The WORST Wrestling Moment Every Year (1989 - 2025)

11. 2015 | The Rock Endorses Roman Reigns

Terri Runnels
WWE

Roman Reigns won the 2015 Royal Rumble when nobody wanted him to win the Royal Rumble. 

“Nobody” isn’t some entitled millennial take, either, like when too many of us moaned about the John Cena push, ignoring a young audience starting to enjoy their own lifetime adventure with WWE because we’d watched the show for longer. 

Nobody wanted Roman to win. He was clearly unprepared for and uncomfortable in the role.

When Daniel Bryan got eliminated, and the realisation dawned on the fans, they weren’t even furious. A long sustained drone kicked in, sounding more like an experimental long-form noise piece than a pro wrestling crowd. The Big Show and Kane tossed everybody out like luggage handlers throwing suitcases into a plane. The carelessness was deliberate, because you were only meant to care about Roman Reigns. You did not care about Roman Reigns, and the more they forced it, the more you started to resent him. 

The very fact that the Rock was marched out to endorse Roman was bullsh*t. It was a transparent assault on your intelligence. They knew what they were doing was not going to work, begging the extremely pertinent question: why did they bother?

Also: why didn’t they look at the Rock, which wasn’t hard, since he was standing directly next to the poor bastard, and realise that the best means of getting Roman over as a face was to turn him heel, thereby allowing him to show off his personality?

Which, as literally everybody not named Vince McMahon called, actually happened between 2020 and 2024?

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!