10 WWE Matches Doomed From The Start
4. The 2015 Royal Rumble Match
We'd been here before.
12 months removed from 2014's wretched take on a company institution, the lack of a Daniel Bryan-shaped winner resulting in everybody from Rey Mysterio to Batista earning naught but derision and disdain from a crowd that only wanted to say "YES!" to WWE's offering.
They got their wish at WrestleMania in the end, but failed to see that the New Orleans triple threat main event was merely Vince McMahon letting them get it out of their system. In his mind, an injury sustained by Bryan while champion was vindication enough that he really was the "B+ Player" he'd been scripting him as. 2015 would be different. 2015 would be back to what he knew.
And what he knew was Roman Reigns. 'The Big Dog' had been top priority since a Shield split the prior summer, but nobody had told the audience that after Bryan heroically returned shortly before the January spectacle to announce his participation. Fan expectancy fell harder on deaf ears than the year before - that WWE booked an even more combative conclusion was either intentionally stern or unintentionally stupid.
Unsurprisingly, it was their pet project that suffered the worst of it. Reigns' supposed elevation (alongside The Rock, no less) fell flatter than his new WWEShop.com-friendly flak jacket. The effects are still being felt today.