10 WWE Decisions That Enraged The IWC
5. Roman Reigns Wins The 2015 Rumble
The Royal Rumble is always one of WWE’s most eagerly anticipated annual events, but recent years have only served-up colossal doses of disappointment. 2015 wasn’t quite as egregious as the year before (we’ll get to that…), but it was bad, and marked the first wholesale rejection of Roman Reigns as a main event performer.
The recently returned Daniel Bryan was eliminated shockingly early in the bout. He was many fans’ favourite to win, and while anyone else would have been disappointing in comparison, Reigns was the worst possible choice in terms of crowd reaction. His victory was abundantly clear as Kane and Big Show - The Authority’s two corporate stooges - joylessly cleared the ring of all surviving babyfaces, before Reigns made his inevitable comeback to score an unpopular victory.
Even The Rock couldn’t save Roman from the crowd’s vitriol, and the online reaction was fierce. #CancelWWENetwork started trending on Twitter immediately after the show, with the cancellation page crashing as fans bombarded the site.
The backlash ultimately did nothing to sway WWE’s course, as Reigns remains a highly-pushed star in 2017, but the outpouring made it clear their handpicked golden boy would never become an IWC favourite.