10 Biggest Missed Opportunities In WWE History

10. The 2014 Royal Rumble

Daniel Bryan had established himself as WWE’s most beloved babyface throughout 2013. From Team Hell No’s memorable Tag Team Title run to the Triple H/”B+ Player” fiasco, Bryan was white hot. His struggles with The Authority made him a natural underdog, the easiest wrestler in the world to root for, and the ultimate good guy.

Bryan had succeeded in spite of every hurdle the company had thrown in front of him, and the 2014 Royal Rumble should’ve been his big moment. WWE would finally go all-in on their most organic babyface and capitalise on his immense crowd support by finally making him a made man, but it wasn’t to be.

Instead, Bryan didn’t even feature in the Royal Rumble, and lost a match to Bray Wyatt earlier that evening. The Rumble’s first 29 entrants came and went, and by 30, the “YES” chants had hit fever pitch. Surely this was Bryan’s moment?

Nope. Out came Rey Mysterio, who instantly became the biggest heel in the country by virtue of not being Daniel Bryan. The returning Batista went-on to win the Rumble, and while Bryan ended-up achieving his crowning glory at WrestleMania XXX, WWE needlessly flubbed one of their biggest shows of the year for the sake of pushing an ageing part-timer back into the spotlight.