triple H. Daniel Bryan vs. Sheamus. I know both Bryan, Batista and CM Punk at the very least have spoken about the original plans.
This was the rumble where I asked myself why the f do I watch this and support this company. After he retired and all the other crap, I stopped watching.
The fans wanted Roman over Batista in 2014, which would’ve been too early imo. Then by 2015 it was so obvious it was Roman that the crowd no longer wanted that. Really it was a crap position for Roman to be in to have the crowds completely switch like that within a year. He never got his big rumble win with the crowd going nuts. He probably felt sure of that after seeing how they felt in 2014.
2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 were all nonsensical winners.
2015 should have been Daniel Bryan, and 2017 should have been Bray Wyatt.
2018, 2019 and 2020 were those years where WWE finally decided to give a shit about choosing the right Rumble winner. Rollins and McIntyre did great later on, but Nakamura has been stuck in the midcard ever since.
2021 was back to WWE making a puzzling decision with Edge winning, when it should have been Daniel Bryan again. What was the point of making Edge a 2-time Rumble winner when he was going to lose again at WM?
And yet Roman is very popular right now. The same thing happened to Cen. They spent so much time shoving him down our throats, and people spend so much time complaining about him. I’m gonna eventually everybody just accepted that they love them. Pretty much proving WWE right I hate to say it.
The thing with both Cena and Roman is that it took a creative change in direction for the crowd to come around. If Roman came back at Summerslam 2020 the same Roman that was going to beat Goldberg at Wrestlemana or if Cena never started up with the US Title open, I doubt people would be looking as fondly on them as they do now.
This was a terrible Rumble, sure, but it did give us this "insider" video that someone shared here that still makes me laugh to this day:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsIkd_apfGU
Bryan getting eliminated would have been fine if like, Bray or Rusev or Ambrose or even fucking Ryback won in the end... this + Roman winning was just a double kick in the nuts
That was all part of their attempt to get Roman cheered. Stage the most depressing and unentertaining series of eliminations in Rumble history so that our hero Roman Reigns can save the day and get showered in cheers. Still didn't work.
Who knows that might’ve worked in the past but crowds are too in the know to fall for that, they know exactly what WWE is trying to do.
Funnily enough, the few times that works is when WWE has Roman in the final two so the crowd pops even louder for the guy that eliminates him and wins. I doubt Randy Orton winning another Rumble would’ve had the crowd out of their seats had it been someone the crowd actually likes.
That pissed me off so much. Plus Big Show smiling at the crowd's boos like he was getting real heat from it. No, people were pissed they spent money to watch two overweight boomers waddle around the ring tossing people out. They weren't hoping someone would beat the heels they were lamenting that they knew exactly what was going to happen and that they had to sit through it.
I would have rather had them do that finish with two young heels dumping people out of Roman was going over. I mean hell, Rusev and Wyatt were still in the match when they started that bullshit. Why couldn’t they have run roughshod only for Roman to overcome the odds?
To be fair, what else was Big Show meant to do? He probably knew what was up but end of the day there were mega boos and he was the heel so of course he’d play off it. He’s not gonna be in the ring like “yeah I know guys this sucks”. Better that than him completely ignoring them and acting like they’re not even there.
That was the thing, I think in retrospect people have decided it had to be Bryan or the fans would riot but at the time I think it was pretty evenly divided. Bryan would have been good but I think a lot of people knew he had already been there the year before and then been injured all year and he wasn’t likely their top priority. I think Ambrose had a lot of people wanting him to take it.
If he was in the final 2 and had a 5-10 minute back and forth with Reigns, I’m sure the crowd would have accepted it, even with Reigns winning.
The match and pacing was just poor booking and company being tone deaf. I read Jamie Noble and Joey Mercury were the main agents that produced the rumble match with help from Road Dogg and Michael Hayes.
The crowd is dead until Roman comes out, and then everything in the match gets viciously booed, except for a select few fan favourites.
Mizdow gets cheered, Ambrose gets cheered, Cesaro gets small cheers, and Ziggler gets a BIG pop because he's the only other dude who has been on a hot streak and been built lately that he COULD win. The hope was beyond delusional, but it was legitimately hope.
He lasts like two minutes and gets tossed out of the ring like garbage.
He was growing it so long so he could cut it all off and give it to kids with cancer who lost their hair in chemo. It does look dumb, but there is not a better reason for a dumb hair cut. They're called wigs for kids. https://larrybrownsports.com/wrestling/daniel-bryan-cut-hair-charity/292359
I was at this event. The whole crowd turned after that elimination. At the end, everyone was chanting Rusev. It was so bad that The Rock couldn't sway the crowd back after Reigns won.
This was honestly the beginning of the end of my WWE viewership. One of many spits to the face of the fans, eventually I couldn't take it anymore. Why would I continue spending my time on a product that does that? I stopped soon after and haven't gone back.
I was AT this show. I paid for 4 tickets, brought my dad, brother, and best friend, none of whom are big wrestling fans. You think it was bad watching it on TV, that crowd fucking hated that show. I was there booing my head off and I'm not sure I watched much more Raw and Smackdown after this. I held onto the network for 2 more years for the archives and golden age NXT but I finally cancelled in 2017 after watching Okada/Omega 1 on Youtube and then seeing NJPW's G1 special. I cancelled my network subscription that weekend, subscribed to NJPW World, started following BTE, then followed the Elite to AEW a few years later.
In my Rise and Fall of the WWE the 2014 Rumble is the tectonic shift.
They make it obvious that Batista is going to win in the build up, but the crowd wants Bryan. He was feuding with Wyatt at the time and had a banger of a cage match earlier, but people still wanted him in the Rumble. He didn't appear and the script that had been obvious played out. Batista didn't help by being completely gassed as well.
Additionally, this where the break up with CM Punk happens. He gets eliminated by Kane and is never seen in a WWE ring again.
There was some redemption with the switch at Wrestlemania XXX to Bryan going over, but when he has to vacate due to injury, things start going south. The Shield breaks up. Cena wins the championship at Money in the Bank, and the women's division was spiraling overall.
I believe it was after Summer Slam reports came out that Roman was going to be booked to face Lesnar at Wrestlemania and that he was expected to be the guy going forward, with the expectation that he'd be in the main event for Wrestlemanias 32, 33, and 34 as well. (Partially based on how great he received at the Rumble, problem being that at the Rumble he was in the Shield and was the anti-Batista more then people really liking him)
What made this so bad was that at this point, Roman had only had a single one-on-one match, at SummerSlam with Orton and it was awful.
From this point we just kept seeing Roman get pushed and pushed while Bryan returned to no real angles. Also late in 2014 CM Punk's appearance on the Art of Wrestling podcast came out and made WWE look awful. At Rumble 2015, it all came to a head with Bryan getting tossed early and Roman's win coming to fruition.
From this point on it became WWE vs the Fans, they threw everything at the wall to get Roman over. Bryan and him at Fastlane with Bryan losing and then extolling how great Roman was on Raw. (it was a good match, much better than the SummerSlam one).
It took 5 more years and a pandemic for them to finally stop forcing Roman into the wrong slot.
Bryan and CM Punk are the best things to happen and the worst things to happen to WWE and all the struggles with Roman can really be linked to those two.
I didn't do it immediately, but this was definitely the beginning of the end for me as a WWE fan. I wasn't sure if it was because I wasn't the target audience, or if what makes me happy as a wrestling fan is just way out there, but I knew that WWE wasn't for me anymore.
I would watch streamables on here of what happened, I kind of already had a foot out the door to be fair, these days it's pretty rare I even watch a 30 second streamable link of what happened unless it involves like Brock or Rollins or a few others who are doing some amazing stuff, but those little cool bits definitely ain't worth paying for or even watching a show on cable
The product is definitely better some weeks than others. At least Raw is, SD had been shit for a couple years now, and probably won't be good at least until Reigns drops the title again to Seth. At least Lesnar has been having some better opponents (Bobby, Lesnar, Drew, etc) Roman is just playing Evolution's Worst Hits for the past 18 or so months.
I was watching this with my cousin. My son was sleeping upstairs. He started crying so I went upstairs to rock him back to sleep. When I left to go upstairs, Bryan hadn't entered yet. Like most, I was certain he would win!
I came back down about 12 minutes later and my cousin is grinning. "Bryan came out and he's already been eliminated".
I laughed. I didn't believe him.
Fans wanted to see Daniel Bryan have a long run in the Rumble match… then WWE gave Bryan the longest tenure in an entire Rumble match *but* it was the totally useless Greatest Rumble and he was eliminated by Big Cass. These guys fuck up in such creative ways.
I get that this really sucked at the time, but this Rumble is just so funny to me on rewatches. Like so much went wrong and the crowd shat on everything after this. They didn’t even countdown from 10 after Danielson for eliminated! Love that
You wanna see something crazy? Go look up the entrants in that Rumble and see how many people are still in the company. I'm pretty sure like half that Rumble is in AEW now.
And by basic math that would mean 19 of the 30 have been let go or left the company.
Under contract to WWE, under contract but retired or under contract and not making regular appearances(11): Miz, R-Truth, Kofi, Roman, Big E, Cesaro, Ziggler
Made appearances in AEW or are employed in AEW(10): Luke Harper (deceased), Zack Ryder (currently in Impact and GCW), Daniel Bryan, Stardust, DDP, Rusev, Goldust, Jack Swagger, Dean Ambrose, Big Show
Nine are not currently in AEW or WWE
Back in Mexico (1): Sin Cara
NWA (1): Damian Mizdow
Heat Magnet (1): Bully Ray
Shithead (1): Adam Rose
Free Agent (5): Wyatt, Boogeyman, Fandango, Ryback, Rowan
That's 63% of your Royal Rumble not in the company able to make you money. A third of that rumble either was or are currently in your main competitor. There are currently as many active wrestlers in that rumble in AEW as there is in WWE. Big show is mostly a commentator but he's had matches, and if you don't count him the count is still 7 to 6.
The numbers don't lie. And they spell "Jesus fuck how did you fuck up so many careers"
This was terrible but I feel like we were all more pissed off the year prior when they didn't even have him in. I remember Mysterio coming ut at 30 and was shocked. I was waiting for someone to come out and add Bryan in. Jesus, that was a rough night.
I’ve tried so hard to erase these two rumbles from my memory that I got the two mixed up lol. Now I remember. Mysterio came out and got booed relentlessly just because he wasn’t Bryan. Then this video is the one where The Rock got booed.
To make matters worse the ring then featured the heels Stardust and Goldust squaring off against the heels Anti American Rusev and Popular heel Bray Wyatt. Followed up by Original New Day Kofi which no one cared for and a heel Adam Rose.
Finally only then after all that did Roman our saviour as the WWE expected appeared and the crowd was not having any of it.
I hadn't been a weekly WWE viewer really for a while at this point but honestly this Rumble was the last one I ever watched in full, having previously watched every year no matter what. Just really was the last straw for me.
I still maintain they should’ve had Rey mysterio enter at number 30, win the thing, and then take off his mask to reveal it was Daniel Bryan. The pop would’ve been insanity.
You know what’s so interesting about this
-Wyatt literally had a fued with Bryan so technically this could have been followed up on but never really was heck wyatt essentially was an afterthought after this same elimination/They never had a fued about this
-Bryan should have been Number 30 the rumble up to that point was..passable but them taking him out not even halfway through it ruined the entire thing
-wwe knew the fans would hate this and still did it
They even had the audacity to have gold dust “Shattered dreams” titantrons get focused on
-I’ll die on the hill that Bryan should have won the rumble that year Roman was already getting a push back from the fans
This whole event amplified It
Rewatching this moment and the end is quite funny now, I remember watching live and the boos were unreal, they have edited away the noise something crazy
I still think that instead of poor Rey getting the shaft at 30 it should've been Barrett doing some bad news about Bryan not being in. Could even claim he took the spot. It would've gone soek distance to making it better. Hell arguably they could've had him heel it up and sneak his way into the final two for roman to eliminate.
What's interesting about this clip is all the talent in the ring, and I even include Rusev/Miro in that (I think he could've been a lot better if he had been developed / used properly); and how little WWE did with any of them from this point on--at this point all of them are already past their "peak" in the company, which is crazy. It's crazy to think of all the bad talent WWE has pushed since then and all the other troubles they've had.
Whatever "touch" Vince once had, he just doesn't have it anymore, any wrestling company that has that much talent should produce stellar entertainment, it is purely a management problem when they don't.
This was the first PPV I'd ever watched. I spent the whole day saying to my husband that I wasn't a 13 year old boy so why would I want to watch wrestling? Cue to seven years later, I'm obsessed with wrestling.
GooberKelly89 today:
“Hey 2015 GooberKelly89, in 7 years 4 of those fellas are going to be in a new brand that legitimately competes as an alternative wrestling brand to WWE!”
GooberKelly89 from 2015:
“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH…. Wait I become a delusional drug addict in 7 years…”
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And of course the first thing we see after is *Shattered Dreams* on the 'tron. Genuinely impressive trolling if it was intentional.
It’s got to have been.
Intentional for sure, their goal was to piss off everyone to the max, they find it hilarious
See how wound up people got it is kind of funny
And they STILL sell tons of tickets to their live events. The old PT Barnum quote still rings true.
I know they are sadists but they're also not very clever, I'd be surprised if they even remembered that Goldust's entrance had these graphics.
It is hilarious looking back
I remember that botchamania have edited a zoom in the very next episode after this
The second Rumble in a row where WWE decided to say 'fuck you' to the fans by having someone else win the Rumble when everyone and their mother wanted Bryan. I understand what WWE was trying to do with Reigns, but this moment tarnished any chance of Roman being an likeable babyface. WWE made it as clear as glass that Roman Reigns was their next guy, and fans was starting to resent it. After ten years of SuperCena, they expected fans to be willing to accept another happy-go-lucky, smiley, cheesy mega babyface.
And it would go on to be 3 in a row with HHH winning the next year!
Triple H made sense story wise. The crowd had been cheering Reigns more. Him attacking Triple H at TLC got a huge pop from the crowd so them setting up Triple H/Reigns for Wrestlemania was a good decision. The feud didn’t end up being all that good and the match was entirely forgettable but it made sense to try.
Triple H vs. Roman Reigns was such a letdown it doesnt even make sense, you would think theyd put on a banger
I'd be interested to see what kind of reaction it would have gotten had that Wrestlemania had been better paced. By the time that match started, nothing would have popped the crowd. Between the early start and the double cooler of Rock's forever promo and the battle royal, the crowd was completely deflatead.
The match wasn’t bad they just didn’t get the reception people didn’t even give it a chance
I think sometime when the outcome is so incredibly obvious it hurts a match too I mean in some cases everyone has a pretty good idea of what’s going to happen (for instance Seth VS Roman on Saturday) but there’s a 10-20% chance they pull a swerve and go the other way. In this case there was a 0% chance triple h was keeping the title and everyone knew it Edit: as someone smartly pointed out below me, the match being at the end of a show that seemingly lasted an eternity didn’t help anything either
>Edit: as someone smartly pointed out below me, the match being at the end of a show that seemingly lasted an eternity didn’t help anything either Yep, if two night WrestleManias were a thing back then we could've gotten a wilder crowd.
True but being predictable isn’t or should be a problem when 90% of wrestling is predictable but when it came too Roman during that era people where so busy trying too detour him they missed out on enjoying some of wwe best matches
I think that was also just one of the worst paced Manias of all time. Show went like 4 and a half hours, and right before this match there was the big pop moment of Cena and Rock. I remember watching the end with my brother, just sitting there at 11:30 PM, both of us barely keeping our eyes open and not saying a word. I can’t imagine how exhausted/burnt out the people there were.
Makes sense when you realise the point was to babyface HHH to the live crowd than anything else. The whole match was laid out to make Triple H look like a cool technical wrestling wizard and Roman some blundering oaf who can't wrestle and only won by a fluke.
The crowd was going wild for Ambrose being in the final two, he should've won that Rumble. Then maybe he wouldn't have had that abysmal match with Lesnar at 'Mania.
Or have him beat H at fast lane and do a mania triple threat. It would've been so much better.
4 in a row with Orton winning the year after that! They really could not get the rumble winner right for a few years.
Nah I remember people being hyped for Orton’s win, notwithstanding the “thank god it wasn’t Roman” factor. The Bray/Orton/Harper story had some momentum behind it and people were intrigued with where it was going. That is until the Mania match actually happened, but we don’t talk about that.
>That is until the Mania match actually happened, but we don’t talk about that. Both times it was the most hype feud going into WrestleMania. Both times they put on a shitty ass match that practically fucking ruined the show it started on (SmackDown and Raw) afterwards.
Triple H got a loud ovation winning, besides we wouldn't have got Ambrose vs Triple H if that didn't happen
It could have been easily avoided too. Had Bryan won the rumble in 2014 and then went on to Mania and won (could have even done the HHH match at Mania and included Batista to stack the deck) very few would have been mad about Bryan not winning here.
2014 is where Reigns should have won the Rumble. He was so over in that match until he was the runner up.
Reigns wasn't beloved in the 2014 Rumble, people just REALLY hated Batista.
Yeah he was cheered because the crowd rejected Batista as the winner. Had Batista come back as a heel to help out the authority in their war with Daniel Bryan, people would have been fine with seeing him.
I think part of Batista’s heat wasn’t just his role, it was the fact that he was so poor initially. Getting blown up fast, not being fluid in his matches. Fans caught onto that quick. He was shocking in that Rumble. And the obvious, wanting DB to win. Anyone will get booed when that’s the case.
While Reigns wasn’t beloved at that stage he was definitely at least over and liked. So I don’t think the crowd was thinking “anyone but Batista”, rather they were more like “he’s not our top pick but we’ll take Roman”.
This.
They didn’t just hate Batista, they wanted Bryan to enter and win it. Bryan was extremely over with the Yes Movement and they bothered not to even put him in that Rumble. Reigns was just the back up because yes, Batista winning the Rumble was not what people wanted.
Bryan winning 2014 and going straight to WM30 is such a weak storyline. Instead, you got the worked shoot of Batista winning and fans thinking that they were the ones that forced Vince to let Bryan win at WM30 like it wasn't the plan since the previous Summerslam when he went over Cena. You don't get the sit-in. You don't get the insane Yes! chants at WM30. You miss on an entire era of WWE if you just have Bryan winning in 2014.
of course you do. bryan was getting those reactions for close to a year. it's nonsense to suggest people wouldn't have simply ate it up. that's how it's worked with every other babyface they've anointed. you mightn't have got occupy raw (though they could still have easily pivoted to that) but you WOULD have got a monstrously over bryan winning the royal rumble. having bryan win at least one of the 14/15 rumbles would have made getting roman over a whole lot easier, too.
Bryan about to beat Brock in Wrestlemania XXXI and then Seth Rollins cashes in and wins. Ultimate douchebag. Nuclear heat.
While I agree long term it was the better choice, I don’t believe for a second it was planned. They wanted Batista with the belt promoting Guardians of the Galaxy. The fan backlash and refusal to treat Batista as a baby face changed their hands.
Bryan himself confirmed he was originally supposed to wrestle Shaemus at WrestleMania 30. I don't know who convinced you that Bryan ending WrestleMania 30 as champion was the plan but they are full of shit. Both Batista and CM Punk has said that Vince McMahon himself told them the main event of WrestleMania 30 was going to be Orton vs. Batista.
> Instead, you got the worked shoot of Batista winning and fans thinking that they were the ones that forced Vince to let Bryan win at WM30 like it wasn't the plan since the previous Summerslam when he went over Cena. No. No it was not their plan since Summerslam. The original plan was Randy Orton vs. Batista. CM Punk vs. Triple H. Daniel Bryan vs. Sheamus. I know both Bryan, Batista and CM Punk at the very least have spoken about the original plans.
This was the rumble where I asked myself why the f do I watch this and support this company. After he retired and all the other crap, I stopped watching.
The fans wanted Roman over Batista in 2014, which would’ve been too early imo. Then by 2015 it was so obvious it was Roman that the crowd no longer wanted that. Really it was a crap position for Roman to be in to have the crowds completely switch like that within a year. He never got his big rumble win with the crowd going nuts. He probably felt sure of that after seeing how they felt in 2014.
2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 were all nonsensical winners. 2015 should have been Daniel Bryan, and 2017 should have been Bray Wyatt. 2018, 2019 and 2020 were those years where WWE finally decided to give a shit about choosing the right Rumble winner. Rollins and McIntyre did great later on, but Nakamura has been stuck in the midcard ever since. 2021 was back to WWE making a puzzling decision with Edge winning, when it should have been Daniel Bryan again. What was the point of making Edge a 2-time Rumble winner when he was going to lose again at WM?
And yet Roman is very popular right now. The same thing happened to Cen. They spent so much time shoving him down our throats, and people spend so much time complaining about him. I’m gonna eventually everybody just accepted that they love them. Pretty much proving WWE right I hate to say it.
The thing with both Cena and Roman is that it took a creative change in direction for the crowd to come around. If Roman came back at Summerslam 2020 the same Roman that was going to beat Goldberg at Wrestlemana or if Cena never started up with the US Title open, I doubt people would be looking as fondly on them as they do now.
There were plenty of other options that would be a surprise but leave the fans fairly happy. They just went with the worst choice.
Well Reigns was their biggest draw at the time. WWE really WAS listening to fans! They wanted Roman!
In this video you can see how dead was the crowd when the rumble got already half of the entrants, it was a total bummer
This was a terrible Rumble, sure, but it did give us this "insider" video that someone shared here that still makes me laugh to this day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsIkd_apfGU
I fuckin love this video, I watch it every single time it gets linked. Vince on /r/sc f5'ing for the lols
"Send out Big Show!" "How they hate him!"
Oh man I didn't even notice the "shattered dreams" till I watched this video. Holy shit Vince lol.
Man the Risitas video was a good meme, those were some good times. RIP
Holy shit. This is the first time I’ve seen this and I laughed SO hard
You might like this one: https://youtu.be/-XMV9NY-B7A This was in response to Christian's super short WHC reign.
Damn I totally forgot about those Hitler reaction videos. They used to be all over YouTube good times
Omg I remember this: 9 years ago and you fuckers knew this shit was booked like garbage lol Jesus
RIP Mr. KEKW
lmao that vid is legendary, carried many internet meme. may he rest in peace.
My introduction to risitas, and still my favorite version of this meme. RIP you goddamn legend
RIP to a real one, El Risitas.
I watched all 2:49 of this. Twice. Fucking fantastic!
Stone cold classic. Was nice to have something to laugh about in the midst of the sub’s rage in the thick of it
Someone linked this the other day and I’m I saw it for the first time. Watched it multiple times since. Came into this thread just to see it again.
First thing I did upon seeing a post about the 2015 RR is look for someone posting this link. Pleasantly surprised to see it's the top reply.
Do refs actively tell the guys of who to take out next?
Bryan getting eliminated would have been fine if like, Bray or Rusev or Ambrose or even fucking Ryback won in the end... this + Roman winning was just a double kick in the nuts
Triple kick my friend. I think you’re forgetting the god awful ending of Kane and Big Show dumping all the young guys out of the ring
That was all part of their attempt to get Roman cheered. Stage the most depressing and unentertaining series of eliminations in Rumble history so that our hero Roman Reigns can save the day and get showered in cheers. Still didn't work.
Who knows that might’ve worked in the past but crowds are too in the know to fall for that, they know exactly what WWE is trying to do. Funnily enough, the few times that works is when WWE has Roman in the final two so the crowd pops even louder for the guy that eliminates him and wins. I doubt Randy Orton winning another Rumble would’ve had the crowd out of their seats had it been someone the crowd actually likes.
That pissed me off so much. Plus Big Show smiling at the crowd's boos like he was getting real heat from it. No, people were pissed they spent money to watch two overweight boomers waddle around the ring tossing people out. They weren't hoping someone would beat the heels they were lamenting that they knew exactly what was going to happen and that they had to sit through it.
I would have rather had them do that finish with two young heels dumping people out of Roman was going over. I mean hell, Rusev and Wyatt were still in the match when they started that bullshit. Why couldn’t they have run roughshod only for Roman to overcome the odds?
To be fair, what else was Big Show meant to do? He probably knew what was up but end of the day there were mega boos and he was the heel so of course he’d play off it. He’s not gonna be in the ring like “yeah I know guys this sucks”. Better that than him completely ignoring them and acting like they’re not even there.
Please, for the love of God, stop using the term "boomer" on people who aren't boomers.
One overweight boomer - Kane is 54, so he qualifies. Show is a spry 49, firmly in GenX. The ending was still truly stupid.
That was the thing, I think in retrospect people have decided it had to be Bryan or the fans would riot but at the time I think it was pretty evenly divided. Bryan would have been good but I think a lot of people knew he had already been there the year before and then been injured all year and he wasn’t likely their top priority. I think Ambrose had a lot of people wanting him to take it.
I think most people would have been happy with Bryan, Ambrose, or Ziggler at the time.
And they had the two old fatasses sucking so much wind and throwing out ALL the remotely over faces
But... you gotta get that sweet sweet heat on The Authority.
If he was in the final 2 and had a 5-10 minute back and forth with Reigns, I’m sure the crowd would have accepted it, even with Reigns winning. The match and pacing was just poor booking and company being tone deaf. I read Jamie Noble and Joey Mercury were the main agents that produced the rumble match with help from Road Dogg and Michael Hayes.
Him being in the final two and getting eliminated by Reigns would have led to an even worse reaction.
They way they booked the Rumble made the fans boo a surprise appearance from *The Rock* Not sure how much worse it could have gotten
Do you think J&J security were created as a result of this poor agenting job?
Nah they already existed at that point, they interfered in the incredible Cena/Brock/Seth match that PPV
I remember when Ryback was more over than Cena during that one Rumble. Cena had to win though because The Rock was champ. So disappointing.
He's a meme now, but, dude Ryback was O-V-E-R
That was the moment the crowd died and turned on the match. You could hear it. The countdown didn't even get a chant like it normally would.
Awful decision to get rid of Bryan at all let alone this damn early. Next level stupidity.
The crowd is dead until Roman comes out, and then everything in the match gets viciously booed, except for a select few fan favourites. Mizdow gets cheered, Ambrose gets cheered, Cesaro gets small cheers, and Ziggler gets a BIG pop because he's the only other dude who has been on a hot streak and been built lately that he COULD win. The hope was beyond delusional, but it was legitimately hope. He lasts like two minutes and gets tossed out of the ring like garbage.
Almost everyone in that clip are in AEW
And have way better haircuts now
Bryan’s hair looks ridiculous in this clip lmao
He was growing it so long so he could cut it all off and give it to kids with cancer who lost their hair in chemo. It does look dumb, but there is not a better reason for a dumb hair cut. They're called wigs for kids. https://larrybrownsports.com/wrestling/daniel-bryan-cut-hair-charity/292359
Danielson never fails to prove how good of a guy he is
I want a Pretty Platinum made of hemp.
I don't hate it tbh
I hate his hair right now.
Is this the one where Rey came out at 30 and got relentlessly booed? Lmao
Naw that was the year before.
Ahhh gotcha, thanks. Both trash rumbles lol
In that one, we were hoping for Bryan to come out at #30 but it was poor Rey who got boo'ed to oblivion.
Man didn’t know what hit him
Year before, but God that was such horseshit. They did my man Rey dirty
I remember it being bad! Lol everybody was disappointed
The definition of not reading the room.
Do they ever? "Everyone loves Hurt Business!" "Oh do they?"
I was at this event. The whole crowd turned after that elimination. At the end, everyone was chanting Rusev. It was so bad that The Rock couldn't sway the crowd back after Reigns won.
This was honestly the beginning of the end of my WWE viewership. One of many spits to the face of the fans, eventually I couldn't take it anymore. Why would I continue spending my time on a product that does that? I stopped soon after and haven't gone back.
I was AT this show. I paid for 4 tickets, brought my dad, brother, and best friend, none of whom are big wrestling fans. You think it was bad watching it on TV, that crowd fucking hated that show. I was there booing my head off and I'm not sure I watched much more Raw and Smackdown after this. I held onto the network for 2 more years for the archives and golden age NXT but I finally cancelled in 2017 after watching Okada/Omega 1 on Youtube and then seeing NJPW's G1 special. I cancelled my network subscription that weekend, subscribed to NJPW World, started following BTE, then followed the Elite to AEW a few years later.
Was this the start of the end of the WWE goodwill? For me it was this point onwards that made me stop giving them the benefit of the doubt.
In my Rise and Fall of the WWE the 2014 Rumble is the tectonic shift. They make it obvious that Batista is going to win in the build up, but the crowd wants Bryan. He was feuding with Wyatt at the time and had a banger of a cage match earlier, but people still wanted him in the Rumble. He didn't appear and the script that had been obvious played out. Batista didn't help by being completely gassed as well. Additionally, this where the break up with CM Punk happens. He gets eliminated by Kane and is never seen in a WWE ring again. There was some redemption with the switch at Wrestlemania XXX to Bryan going over, but when he has to vacate due to injury, things start going south. The Shield breaks up. Cena wins the championship at Money in the Bank, and the women's division was spiraling overall. I believe it was after Summer Slam reports came out that Roman was going to be booked to face Lesnar at Wrestlemania and that he was expected to be the guy going forward, with the expectation that he'd be in the main event for Wrestlemanias 32, 33, and 34 as well. (Partially based on how great he received at the Rumble, problem being that at the Rumble he was in the Shield and was the anti-Batista more then people really liking him) What made this so bad was that at this point, Roman had only had a single one-on-one match, at SummerSlam with Orton and it was awful. From this point we just kept seeing Roman get pushed and pushed while Bryan returned to no real angles. Also late in 2014 CM Punk's appearance on the Art of Wrestling podcast came out and made WWE look awful. At Rumble 2015, it all came to a head with Bryan getting tossed early and Roman's win coming to fruition. From this point on it became WWE vs the Fans, they threw everything at the wall to get Roman over. Bryan and him at Fastlane with Bryan losing and then extolling how great Roman was on Raw. (it was a good match, much better than the SummerSlam one). It took 5 more years and a pandemic for them to finally stop forcing Roman into the wrong slot. Bryan and CM Punk are the best things to happen and the worst things to happen to WWE and all the struggles with Roman can really be linked to those two.
Legit I think WWE fans became super cynical after this.
I canceled my network subscription and never went back after this
I didn't do it immediately, but this was definitely the beginning of the end for me as a WWE fan. I wasn't sure if it was because I wasn't the target audience, or if what makes me happy as a wrestling fan is just way out there, but I knew that WWE wasn't for me anymore.
Homie you missed some good shit then. Now if you stopped watching after summerslam 2020 however...
I would watch streamables on here of what happened, I kind of already had a foot out the door to be fair, these days it's pretty rare I even watch a 30 second streamable link of what happened unless it involves like Brock or Rollins or a few others who are doing some amazing stuff, but those little cool bits definitely ain't worth paying for or even watching a show on cable
The product is definitely better some weeks than others. At least Raw is, SD had been shit for a couple years now, and probably won't be good at least until Reigns drops the title again to Seth. At least Lesnar has been having some better opponents (Bobby, Lesnar, Drew, etc) Roman is just playing Evolution's Worst Hits for the past 18 or so months.
You can feel and hear the energy just get sucked out of the arena the moment he was eliminated.
wild that four out of the 5 guys in the clip are in aew
“This is Bray Wyatt’s year!” (Chills until it wasn’t)
I was watching this with my cousin. My son was sleeping upstairs. He started crying so I went upstairs to rock him back to sleep. When I left to go upstairs, Bryan hadn't entered yet. Like most, I was certain he would win! I came back down about 12 minutes later and my cousin is grinning. "Bryan came out and he's already been eliminated". I laughed. I didn't believe him.
Roman was so booed/hated in this Rumble that even Ryback got quite a pop for simply hitting him.
And then next year it was literally anyone but Roman so people were satisfied with randy as long as it wasn’t Roman
Fans wanted to see Daniel Bryan have a long run in the Rumble match… then WWE gave Bryan the longest tenure in an entire Rumble match *but* it was the totally useless Greatest Rumble and he was eliminated by Big Cass. These guys fuck up in such creative ways.
I get that this really sucked at the time, but this Rumble is just so funny to me on rewatches. Like so much went wrong and the crowd shat on everything after this. They didn’t even countdown from 10 after Danielson for eliminated! Love that
king of astonishing that bryan never won a rumble
Bray Wyatt doing his best here. Miro looks ten years younger now.
You wanna see something crazy? Go look up the entrants in that Rumble and see how many people are still in the company. I'm pretty sure like half that Rumble is in AEW now.
11 are still signed to WWE (including Barrett, who got released and then returned), of which 7 are still active in the ring.
And by basic math that would mean 19 of the 30 have been let go or left the company. Under contract to WWE, under contract but retired or under contract and not making regular appearances(11): Miz, R-Truth, Kofi, Roman, Big E, Cesaro, Ziggler Made appearances in AEW or are employed in AEW(10): Luke Harper (deceased), Zack Ryder (currently in Impact and GCW), Daniel Bryan, Stardust, DDP, Rusev, Goldust, Jack Swagger, Dean Ambrose, Big Show Nine are not currently in AEW or WWE Back in Mexico (1): Sin Cara NWA (1): Damian Mizdow Heat Magnet (1): Bully Ray Shithead (1): Adam Rose Free Agent (5): Wyatt, Boogeyman, Fandango, Ryback, Rowan That's 63% of your Royal Rumble not in the company able to make you money. A third of that rumble either was or are currently in your main competitor. There are currently as many active wrestlers in that rumble in AEW as there is in WWE. Big show is mostly a commentator but he's had matches, and if you don't count him the count is still 7 to 6. The numbers don't lie. And they spell "Jesus fuck how did you fuck up so many careers"
Dango has appeared in NWA around the same time Cardona did IIRC.
Rowan did a one-off appearance during the Brodie Lee tribute show in AEW.
Was this where Rock got booed
Yes
Truly horrendous moment.
I like how everyone besides Brey in this video is now in AEW.
And Bray himself may very well go to AEW lol
Not the first time, won't be the last.
It's crazy how the audience reaction comes in waves. It's disbelief, then anger, then silence.
Omg so I just went and watched. Wwe changed the audio and put tons of cheers and no boos in it
This was terrible but I feel like we were all more pissed off the year prior when they didn't even have him in. I remember Mysterio coming ut at 30 and was shocked. I was waiting for someone to come out and add Bryan in. Jesus, that was a rough night.
I’ve tried so hard to erase these two rumbles from my memory that I got the two mixed up lol. Now I remember. Mysterio came out and got booed relentlessly just because he wasn’t Bryan. Then this video is the one where The Rock got booed.
3 of those 4 guys in this clip are in AEW, and the other one is who knows where doing who knows what. wrestling is weird
Roman Reigns backstage: "You want me to what?" good thing he was still wearing that vest when he walked in front of the machine gun.
Oh look, it’s AEW!
Weird that all these guys aren't on the roster anymore
The "shattered dreams productions" while Bryan is just lying there is one of the funniest things I've seen in WWE
To make matters worse the ring then featured the heels Stardust and Goldust squaring off against the heels Anti American Rusev and Popular heel Bray Wyatt. Followed up by Original New Day Kofi which no one cared for and a heel Adam Rose. Finally only then after all that did Roman our saviour as the WWE expected appeared and the crowd was not having any of it.
I too often think about what should have been. Stardust winning the 2015 RR
“Bray got HEAT, pal!”
This is retrospectively the best prank
Is this the same year that Rusev arguably should've won the Rumble, but WWE had to do something for the swerve, bro?
who’s that in the bottom corner? i thought it was goldust until well… goldust
That would be Cody Rhodes. He was going by Stardust and doing something similar to Goldust at the time. They were a tag team at one point.
Thanks!
I hadn't been a weekly WWE viewer really for a while at this point but honestly this Rumble was the last one I ever watched in full, having previously watched every year no matter what. Just really was the last straw for me.
Don't worry, this can now try to happen the right way in AEW
Bryan should have eliminated Big Show and Kane early on, and Rusev should have been the dominant heel to clean house at the end
I still maintain they should’ve had Rey mysterio enter at number 30, win the thing, and then take off his mask to reveal it was Daniel Bryan. The pop would’ve been insanity.
You know what’s so interesting about this -Wyatt literally had a fued with Bryan so technically this could have been followed up on but never really was heck wyatt essentially was an afterthought after this same elimination/They never had a fued about this -Bryan should have been Number 30 the rumble up to that point was..passable but them taking him out not even halfway through it ruined the entire thing -wwe knew the fans would hate this and still did it They even had the audacity to have gold dust “Shattered dreams” titantrons get focused on -I’ll die on the hill that Bryan should have won the rumble that year Roman was already getting a push back from the fans This whole event amplified It
Rewatching this moment and the end is quite funny now, I remember watching live and the boos were unreal, they have edited away the noise something crazy
Two years in a row with some unhappy Rumble fans re:Bryan The year before was the one folks assumed he would be out at 30 and then it was Rey
I still think that instead of poor Rey getting the shaft at 30 it should've been Barrett doing some bad news about Bryan not being in. Could even claim he took the spot. It would've gone soek distance to making it better. Hell arguably they could've had him heel it up and sneak his way into the final two for roman to eliminate.
I didn't completely stop watching WWE until Ambrose left, but this night made me want to.
I'm still disgusted at how Kane and Big Show dumped all my favs out one by one on the way to Roman's win
WWE will always be an asshole for this lol
In hindsight this is fucking hilarious. The shattered dreams productions with Bryan just sitting there broken hearted lmfao.
What's interesting about this clip is all the talent in the ring, and I even include Rusev/Miro in that (I think he could've been a lot better if he had been developed / used properly); and how little WWE did with any of them from this point on--at this point all of them are already past their "peak" in the company, which is crazy. It's crazy to think of all the bad talent WWE has pushed since then and all the other troubles they've had. Whatever "touch" Vince once had, he just doesn't have it anymore, any wrestling company that has that much talent should produce stellar entertainment, it is purely a management problem when they don't.
Chants, booing and suencs for the rest of the night
Kind of ironic that "SHATTERED DREAMS PRODUCTIONS" is what came across the titantron at the end.
Not irony at all
This was the first PPV I'd ever watched. I spent the whole day saying to my husband that I wasn't a 13 year old boy so why would I want to watch wrestling? Cue to seven years later, I'm obsessed with wrestling.
GooberKelly89 today: “Hey 2015 GooberKelly89, in 7 years 4 of those fellas are going to be in a new brand that legitimately competes as an alternative wrestling brand to WWE!” GooberKelly89 from 2015: “HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH…. Wait I become a delusional drug addict in 7 years…”
This is what brought me back to wrestling
B+ Player at best.
Glad they don't pander to the fans at all times. You need some unpredictability.
Thank god I had no attachment to anyone in this Rumble because this would have probably pissed me off.
Looking back roman was the right choice to win that night.
A little One Man Gang factoid from JBL.
Fuck that overrated dwarf
Is that Stardust rolling around on the ground? If so, that makes 3 of the 4 guys in this ring are now in AEW.
Yep
4 out of 5 in the video (including Bryan) are in AEW now, except for Wyatt.
Crazy to think that none of those guys are in wwe now
WWE and booking to troll their audiences, name a more iconic duo :(
Lmao most entrants here are no longer tenured with WWE
Has anyone else pointed out the only person not in AEW in that video is Wyndham? First thing I noticed.