The one major bright spot that came from inside the ring during last years Royal Rumble was the emergence of Roman Reigns. The Shields strongman broke what had to be considered an unbreakable record of 11 eliminations, set by Kane in 2001, by tossing 12 men. Of the 29 men eliminated, Reigns was responsible for 41% of them. The showing was impressive enough on its own and did the trick of elevating Reigns in the fans eyes. Things got pushed even higher at the end of the match when Reigns was left in the ring with Sheamus and Batista, both former Rumble winners and both disliked by a segment of the fans. At that point, Roman became the poster boy for those fans, who openly cheered for him as the only acceptable option since Daniel Bryan wasnt in the match. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZzI0T7O-xY Reigns wouldnt be successful, but his showing has set the bar at a nearly impossible level. Its probably safe to say that this record wont be broken any time soon.
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.
