10 Horrible Decisions That Gave Us Great Wrestling
3. The 2014 Royal Rumble
In 2014, the rumblings of discontent coming from the crowd finally kicked off into outright dissent. That snowball was massive, and about to start an avalanche. If Batistas return as a bland, featureless babyface was the insult, then the ridiculous, telegraphed result of the Royal Rumble - Big Dave winning to take on Randy Orton for the big belt at WrestleMania XXX - was most certainly the injury. It only got worse. Batista was well aware that he was being handed chickensh*t and being told to turn it into chicken salad and hed already told Triple H and Vince McMahon that he didnt believe the fans would go for him as a babyface, let alone as the Royal Rumble winner and World Title challenger at WrestleMania. When his worst fears were more than confirmed, and he was the one that had to deal with the booing and the abuse at live events, Dave did what Dave does best - he turned heel, at least for the duration of the abuse, flipping the bird and shouting back at the crowd. Faced with the possibility of the 30th WrestleMania being hijacked by a disgruntled crowd, WWE finally capitulated and gave their fans the 'Mania main event - and the WrestleMania moment, happy ending, call it what you like - that they wanted.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
