When John Cena won his first Royal Rumble back in 2008, the Cena backlash had not yet reached the level it would hit in 2013. Older fans began to get tired of having John Cena and his Superman-like character being shoved down their throats. For years, it seemed like the odds would be stacked against Cena and he would overcome them because he was John Cena and he never gives up and he rises above hate and all that other stuff. In 2013, the wrestling landscape was changing or at least trying to be changed by fans who were sick of Cena and his stranglehold on the main event. They dreaded the idea of Cena winning the Royal Rumble that year, especially with it being a well-known fact that the Rock was going to win the world title from CM Punk to set up Cena-Rock II at Wrestlemania. Fans were also smart enough to know that there was no way Cena was going to lose to the Rock twice in a row, so it was obvious Cena was headed for another world title run. To make it worse, crowd favorites Chris Jericho and Dolph Ziggler both went over 40 minutes in the match before being eliminated, angering the crowd and not helping WWE's cause. The match came down to John Cena and Ryback as the final two. Ryback had been gaining momentum with a Goldberg-like streak of wins and recently was screwed out of the WWE title by a crooked referee against CM Punk. He was hot in the audience's eyes but not quite ready for the main event so, because Rock-Cena II was happening whether we wanted to see it or not, Cena eliminated Ryback and won his second Royal Rumble. That, of course, led to Cena defeating the Rock in East Rutherford, NJ at Wrestlemania XXIX in one of those finishes that no one outside of Vince McMahon wanted to see.
