The 2014 Royal Rumble will go down in history, not so much because of the match itself (it was pretty mediocre), but because of the reaction of the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania crowd and subsequent social media meltdown. People were incensed when Daniel Bryan, the most popular wrestler in the company at that time, wasn't even entered into the match. Mick Foley even threw a brick through his television in protest at WWE's apparent disregard for their audience. Making matters worse was the predictability of Batista's Rumble victory. The Animal was booed out of the building. To be fair to WWE, they didn't advertise Bryan for the match (he wrestled Bray Wyatt in the opener). But that doesn't exactly make their decision a good one. According to CM Punk on the Art of Wrestling podcast, Vince McMahon genuinely believed that Randy Orton versus Batista would be the biggest match in WrestleMania history. How delusional. Somebody must have gotten in Vince's ear and told him that he needed to put Bryan in the match. The people demanded it and the WWE has prided itself in the past on giving the people what they wanted. The reaction when Bryan made Batista tap-out said it all. Had the people not pushed so strongly for Bryan's involvement at 'Mania - he was originally scheduled to wrestle Sheamus - we could have witnessed one of the most underwhelming WrestleMania main events of all-time instead.
