When it was announced that Roman Reigns would be entering the Royal Rumble at #1, a very big question was left facing WWE: How do you get him to the end of the match without creating problems along the way? The Rumble is full of mini-storylines and angles, and having Roman in there the whole time could mess them up, unless he literally spends half the match lying in a corner recovering. Instead, WWE went the route of having the League of Nations take him out of the match but not eliminate him requiring that medics help him to the back. Thus, Reigns left the match at #14 and wouldnt return until Sheamus was entering at #29. That means that the world champion spent approximately 24 minutes not participating in the actual Rumble. Fifteen people entered the match in the time he was out of the match, and 15 were eliminated in that time, including Brock Lesnar and most of the Wyatt Family. Reigns basically bypassed half the match and half the field, including some of the biggest threats. Its no wonder that fans booed like crazy when he returned.
Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.
