9 Wrestlers Who Didn't Learn From WWE Royal Rumble Mistakes
2. WWE - The Use (Or Lack Thereof) Of Daniel Bryan
It's been exceedingly rare in the past 15 years or so that WWE has managed to capture lightning in a bottle with somebody - where that person is naturally embraced or utterly despised by the audience in a way that can improve ratings or improve revenue for WWE.
One such 'lightning in a bottle' talent was Daniel Bryan.
Despite WWE seemingly doing everything they could to quell the groundswell of support behind Bryan in 2013 and into 2014, that didn't stop wrestling fans from rallying behind the Yes! Man.
Having spectacularly broken his Wyatt Family shackles and put on a banger of a match earlier in the night against Bray Wyatt, logic dictated that WWE would have Bryan enter the 2014 Royal Rumble match and quite possibly win the whole thing, cementing himself a spot in the WrestleMania 30 main event.
Of course, that didn't happen, and the crowd got more and more restless as the chance of seeing D-Bry in the Rumble receded. When poor Rey Mysterio entered the match at #30, the legendary uber-babyface got absolutely booed out of the building.
WWE would be forced to include Bryan in the main event by the time all was said and done at WrestleMania 30, and many hoped that the company would right their 2014 wrong when the American Dragon entered the 2015 Royal Rumble.
Did WWE listen to their fans? Obviously not, for Bryan would get just ten minutes in the Rumble match, scoring one solitary elimination, and being eliminated by Wyatt in what seemed like an utter afterthought.