10 Times WWE Got The Royal Rumble Winner Wrong
3. Roman Reigns (2015)
For Roman Reigns’ critics, Royal Rumble 2015 was the night he jumped the shark. The Rock’s most maligned cousin always looked like the Shield member most likely to be pushed to the stars following the group’s inevitable demise, and so it transpired. By the end of 2014, Reigns was well on his way to inheriting John Cena’s competition-crippling Superman push, and the 2015 Rumble was his coronation.
It didn’t help that the fans’ preferred winner, Daniel Bryan, was eliminated in depressingly swift fashion towards the middle of the match. In hindsight, Bryan winning wouldn’t have worked-out in the long-run thanks to his injury problems, but anyone would’ve been preferable to Reigns. He entered the match to a big chorus of jeers at number 19, and by the end, the audience were praying for literally anyone else to win.
Fan favourites Dolph Ziggler and Dean Ambrose were unceremoniously mopped-up by Kane and Big Show, and even Rusev, one of the company’s biggest heels at the time, was cheered over Roman. In the end, Reigns eliminated the Bulgarian Brute to crown himself the Rumble winner, and as The Rock held his hand up in victory, Reigns received the first monster anti-pop of his career.
WWE went some way to righting this wrong by having Seth Rollins cash-in his Money In The Bank briefcase during Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania, but in the moment, Reigns’ 2015 Rumble triumph was disastrous for WWE’s early-year momentum.