10 Times Wrestling Fans Completely Rejected What They Were Seeing

4. Batista – Royal Rumble 2014

Batista’s long-awaited return to WWE after conquering Hollywood happened in the beginning of 2014. He Batista Bombed Alberto Del Rio on Raw to re-debut and six days later entered himself into the Royal Rumble. It was bad timing for ‘The Animal’ to return around this event. The PPV was held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a notoriously difficult city to get a good reception in. And they certainly didn’t take too kindly to Batista coming back to the company and immediately being accelerated to the main event scene.

At the time a movement was building with Daniel Bryan where he was fast becoming the most popular wrestler in the company from the excellent work he put forward weekly in matches and segments. Bryan wrestled in the first match at Royal Rumble in a losing effort to Bray Wyatt, with the crowd loving Bryan and the “Yes!” movement being in full effect. The hostile crowd at the Rumble were later described as doing all they could to take over the show. The crowd did not respond well to the Orton and Cena title match later on the card, booing it loudly and chanting for Daniel Bryan throughout. Then in the 30-man Royal Rumble match they chanted for Bryan yet again.

Even though he was never advertised for it, they expected Bryan to be one of the entrants given the momentum he was riding at the time. So when the final 30 entrant turned out to Rey Mysterio (and not Daniel Bryan) they booed him out of the building. And when Batista won they booed him out of the city.

Batista was angry about it too. He may have been the returning babyface, but it didn’t stop him flipping off fans on the way back after the match.