9 Reasons WWE Royal Rumble 2017 Match Was The Worst Of The Decade
5. Roman Reigns Entering At #30 Was Trolling The Fans
I'm tempted to actually call this one a positive, seeing as how it accomplished the goal of turning a stale winner like Randy Orton into someone the fans were happy to see pull off the victory. But as the numbers counted down and the prospect of a huge surprise or big return became less and less likely, the final entrant had everyone on the edge of their seat.
A large segment of the audience legitimately expected it to be Samoa Joe, but what they got instead was a Samoan whose real name is Joe. Out of all the men who had main card matches earlier on the show, OF COURSE Roman Reigns would be the one who got the honor of pulling double duty, especially considering he'd just finished coming up short in his quest to become Universal champion.
The backlash was immediate, and had Reigns won there's no telling what the reaction of the WWE Universe would have been. Thankfully WWE had the good sense not to go that route, and while Orton taking home the W was pretty blah, it was, to paraphrase Randy's new mentor "Anyone but Roman."
It basically just felt like a giant middle finger to the fans. And not the fun, hell-raising Steve Austin kind, either.