26. 2015
Where oh where to begin? Roman Reigns won last year's edition of the Royal Rumble, in a booking decision that actually made sense on a few levels despite coming too early for Reigns. It is easy to knock the 2015 Rumble because of this, but the truth is that Reigns was put in a no-win position by the frankly awful booking of the match. Daniel Bryan made his triumphant return in the match, and entered early to a huge reception. Quite obviously the most popular organic superstar going, the crowd ate up everything their returning hero did. This made it all the more shocking when he was dispatched early on with next to no fanfare. At the time, I was convinced a mistake had been made and Bryan was supposed to evade elimination. Part of me still is. Even without Bryan, there was hope for the crowd. The air collectively went out at that point, but some oxygen was restored with the arrival of Dean Ambrose, Dolph Ziggler and the continued impressive showing of Bray Wyatt. Which brings me to the objectively stupid booking of Kane and Big Show. The two were booked to be utterly dominant in the latter stages of the match, eliminating anyone and everyone with next to no effort. This happening in 2015 was unforgivable, made worse by the fact it led to precisely nothing for either man at WrestleMania. The match was so horribly booked that the show ended with the crowd booing The Rock. Need I say more?
John Bills
Contributor
Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.
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