Royal Rumble 2014: It's About That Time

[MT]

I think Dewey was just taking after his dad, who posted this:

"As I mentioned on Twitter, I've never felt so disgusted at the conclusion of a WWE (or any) PPV. Like many of you out there, I just don't get it. This Daniel Bryan thing is a phenomenon. You get it. I get it. The fans in Pittsburgh (yes, I was thinking of writing "RIGHT TH...but I'm just not in a cheap pop mood) got it. But tonight, for the first time, I had to admit to myself that the powers that be are just not going to get it. And that makes me sad. I'm just honestly sad, just flat out f------ng sad (yes, I dropped an F-bomb there to emphasize how F'ing sad I am for the guys who bust their butts night in and night out - Ziggler, Punk, Bryan, etc - with no hope of getting their shot at this year's Mania.

You know who else I'm sad for? Me. In my two years as an official WWE Ambassador, I never once had to lie about my enthusiasm for the company or the product. Now, although I am no longer officially an Ambassador for WWE (believe it or not, my only official role in WWE is as GM for Saturday Morning Slam, a contract that ends in one month) I was till looking forward to being part of the biggest event of the year. I'll probably end up going anyway. But I'm about 1/6th as excited about it as I was just a few hours ago. I wanted so badly to hear 75,000 WWE fans chanting "YES" - and seeing fans walk away absolutely ecstatic about the outcome of a PPV for the first time in a while...a long while. But when given the chance to make it happen (unless they've got something MAJOR up their sleeve) WWE's answer tonight was a resounding "NO, NO, NO"."

This is not a good way to build to a big network launch. They should probably not piss off potential customers by NOT LISTENING to them. And when one of their biggest "goodwill ambassadors" and his son get on the bandwagon, that should raise some big red flags.

[maddog1981]

It really is sad seeing how awesome the product going into Summerslam was and seeing how stale it is now. I'll repeat Foley... I just don't get it.

[MT]

My own feeling on this is that anyone expecting something other than a Batista win was setting themselves up for disappointment. I like Batista for what he brings as a character, so I'm not too torn up about it. I think something a little more creative than "come back one week, win Rumble the next" may have been in order, but they set it up on short notice I'm sure. Drax The Destroyer is heading towards the main event of Wrestlemania.

On the subject of Cena and Orton, it is the same old stuff and clearly no one is into it at this point. This is probably the fifth or sixth PPV in a row where fans have come away being incredibly vocal about their disappointment. That's not a good sign.

[wildfire]

I agree with Mark, while I was HOPING they would do something else, I wasn't surprised by Batista wining. I do think all the chanting, both during the Cena-Orton match and the end of the Rumble was pretty telling.

There is also still plenty of time to change stuff around, if someone gets their act together.

[MT]

It's also fair to point out that Daniel Bryan was doing media rounds all week telling people specifically he was NOT going to be in the Rumble. I know they've done the "swerve" thing so much no one even believes anything that gets said, but they did apparently try.

I think Xavier Woods fans should be the angry ones. He WAS announced for the Rumble and didn't make it. Let all the dozens and dozens of them be heard!

[wildfire]

The Outlaws were announced too... or did I blink and miss them? I was sorta also watching Sherlock while it was going, and kinda zoned out in the middle after Nash.

[maddog1981]

I think everyone knew, I said he was winning on the first page. I think everyone in that building knew. I think we were all just hoping they would come to their senses. You could tell the second DB wasn't the last entrant that everyone was pissed off about it.

The problem now is, they won't listen. They will double down on this direction. They've been doing that for this entire Orton run.

[Deleted]

Jan 27, 2014 9:27:48 GMT -4 MT said:

On the subject of Cena and Orton, it is the same old stuff and clearly no one is into it at this point. This is probably the fifth or sixth PPV in a row where fans have come away being incredibly vocal about their disappointment. That's not a good sign.

I went back to count and make sure and it has indeed been six:

Night of Champions
Battleground
Hell in a Cell
Survivor Series
TLC
Royal Rumble

Jan 27, 2014 11:34:43 GMT -4 wildfire said:

The Outlaws were announced too... or did I blink and miss them? I was sorta also watching Sherlock while it was going, and kinda zoned out in the middle after Nash.

Nope, no Billy or Road Dogg in the Rumble.