10 Wrestling Matches That Pissed Off Fans

1. 2015 Royal Rumble Match

Damian Priest Kevin Owens THUMB
WWE.com

Again: they knew what they were doing.

They knew you didn't like Roman Reigns much. At the 2015 Royal Rumble, they built an entire match around making sure you liked him a little bit more than you did, which was "not at all". This wasn't exactly an intelligent pitch, was it?

Nor was it a successful one.

The layers to this monstrosity are endless.

So the big idea was thus: to make you like Roman Reigns a little bit more than you did, which, again, was not at all, he had to overcome the odds - '80s-style! - against both Kane and the Big Show. To get the heat on Kane and the Big Show, they eliminated everybody you really liked, who were instructed to act as if they were dead, in order to look as weak as possible. Nothing is weaker than dead, pal!

You were reminded, as Kane and Show dumped these corpses on the pyre, that, for f*ck's sake, these two are dinosaurs. They've been here forever. They're old, they're slow, they're as boring as sh*t. WWE reminded you how sh*te it was for years, just to make Roman a little bit less unpopular in a comparative exercise.

At least he's not Kane and Big Show, they suggested, who have been around forever and who you hate. We're reminding you of years-long upper midcard pollution to make the new main event star you don't like a bit less bad!

The game was gone. It was f*cking gone man, and the crowd droned their displeasure. They didn't boo. They droned, as bored as they were pissed.

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Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!