Vince McMahon's Reaction To WWE Royal Rumble Winner Roman Reigns Being Booed

Vince McMahon and WWE officials were surprised at the level of fan backlash over Roman Reigns winning the 2015 Royal Rumble, reports Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio. The WWE had expected some backlash and had prepared for it, however the boos for Reigns' win was far beyond what anyone envisioned. "They panicked early, they changed a few things," Meltzer states. "Dwayne was not happy," he adds. The Rock was utilised as a means of getting Reigns some cheers. He hit the ring to celebrate with his Samoan cousin, but it failed to turn the tide and the boos continued to come. Rock was visibly surprised and later fluffed a promo in the WWE Network post-show. It says something when the greatest talker of all time is thrown off his game by the fan backlash. Reigns was meant to be a babyface hero, but the WWE crowd were incandescent at Daniel Bryan not being given the Rumble victory. Despite Vince McMahon's surprise at the ferocity of boos, he will not be changing course on the long term plan for Roman Reigns Vs Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania. The fan resentment is the same as last year, the feeling is that Daniel Bryan deserves the main WrestleMania spot. The immediate backstage reaction is that Bryan will not be added to the Mania 31 title match. Meltzer states that "Vince feels that it would be a repeat and gone to the well one time too often." In some ways, you have to understand where the WWE are coming from. Bryan's big moment from WrestleMania 30 will never be replicated. He would have made a compelling number one contender, but it was never going to be like last year. In Roman Reigns they have a star who could become a much longer term investment, and the feeling was that they needed to gamble on "making him" at this year's Rumble. That gamble looks like it hasn't paid off.