WWE Royal Rumble 2014: A few thoughts on the crowd reaction
Last night the WWE held its yearly Royal Rumble event and in many ways it was exactly what you would expect from the wrestling company and there were no real surprises. I tend to like Royal Rumble because of the match itself where thirty of the superstars enter the ring starting with one, then after a set amount of time another wrestler enters the ring. The key to winning the event is to throw all the other wrestlers over the top rope and be the last one in the ring. I don’t need to go through who won, but a strange thing happened during the whole night, the audience let the company know that something had gone wrong.
Now I want to point out now that I am only a wrestling fan, I write reviews on the DVD and Blu-ray releases as they come out in the United Kingdom and give my opinion on what I see on the screen. I understand that this is all a story written by a team of creative people with the head of the company having overall control of what is written. So these are only my opinions:
- Daniel Bryan vs Bray Wyatt should have been later in the card: This match stole the show and it was based on the huge fanbase Bryan is building and just how good both wrestlers were. They put on what will be one of the matches of the year and stole the show. It’s arguable that anything that came after that had a lot to live up to and honestly? The matches they put on just didn’t match this one.
- Big Show vs. Brock Lesnar was a waste of time: On the rumour sites one of the excuses for the destruction was an injury that Big Show had picked up at a house show. The problem with rumours is we can’t know just how true it really was. Brock Lesnar is a character we already know is a monster, but to waste time and slow down the PPV event with what took place? This is arguably where things may have gone wrong.
- John Cena vs. Randy Orton: No matter what my opinion is on these two wrestlers the audience reaction was a shock. To be fair to the two performers they put on a strong match but the problem is? How many times do we have to sit through it? The fact is WWE needs something new, and Cena the Superman or Randy Orton the “Viper” is just not going to keep fans interested forever. It was surreal listening to hear the commentators say the crowd was trying to get under Orton’s skin when the truth was, the audience were calling for a change from the same old boring main events. The Wyatt invasion of the ring was almost celebrated because that is a change that needs to happen.
- Daniel Bryan was never booked for the Royal Rumble event anyway: This is where I defend a wrestler, and that is Rey Mysterio. The boos he got because he was not Daniel Bryan may have been ok as he came to the ring but to continually boo him throughout his time in the Rumble? To me that was unfair, he didn’t ask to be number thirty in a match everybody wanted Daniel Bryan in.
- Batista is another symptom of the WWE problem: If you read the rumour websites you’ll no doubt see that WWE favours the big muscle guys and they are re-focusing the company to put a focus on them. Batista is proof that the WWE prefer the big wrestlers, but the problem is what about the fans? The audience once again let it be known they were not happy but will the WWE listen?
- The audience and social media: WWE likes to show that the “WWE Universe” has power over what happens in the ring and what matches will take place, where in truth this is false. WWE give the so-called Universe chances to chance small elements of the storylines and do we ever see proof that the voting has had an effect? No, we just trust it. What audiences have to realise is that the people in full control of the company known as WWE is the WWE.
- Daniel Bryan is not our saviour: Daniel Bryan is one of the best wrestlers in the company but he’s not the saviour of it. He will have his storylines as well as everybody else. He is also not a wrestler who always needs a belt to show how good he is, it is that simple.
- WWE storylines play the long game: The audience arguably want satisfaction instantly, as one of the “WWE Universe” I know I get impatient with the wrestling product wanting my favourite wrestler to be focused on. What we have to realise though is that storylines can last a long time, some even benefit from this. Before people give up on WWE, maybe they need to see just where the stories go.
The fact is I’m a wrestling fan and I’ll keep on watching, I’d love to see things change after last night’s Royal Rumble but in truth who knows? As fans we can see where things are going wrong and we can also see where things are going right. So what will we do? We will watch Raw tonight and then move to the Elimination Chamber event and Wrestlemania. Do we hope they will change? Yes we do. Now we just have to see if they will…
