With the Royal Rumble just over a month away, the fans have to wonder if WWE will go three-for-three and tank yet another January PPV with stubborn fan-baiting booking. In 2014, the Rumble died a slow death when it became apparent that Daniel Bryan, the man that the fans had ear-marked to be 'their guy' was not even going to be entered into the Rumble, never mind winning it. They turned on supposed fan-favourites like Rey Mysterio and the returning Batista, smothering the end of the match with derision. A year later, crap lightning struck again. Bryan had returned and, once again, the fans were desperate for him to be victorious. This time, he was the eleventh man eliminated and, taking this as a personal slight, the fans ramped their negative reaction up to 11. They destroyed the PPV, rejected Roman Reigns' big win, and even booed The Rock! The outrage peaked when the hashtag #CancelWWENetwork began to trend worldwide, with fans going as far as screenshotting pictures of their cancelled subscriptions and uploading them to social media. Normally, controversy creates cash, and Vince even said (in a conference call detailing the company's fourth-quarter earnings), that he thought the outage was good for WWE, and that everyone who unsubscribed would keep watching. With ratings all the way down, however, and with the company still persisting with Reigns as their top babyface, that complacency may have run out and the company will be wanting the fans to forget just how much hell they're capable of raising if they don't get their own way.
