7 Times Wrestling Should Have Called An Audible
3. Somebody, Anybody - WWE Royal Rumble 2014
Poor Rey Mysterio. At Royal Rumble 2014, he was caught in the backdraft of the nuclear heat with which the Pittsburgh natives received the strong-headed anti-consumer relations exercise that was the Rumble match itself.
WWE knew what it was doing - to an extent. Vince McMahon did not entertain the notion of installing unanimous crowd favourite Daniel Bryan into it because he knew it would undermine Batista's win - but fans remained hopeful that WWE were playing the long game in a storyline they weren't prepared to reset as WWE had done.
Hopes were dashed when Rey Mysterio entered the fray at the number 30 slot. It was a senseless decision on a night full of them. Surely, the slot should have gone to a heel, if only to inject them with a short-term dose of heat. Instead, Mysterio was thrown to the wolves. Somebody, anybody should have called an audible and grabbed the nearest heel jobber to hand. As Tyler Breeze later learned to his cost, there would have been plenty left in the arena. Nobody is allowed to go home until the show is finished.
Mysterio's star was on the wane, but he never recovered. He was "not Daniel Bryan" for the brief remainder of his WWE career. It's no wonder he was so desperate to get out of there, but he had the last laugh. Nobody has been able to replicate his magic. It takes more than a mask.