Welcome to the dungeon!
What a week it’s been! I’ve been watching WWE for over 20 years and I’ve never seen so much anger from the fans. As the Royal Rumble match went on, I was getting nervous, anxiously awaiting the arrival of Daniel Bryan. Sadly, it wasn’t to be. I’ve never been so pissed off watching a WWE event.
Daniel Bryan and Bray Wyatt put on an excellent match to open the show, something I was not expecting. I thought it would be a decent match, but I’ve not seen enough of Bray Wyatt in action to fully understand how good he is.
It was always going to be hard for the rest of the PPV to live up to the excitement of that first match, but I thought the way Brock Lesnar vs Big Show was booked was brilliant. They didn’t need to have a wrestling match, as it was basically two monsters just colliding with each other. Brock Lesnar came off as an unstoppable force that can’t and won’t be stopped.
The amount of steel chair shots used in that match/segment reminded me of The Rock and Mankind from the Royal Rumble in ’99. One shot after another, with intensity in his face, Lesnar showed that he could become WWE World Heavyweight Champion whenever he wants. Sadly, we all know the kind of contract he has and it won’t allow him to become champion because of his limited schedule. I don’t think the WWE would put the title on him after the mistake they made in putting it on The Rock.
So the PPV started off brightly. Then came the WWE Championship match.
We all knew it wasn’t going to be a classic, but it wasn’t as bad as some people are saying. It was actually a fairly standard, good match, however, the crowd were never going to let it be any more than that. The fans made their feelings clear. We didn’t want to see Randy Orton vs John Cena for the millionth time. We wanted Daniel Bryan!
Hoping, praying, begging – we all wanted Daniel Bryan in the Royal Rumble match. To be fair to the WWE, they never once even hinted that he would be in the match. Deep down, we all believed he would be one of the surprise entrants due to the overwhelming demand for him from the fans. I thought he would come in and make it to the final 2 with Batista.
If that had happened, the fans would’ve been on the edge of their seats. It seemed too predictable for Batista to win after the hype of his return. Yes, people tuned in to see his return on Raw and people were intrigued to see him, but did anyone really want him to be pushed straight into the main-event at WrestleMania? NO NO NO!!!
I couldn’t sleep after the PPV once I’d read what everyone was saying on Twitter. It was unbelievable.
As soon as Rey Mysterio entered at number 30, the crowd were pissed off. I was expecting people to throw garbage in the ring and who could have blamed them if they had? The longer it went on, the booing got louder. It seemed like a slap in the face from the WWE to all their fans.
They say they’re the company who listens to their fans, but have they been listening to us?
Just by looking at the Royal Rumble PPV, we could easily say no. By putting a 45 year old who has been away for 4 years straight into the championship hunt and the main-event at WrestleMania above Daniel Bryan, it seems like they don’t care what we want. It was as if the WWE was saying a big fuck you to their loyal and passionate fans.
Along with many of you, I was sickened at what I was watching, but then I looked at it from a different point of view.
There’s a long road to travel on the way to WrestleMania 30 and things can always change. Do we really think the WWE didn’t know what kind of reaction they were going to get from us by not putting Daniel Bryan in the Rumble? It probably got more people talking about the event than a Bryan win would have.
We have the Elimination Chamber PPV coming up. Who’s to say Daniel Bryan won’t win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship then? That way, he would be in the main-event at WrestleMania along with the Royal Rumble winner. Also Randy Orton could claim his rematch, making it a triple-threat. I’m trying to be optimistic, but I honestly don’t expect it to happen.
Having said that, I do believe that the WWE will eventually push Daniel Bryan as a main-event star and I expect him to be champion at some point this year. When and how it will happen, will be interesting.
If the WWE were smart and listened to their fans, they’d have him in the WWE World Heavyweight Championship match at WrestleMania. Imagine the sight of 70,000 fans chanting YES! It would be the dawning of a new era, just like Stone Cold Steve Austin at WrestleMania 14.
Let’s hope the WWE are listening to us and they’ll eventually give us what we want. There hasn’t been anyone more over with the fans than Daniel Bryan is now in a long time. They can only put it off for so long before they have no choice but to give him a run as champion.
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