The 2015 WWE Royal Rumble is in the books, and it’s been controversial to say the least.
Here are some staff reactions to the event!
Steven Berkman
WWE, I’m not mad. I’m disappointed.
We (“we” being everyone from the semi-educated fan up to the most prominent of wrestling journalists) have said time and again that being predictable is not an inherently bad thing. When it gives us what we want, it’s fine. We don’t need a surprise to enjoy wrestling – We need results that we actually enjoy. Philly did not enjoy the result of the 2015 Royal Rumble.
This was a two match show and we all know it. Everything else sits in an irrelevant state. The Triple Threat was absolutely great. High spot great, at least. The amount of finishers and false finishes in this match is exactly what people criticize ROH for, but it worked perfectly in this setting. Brock is still the destroyer. Seth is still the future. Seth had two “maker moments” tonight that will be replayed for years to come as his rise to super stardom is discussed. The elbow to the floor was just a spectacle spot but added logically to the match. The Phoenix Splash was something I have been dying to see since his debut in FCW. He hits this awe-inspiring move and then the big bad Brock steals his moment from him. Being pinned by Lesnar doesn’t set Rollins back at all plus he’s still Mr Money in the Bank to remain the ever present threat. Cena was very much…Cena in this match. He showed up and punched in for his spots, then took lunch as soon as the whistle blew. Not really sure where you go with him when the title isn’t his focus moving forward?
The Rumble had its fair share of fun spots with Bubba Dudley and DDP showing up to clear house. I’ll admit DDP showing up and nailing multiple Diamond Cutters had me thinking that Orton would come back and it would be a Cutter-Off but alas. Bray Wyatt was the “stay in for a long time and look strong” guy this year. This could indicate that he has his match with Undertaker this year. It could just mean that WWE hasn’t quite lost faith in him. Speaking of losing faith, Kof’s big spot this year was “Get Caught”. If not for a huge over the top Rumble spot, I don’t see what the guy is even around for at this point if WWE doesn’t trust him to land his signature moment. I’m not upset about Bryan being eliminated early and unceremoniously, but I am a bit surprised. Not quite sure what the plan is for his Wrestlemania now that he’s functionally out of the title picture. I hope it’s not Sheamus. Seems that Dolph Ziggler forgot to send out the invitations to his Super Kick Party tonight. He’s used it many times but the way he unleashed it tonight is hopefully a sign that he’ll adopt it properly as a finisher.
Kane and Big Show systematically demolished anyone the crowd wanted to see win then deposited them on the floor like it was nothing. Kane and Big Show. In 2015. In the meantime, Kane broke HBK’s all-time elimination record for no good reason. Reigns wins. Rock shows up. Show ends with crowd booing Reigns having his arm lifted by The Rock. If you have a crowd boo someone in the ring with Rock, it is a bad omen. Logic dictates that we now get Reigns/Lesnar for the title at Mania. Reigns is now cemented to be “the new Cena”, but perhaps we do get Rollins and a cash-in to end that show?
We knew deep down that Reigns winning was the most likely outcome tonight. We didn’t want it, but we got it. If an entire crowd booing a man in the ring with The Rock isn’t a sign to Vince that this may not work, I cannot imagine what will hammer that home for him.
Sebastian Howard
I’m kind of surprised that people are so mad about the result of the Rumble, this year it was SO obvious that Reigns was going over. At least last year the idea of Batistia going over was so inane, that we thought that Bryan had to win. I mean, I’m pretty sure this year everyone universally agreed Reigns was going to win.
Brian Mitarotondo
Why does Vince hate us? What did we ever do to him? 5 million of us tune in every Monday for 3 f’n hours to watch a half-a$$ed product. 3 million of us tune in another 2 hours on Thurysday. Another almost million of us pay $9.99 every month to watch the great performers perform, and Vince continues to force us to watch the talented performers get passed over for less talented, “better looking” guys. Why Vince, why? I know it’s you, because in NXT, where you don’t micromanage everything, the best performers get ahead, period. And for the love of god, they couldn’t even get the surprises right! Buh Buh without Devon? Really? Why bother? And then to take one of the other black wrestlers and put him in Devon’s place was borderline offensive. One last thought. I never thought I would ever see the part-time version of the Rock get boo’d out of the building. Good job Vince.
CH Punk
I can’t see why they just didn’t go with DB, and then build up Reigns for SummerSlam? WWE probably will just blame the heelish Philly crowd and continue doing what they want like they did with Diesel. I’m still not cancelling WWE Network, I need to see the rise of The Dungeon of Doom.
PK (@BaddAssPK)
It was no surprise to anyone that Roman went over. This is exactly what the Rumble should be all about. That one guy that is just on the edge of being ready for the main event, and needs that one big win to finally get there. The problem is, Roman isn’t there. He was a hot product before his injury this past summer, but since he’s returned, and they’ve given him mic time, almost every fan has turned on his push. It did not help that Bryan came back, and the Universe expected him to pick up right where he left off. If the brass is really listening to the fans, they would have heard pops bigger for Ambrose, Bad News, Cesaro, & ZIggler, that later of whom is the ONLY man besides Bryan that could have won this Rumble and had the fans on his side. The thought of Roman vs. Brock makes my head hurt….BUT, we are now on pace to have the first WrestleMania MITB cash ins, which is the only way to make this WM Main Event become memorable.
Jared Doucet
One of the worst Rumble matches I’ve ever seen, to be completely honest. Outside of Bubba Ray Dudley’s return, the first 9 entries were boring. Once Daniel Bryan got there at 10, things got interesting but once he was eliminated…..this one died a slow death. I don’t hate this match because of Daniel Bryan, Dolph Ziggler or Dean Ambrose not winning (I picked Roman Reigns winning), I hate this match because it was long, boring, unimaginative, uncreative…..if there has been a better example of a cliched Royal Rumble, this was it! This was the first time in years where the Rumble match did not feel special at all. The Philly fans hated this match and rightfully so, the booking sucked. The fact that the final 4 were Reigns, Big Show, Kane and Rusev (who was hiding) was downright despicable and the Philly faithful just were not buying what the WWE was selling with Reigns eliminating Show and Kane. Even THE ROCK returning couldn’t save this damn thing!
Brittney Soban
Rumble Reactions
The New Day v Tyson Kidd and Cesaro
I’m glad Tyson Kidd & Cesaro won, they were full of good energy throughout the match. While I expected New Day to win I’m not disappointed at all by this.
The Bella Twins v Paige & Natalya
The Bella’s win was well done, despite the fact that the synchronicity between the twins made Paige & Natalya look like fumbling idiots. (I mean, Paige is still new and her and Natalya are just starting out in the ring together, the Bella’s have come up together, like the commentators said, the twins know what the other is thinking.) I wanted the Bella’s knocked down a peg but I guess corporate wanted to make it look like Nikki actually deserves the title.
The Usos v Miz & Mizdow
This match was a lot of fun to watch, especially when we saw a little bit of break down between the Miz & Mizdow. There were a lot of good moments (high-flying Usos, Mizdow hitting some great moves in an attempt to help despite Miz not tagging him in, etc. I was glad the Usos won because it is setting up for the breakdown of Miz & Mizdow.
The Ascension v. New Age Outlaws (Billy Gunn & Road Dogg)
When WWE Alumni enter a ring it’s for two reasons: to prove they’re still the best (See Ric Flair, HBK, etc) or to put new talent over, as was the case in this match. It looked like the New Age Outlaws had the match set until a good showing of tag team power came out of the Ascension and they were able to pick up their first important win since coming up to the main roster.
Triple Threat, Cena v Rollins v Lesnar
This match, more so than any other match, had me on the edge of my seat. I knew it would be full of back and forth moments but I wasn’t ready for this. Between Lesnar suplexing everyone in site, John Cena dishing out more AA’s in a single match than I believe he’s ever done before and Seth Rollins going for the Phoenix Splash AFTER driving his elbow into Lesnar from the ring to the announce table, it was a great match.
The ending was great with Lesnar coming back into the ring and picking up the win, a great way for him to win without fans being bored of him/ counting down the days for wanting him gone.
The Royal Rumble Match
This match was good overall but it was just that -good. Not great. Not spectacular. Good. Here’s why:
Miz & Mizdow fighting over Mizdow’s spot, then Mizdow actually entering the Rumble and defying the Miz was great.
Bubba Ray Dudley/ The Boogeyman / DDP – All great surprise entrances.
Bray Wyatt showing his power and lasting pretty long (the longest in the match, I think, could be wrong.) However, Wyatt throwing everyone out as soon as they entered became kind of annoying overtime.
Rusev’s reappearance at the end of the match–a pretty good spot for the Bulgarian especially since I know I wasn’t the only one going “Why isn’t the bell ringing?” However, it would’ve been more impressive to see him take out bigger fish like Big Show or Kane rather than leaving it up to Reigns.
Dean Ambrose- Always fun to watch, however, his unceremonious elimination was a disappointment. Him and Roman Reigns teaming up at the end when it looked like he, Roman, Kane and Big Show were the Final Four was a great spot and definitely helped get the fans on the side of Ambrose and Reigns. Also, his apparent enjoyment of Rusev’s punch and his taking a shot back at Rusev added to Ambrose’s whole “I don’t mind pain, I’m crazy” shtick.
Zack Ryder – His appearance was brief but he didn’t do a bad job after being out of action.
Eric Rowan – taking out Curtis Axel and essentially taking his place to square off against former Wyatt family members was great. Definitely enjoyed seeing him make an appearance.
Dolph Ziggler – a great showing for a few minutes until he was KO punched. Then him being dumped outside just felt disrespectful.
The Rock- We all knew Rock was in Philly. He came out and helped out his cousin which was a good spot but now we know just how mad the fans are the Reigns won, they didn’t even cheer when the Rock held Roman’s hand up.
Roman Reigns- I’m a fan of his but let me say this, he’s not ready for Wrestlemania. Not by a long shot. He has a little over sixty days to prove he’s worthy. Let’s hope he can do that.
Rob Howell
The rumble was a really mixed bag for me. From a fan standpoint it is my favourite pay per view, there’s just something in my frugal heart that thinks a 30 man match is way better than a 2 man match because I get 1500% more wrestle men wrestling each other. On the other hand the PPV has been a train wreck lately, it’s not enjoyable for anyone when a PPV ends in the crowd booing the wrestlers out of the arena, and for the last two years that is exactly what we’ve gotten.
Leading up to the rumble match itself the PPV was pretty enjoyable and I think a lot of it had to do with Philadelphia. The crowd was really good vocalizing their thoughts; the philly audience chanting new day sucks to the beat of Ezekiel slapping the canvas may be my favourite angry crowd moment ever. On the other hand this has a really negative effect when the WWE decides to present such a vocal crowd with an honestly terrible Royal Rumble match just ruining the entire mood.
This is a rough spot for both fans and the company, because honestly the fans of the product should be angry and hold the company accountable for what they were given. They give their time and money to the WWE and in return expect to be entertained, the audience tonight wasn’t entertained, they were angry. On the opposite hand the WWE is in a situation where accepting that they’ve failed the fans a second year in a row proves that they’ve really lost touch with their main brand which with their stock issues, and likelihood of competition starting to appear would be unacceptable.
I think I’ve been turned sour on the whole ppv, which isn’t a good feeling to have since I enjoyed the matches before the rumble. They weren’t great, but nothing was so bad that I thought I might wander off and read a book or something, but all I can say is that during the last 25 minutes of the rumble, flipping through the new Superior Ironman was a great idea, and more than made up for getting to see Big Show and Kane man handle everyone through the final steps of the match, like a pair of ancient defenders of the status quo. That said though it’s not a comic books job to make up for a boring WWE product, its WWE’s job to make their product exciting.
I also feel I should leave you with the last note I took during the show
Today I learned Roman Reigns cannot pronounce the word beast, and for the next two months we will hear him try to say beast incarnate twice a week. Roman Reigns speech impediment is the rock to my Sisyphus, I weep openly because of this. Beelee dat.
Murtz Jaffer (@murtzjaffer)
While I didn’t like the Royal Rumble winner, I take solace in my prediction that Bray Wyatt would stay in the longest and use it as a platform to further elevate his superstardom.
With that said, I definitely believed Daniel Bryan would win the Rumble. I wasn’t 50/50 between him and Reigns as many were. I thought it was Bryan’s to lose. The fact is that Daniel Bryan was the most over superstar in the company before he was injured. He was the first wrestler to rival the pop that Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock received in the Attitude era and was the only shining light in the horrible kid-friendly garbage that WWE has been putting out for far too long. I legitimately believed that a match with him and Brock would work (even more so after seeing Lesnar work so effectively last night), and I just don’t think that Reigns will be able to get a fraction of what John Cena and Seth Rollins got out of him on Sunday.
The problem, in my mind, is that Reigns’ gimmick sucks. You can be the worst wrestler in the world, but if you have a good gimmick you will almost certainly be pushed to the main event ahead of great workers. In that regard, Daniel Bryan is the exception to the rule as he was always an outstanding wrestler and used that to find his gimmick along the way. That’s as rare as a lunar eclipse.
Anyway, to get back to my point… Reigns is an average worker with average mic skills. He certainly wouldn’t make me buy a PPV just because he is in the main event. Maybe that’s why the WWE has been pushing the WWE Network so hard as it is the only way people would pay to see Reigns. It’s harsh, but it’s the truth.
The WWE Universe (both marks and smarts alike) wanted to see Bryan win. Vince McMahon claims that he has made a career out of giving the fans what they want (even when it comes at his own expense), but in this case he failed and failed in resounding fashion. While Reigns was the one being booed, it wasn’t his fault. The fault lies with whoever booked this crap. Not pushing to Bryan vs. Lesnar is one thing, but to bury Bryan by eliminating him in the middle of a drab Rumble (without even setting up his next feud) was asinine. Whoever thought having Big Show/Kane/Dean Ambrose/Reigns/Rusev close out the 2015 Royal Rumble should be reassigned to carrying Seth Rollins’ briefcase because that is all they are good for.
Anyone want to bet the Wrestlemania Main Event will now be a Triple Threat with Bryan included? Based on the crowd reaction, I definitely think things will have to be changed.
My final note? While the finish was one of the worst booking decisions I have seen, don’t forget that this was also booked in front of a Philadelphia crowd (a city known for its smart wrestling fans). Terrible decision-making all around.
