The Incredible Consequence Of WWE's Most Unpopular Decision
Insufferable succotash.
The 2015 WWE Royal Rumble was widely perceived to be an immediate disaster. The event was savaged by fans and critics alike to such a toxic, viral extent that the hashtag #CancelWWENetwork trended worldwide.
It's difficult to settle on the mentality behind the layout of the infamous, titular match - or, more specifically, the extent to which the cruelty was deliberate. Roman Reigns was its obvious, telegraphed winner. Gauging by the crowd reactions on weekly television, he absolutely, unequivocally was not the Guy. He was the new John Cena when the old John Cena had been stigmatised as the single-greatest threat to the future of WWE - hysterical, obviously, but not entirely inaccurate in sentiment. WWE seemed - seemed - to recognise this, and sought to build the match around nullifying it. It did not work.
At all.
By the time Roman Reigns entered, at #19, the machine that was ostensibly behind him had already f*cked him with the relentless force of a pneumatic dildo. Daniel Bryan - who WWE could have simply had return after the the 'Mania 31 main event picture had been set, to mitigate hope - had already been eliminated. This was key to the failure.
Virtually everybody with a modicum of storytelling instinct - aspiring novelists, critics, your piss artist mate in the pub - grasped the impeccable stupidity of this. You don't bring back a returning, heroic figure into the third act of a story written for him, kill him off, and make the villain the hero by proxy. That is insane. That is Vince Russo booking stripped of any perverse entertainment.
That is what WWE managed on the night.
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