When the Pittsburgh crowd entered the Consol Energy Center in January of 2014, they had one thing on their minds: Daniel Bryan. Thus, they ushered in a new era for WWE...an era where the crowd can hijack a show and change booking. Bryan wrestled in the opening match against Bray Wyatt and received a hero's welcome. He and Wyatt had a tremendous match that had the crowd on their feet but, unfortunately for Bryan, he lost to the cult leader. However, the crowd was not worried. There was still the Royal Rumble match and even though Bryan was announced as not participating in the match, everyone knew that meant he would definitely be in the match and win the title shot at Wrestlemania. The crowd then turned its venom onto the title match between John Cena and Randy Orton, loudly vocalizing their displeasure at seeing that match for the 10,000th time. The crowd chants were "Boring!", "End this match!", and, most insulting, "We want Divas!". Finally, the Wyatt family interfered and caused a no contest, allowing the crowd to chant "Thank you, Wyatts!" in one final insult. Once the Rumble itself started, it was a bloodbath and not in the good, wrestling way. CM Punk entered at #1 and his presence cooled off the crowd just slightly but not for long. Soon enough, they were chanting Daniel Bryan's name loud and clear for everyone at home to hear. It was impossible to ignore and it was chanted with great anger at the WWE officials. With the returning Batista rumored to win the contest, the crowd began jeering and booing Batista's every move even though he was supposed to be the conquering babyface. Finally, the countdown began for the #30 entrant and every member of the crowd stood up, ready to blow the roof off of the arena if Bryan made a surprise entrance. And it was Rey Mysterio. Probably for the first time in his entire career, Mysterio's entrance was greeted with a chorus of boos unlike anything heard before. This crowd was legitimately upset at the WWE for not giving them what they wanted. With the winner of the match obvious, the crowd completely turned on the Rumble and WWE, calling them out for not listening to their fanbase. When Batista finally won in a foregone conclusion, the crowd absolutely destroyed him. Batista tried to celebrate with fans but was greeted by hand gestures and insults. Batista actually seemed put off by the treatment and flipped members of the audience off on his way to the back. That night changed the course of WWE and actually caused Vince to change the planned main event of Batista vs. Randy Orton to a triple threat including Daniel Bryan. Batista would leave a short time later, frustrated with what may be his final WWE run.
