If the past two Royal Rumbles have made one thing perfectly clear, it's that Vince McMahon is truly out of touch with his audience. He didn't know what they wanted when it mattered, and now he's desperately scrabbling around trying to please them when the damage has already been done. The week after the Rumble, WWE made an announcement that the month of February would be free on the WWE Network. That announcement might as well have come with flowers and a note of apology for how transparent it was. While it's encouraging that WWE is finally listening to it's audience, they also cannot bow down to every whim of the notoriously fickle wrestling community. Otherwise, they risk second guessing their own judgement at every turn, changing their long term plans every time somebody complains online. This will happen every time they screw up, and rather than figuring out why and how they screwed up and making efforts to fix it, they'll crap their pants and throw Daniel Bryan in the main event in the hopes that it will solve everything. This is not a good recipe for success in the long term. In the olden days, such as the beloved Attitude era, they listened to their fans and made every effort to foster that connection, but they also put a lot more faith in their talent to foster that connection themselves. Bryan did it, but that's not to say that nobody else can too. The likes of Dolph Ziggler and Dean Ambrose have gotten themselves over with the audience today. With Reigns occupying such a prominent position at this time, it's as much his responsibility to connect with the fans as it is the company's. They need to trust him to do that rather than roll over to a tide of negativity and hope that adding Daniel Bryan at the last minute will save the day again. At this point in time before Fast Lane and Wrestlemania, it seems that the Royal Rumble was a lemon. It's time for WWE to man up and make lemonade. Thanks for reading, you can let me know your thoughts in the comments section below, and for more articles, add me on twitter at @IAMMARZI
Stephen Maher has been a rock star, a bouncer, a banker and a busker on various streets in various countries. He's hung out with Robert Plant, he was at Nelson Mandela's birthday and he's swapped stories with prostitutes and crack addicts. He once performed at a Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras by accident. These days, he passes the time by writing about music, wrestling, games and other forms of nerdery. And he rarely drinks the blood of the innocent.
