The PPV Discussion Thread

[Oaf]

You know WWE have really dropped the ball when Oaf and Eamonn are criticising them...

I try to only give criticism when I feel it's due, rather than just piling it on each and every week as the standard norm like most seem too. And it certainly deserves it...

The only people who came out of that rumble match looking strong are Reigns (who now looks too strong, and is getting a backlash as a result) and Kane and The Big Show... because those two totally needed to look dominant at this stage in their careers. Everybody else looks like a chump.

I mean, FUCK ME, reignite this fued between Bryan and Kane for some reason leading into it... then Bryan is eliminated by BRAY WYATT? And you'd think, oh, at least this'll get Wyatt some heat eliminating Bryan... then you have Wyatt eliminated by Kane... the dude Bryan was feuding with!

It's difficult to think of ways they could have booked it any worse.

A great point raised in that link I posted... and that is; why was Bryan even in the match? Like the article says, had WWE not told us, we would have all bought the idea of Bryan being out injured for the rumble... and nobody would have held it against them. And they could have avoided a lot of the heat as a result... but instead, they bring him back, hype him up, and then pretty much give Bryan a jobber run in the rumble.

Awful.

Raw cancelled due to a blizzard that hasn't happened yet

Well they're hardly going to cancel tonight Raw for a blizzard that happened last week, are they?

 

[SamScfc]

I try to only give criticism when I feel it's due, rather than just piling it on each and every week as the standard norm like most seem too. And it certainly deserves it...

The only people who came out of that rumble match looking strong are Reigns (who now looks too strong, and is getting a backlash as a result) and Kane and The Big Show... because those two totally needed to look dominant at this stage in their careers. Everybody else looks like a chump.

I mean, FUCK ME, reignite this fued between Bryan and Kane for some reason leading into it... then Bryan is eliminated by BRAY WYATT? And you'd think, oh, at least this'll get Wyatt some heat eliminating Bryan... then you have Wyatt eliminated by Kane... the dude Bryan was feuding with!

It's difficult to think of ways they could have booked it any worse.

A great point raised in that link I posted... and that is; why was Bryan even in the match? Like the article says, had WWE not told us, we would have all bought the idea of Bryan being out injured for the rumble... and nobody would have held it against them. And they could have avoided a lot of the heat as a result... but instead, they bring him back, hype him up, and then pretty much give Bryan a jobber run in the rumble.

Awful.



Well they're hardly going to cancel tonight Raw for a blizzard that happened last week, are they?

You don't know that.

 

[GodsGift]

Whatever happened to the element of surprise? These pics were tweeted before the event yesterday (the first by Vince, the second by Dwayne).

 

[Eamonn]

Just seen rock and reigns interview that was awkward to watch rock was floundering and reigns looked out of place.

 

[silvergull]

Tonight's raw should just be 3 hours of Sandow.

They're somewhat lucky this years WM is open roofed. It's should stop the atmosphere carrying. Not sure where they go from here. Everyone knows reigns is set to beat Lesnar. My assumption is they go fatal 4way with a shield reunion. It's the only way

They should also let Big E go over Rusev. Far better use than Cena. big E is charismatic, great in the ring and his '5 count' gimmick was great. Pure example of raw writers not know what to do with nxt successes

 

[Libertine]

Well, uh, yeh.

That was literally as bad as it could've been for reaction. Think the idea was to get Bryan out early to get the boos out of the way, but clearly that didn't happen!

Reigns has some serious work to do in the next 2 months. The match will be awful IMO as neither man can carry a match. Lesnar is a beast but there's no flow to any of his singles matches these days. Just suplex here, suplex there.

 

[silvergull]

All I could think when watching it was that when they used the rumble to make stars (when the intercontinental belt mattered, as did king of the ring) Barrett would have won last night

He's ready, and has been for years. Wrestlemania is full of Brits and thr network has just launched in UK. Barrett would have been a great winner

 

[Oaf]

Tonight's raw should just be 3 hours of Sandow.

They're somewhat lucky this years WM is open roofed. It's should stop the atmosphere carrying. Not sure where they go from here. Everyone knows reigns is set to beat Lesnar. My assumption is they go fatal 4way with a shield reunion. It's the only way

They should also let Big E go over Rusev. Far better use than Cena. big E is charismatic, great in the ring and his '5 count' gimmick was great. Pure example of raw writers not know what to do with nxt successes

That could be ok, but would have its drawbacks... As it stands, we've got a main event where we know the winner as Brock is leaving afterwards anyway... at least making it a fatal four way keeps it a bit more open. However, somebody (somebody worthy of it... not Reigns at this stage of his career) really should be beating Lesnar one on one before Lesnar goes to get a heck of a rub off of him. Or, at the very least, Taker ought to get some revenge...

Also, good to see another fan of Big E. He's great.

 

[silvergull]

The only 'story' that makes sense, after recent years, is the shield unites to take lesnar out. That's believable. Reigns pins ambrose. Lesnar goes nuts. Rollins cashes in and we pretend the last 3 months didnt happen.

I love big E. Both his and Cesaro booking is insane. They meet the wwe looks criteria but are talented

 

[silvergull]

Bit of a posting spree tonight. Watching one-night stand. To think WWE still has Styles on the payroll, and could get Foley back anytime, is criminal. With the commentary as bad as it's been for years, he product is vastly improved with competent story telling

 

[Saddlerrad]

Virtually everything about the entire company is the worst it's been since they almost went bankrupt pre the attitude era. From creative, to the writers, to ratings, the finances and the quality of TV programming. WWE is in huge trouble until HHH takes over and changes things.

 

[silvergull]

Is it a case of McMahon overly puttibg his dinosaur stamp of things because of the NXT success?! I struggle to believe HHH would have 30 soap writers as his writing staff

 

[Saddlerrad]

Is it a case of McMahon overly puttibg his dinosaur stamp of things because of the NXT success?! I struggle to believe HHH would have 30 soap writers as his writing staff

He has himself and 1 other writing NXT...not even Steph/Vince is involved. It's everything right, that's currently wrong with WWE. Wouldn't surprise me if Vince butts into NXT through jealousy of it's prosperity sometime soon.

 

[silvergull]

Still convinced Paul E. is involved. It has his style all over it. Think of the creative talent at the WWE finger tips. Paul E. Mick Foley. HHH. Dusty Rhodes. Edge. y2J. People who get wrestling

 

[Leewilson]

We can only hope that Rollins cashes in before Wrestlemania but I don't see it now. It'll most likely happen at Extreme Rules or Payback. In all likelihood, WWE probably doesn't have a clue when Rollins will actually cash in.

We'll likely get this at WM

Reigns vs Lesnar
HHH vs Sting
Taker vs Wyatt
Orton vs Rollins
Bryan vs Sheamus
Cena vs Rusev

Singles galore. Not sure where they fit Ambrose or Ziggler in at the moment.
If the above does happen, MOTN will be either Orton/Rollins which would have a great flow or Bryan/Sheamus. Assuming it's heel Sheamus who I like very much, him and Bryan would have a great back and forth.

Cena/Rusev would be a beat down and a super Cena ending.
HHH and Sting would be slow and plodding.
Taker and Wyatt would be slow and plodding but I'd hope they tell a very good story here.
Reigns and Lesnar will get booed out of the building. As much as people are cheering for Lesnar now, they won't be when he's in final match territory against a guy nobody wants in the main event. It has Lesnar/Goldberg mark 2 written all over it.

 

[T.A]

Whatever happened to the element of surprise? These pics were tweeted before the event yesterday (the first by Vince, the second by Dwayne).

That's happened for a while, how many times have we see it online that Brock, The Rock etc is making a return. They do it for ratings but it ruins it sometimes.

 

[Saddlerrad]

Leewilson - Agree with most of your post. But I don't think Taker will be at this mania, at all. I'd also imagine WWE will use the Dudleys maybe and have some sort of triangle tag team match with Uso's etc? Sting vs Triple H would be epic if the promo's and build up are anything like what they are capable of. It would be a street fight so it could be brillant. Could also be very underwhelming.

 

[Benji]

I only tune in when it's a car crash. I can't imagine what the writers thought was going to happen. It does make it very awkward in the ring when the fans reactions are so far removed from what WWE intended.

 

[Big Bird]

Was awkward as shit to watch and seemed to take forever to to go off air. Then the 'fallout' show followed featuring a terrible interview with Reigns and a stumbling Rock.

Not good. Gonna watch Austin v Rock WM17 to make me feel ok about wrestling again.

 

[TheMinsterman]

Well, first off, thanks upset smarks for killing my Network stream when I was trying to watch the older material and could barely get it to load. Seriously, screw you, I am watching some awesome HHH v The Rock stuff right now!

So then, the Rumble. Strap in this may end up being long.

God. Damn.

That was one of the single most inept booking performances I have ever had the absolute displeasure of watching, first up the controversial bit. I didn't want Daniel Bryan to win, his Rumble moment was last year (or it should have been at any rate). Why didn't I want him to win? Because the guy just got a huge career defining WM moment a year ago, the same fans who are begging for him to main event AGAIN (and logically he'd really need to beat Lesnar) a year later are the same ones who complain that Cena hogs the main event scene. I like Bryan, but they can't just keep plugging for him to be in the top spot to make people happy or we're back to relying on a small number of guys again, Bryan is over, they need to use Rumbles to try get others over too. He's been gone nearly the whole year, give him another decent profile match and have him back in it next year when he's got another year active under his belt and his injury troubles are 100% behind him.

The winner himself? I like Roman Reigns, or at least the potential of Roman Reigns. He has some good moves, when you hear him speak away from scripts he's likable, when he was a bad ass just turning up and slapping people around he had a gimmick that was relatable. I'm not upset he won, not in the slightest bit, he is criminally abused and underrated by the fan base and whilst I think he should have another year to fine tune himself, at least it is a fresh face in the main event. I'd rather he main event and fail and disappear than they just keep using the same guys over and over. However, I am very worried WWE have effectively crippled the guy before he ever got going with this Rumble because the booking was dire.

Firstly, whoever decided to eliminate Daniel Bryan in such a damp squib of a way needs to be shot. It killed the crowd, they went totally flat and didn't really get into anything after that point. It didn't soften anything, it made it worse. Incomprehensibly stupid booking that didn't even give his WM opponent some heel heat rub to move into their program. Monumentally stupid, he should have been in until near the end if only to keep the fans pumped, they were never going to be happy but at least keep the PPV energy high until the end.

Secondly, having Reigns come out so soon after that elimination. Well done you morons, way to make him look like shit.

Thirdly, and this is a personal one, finally letting Kane get the record he's deserved for years in such an anti-climactic hostile atmosphere that made it a complete after thought. The guys busted his ass for years and whatever people may think of his recent work, if the guy was getting that accomplishment, do it in a more positive way.

Fourthly, having Kane and Big Show sloooooowwwwwwwwllllllyyyyyyy eliminate anybody with the ability to give the Rumble a high paced back and forth adrenaline fueled finale that actually made Reigns LOOK good. Tipping two old codgers over the ropes compared to some intense back and forth between a Bryan, Ziggler and Ambrose foursome with some big elimination moments would have been so much better and ended the show with a bang, even if the boos would have still happened. It doesn't prevent the ending of him getting beat down, hell have Rock come and save Ambrose, Bryan and Ziggler too from the big guys and everybody stand defiant against the Authority to close the PPV to take some heat off Roman and set up potential WM programs.

Fifthly, leaking the Rock was in attendance. You knew he was coming out at the end, the crowd knew it, not saying it'd have had a HUGE impact on the events, but I think again with a combination of other better booked moments, again, it'd have helped.

Sixthly, Kofi Kingston. Just, stop. His "wow what will he do next" moments are predictable now, this one didn't even make any sense what so ever, if you want to use that crowd of delinquents have them actually help the guy they idolise or if you insist on the spot, SOMEBODY OTHER THAN KOFI PLEASE.

Seventhly, no NXT talent. Seriously, what the hell guys? Again, give the crowd more of what they want if you want to soften the blow you KNOW full well is coming.

Eighthly, making it so fucking obvious they were trying to set things up to soften the blow, making the inevitable response even more vitriolic.

I could go on more, but the point is made. This was an abysmally booked Rumble, it was set up to cushion a backlash in a way that was only ever going to make it far, far worse. They should have let the popular guys have longer in it, kept the intensity and crowd behind it until the end, it's better that they shit on Reigns a little for five minutes than the whole pay-per-view for a good 30 minutes. The guy gets good pops most weeks, you could have kept the backlash to something you could easily move past, but instead they poked the bear.

And in the process they've just gone and cut Reigns off at the knees.

Real shame too because it was a solid PPV until then, the title match was good (I think it's a little over rated) and shows just what a talents Rollins in and regardless of the Rumble etc, that MITB needs to be used to give this guy a moment. The girls match was just, well, yeah we know what they're like by now. Tag was decent, Mizdow was good. Some of the other stuff was ok too, nothing offensive.

WWE needs to make new stars, but they seem utterly lost on how to do it effectively. They try to cater to too many different audiences, their vision is all over the place, they push some guys into situations they will get KILLED in which benefits nobody (least of all the performer) whilst de-reailing the momentum of others. They overlook people like Rollins who has OWNED it recently and seem completely incapable of booking even some of the simplest things to move some new guys up.

They have to just take a chance and let them sink or swim, drop the scripting everything to an anal degree. I'd rather see talents given chances (fair ones, not ones that are doomed to be shitcanned) and fail than this sort of softly softly drip drip approach.

 

[TheMinsterman]

Oh, and just to add, if that's what they wanted to do with Bryan, he should have returned post-Rumble, it'd have saved a LOT of the shit they're getting. He didn't need the Rumble, he's already over, to bring him back to eliminate him like that smacks of...well, I don't even know how to describe it.

 

[iesty wfc]

watched it last night and must say apart from some of the booking in the Rumble match itself it wasn't that bad. it could have done with a singles match or two though. there were 2 titles that went undefended ffs

NAO vs the Ascension - you knew that it was going to be a win for the newbies but the outlaws have still got it. billy gunn looks to be in some of the best fitness in some time. could easily run as a midcarder or enhancement talent

Miz/Mizdow vs Usos - you know what you are getting with the Uso's. I love Mizdow and even my wife loved the fact he was copying Miz's moves

Paige/Natalya vs Bellas - quite a solid divas match. the Bellas have really developed as wrestlers now. I must have missed the bit where they kissed and made up though. loved the major botch where Natty tagged in Paige but she didn't get in the ring. natty carried on and went for the pin only for the ref to tell paige she was legal

triple threat - definitely contender for WWE match of the year already. Brock is a machine. he must have suplexed both guys about a dozen times each. rollins was commendable in his efforts at keeping pace with the main eventers and think he will cash in at Mania now

Rumble match - I proper marked out when Bubba Ray came back. from the sounds of it he may be signing with the company again. I hope they only brought him back as Bubba though so less knowledgeable fans knew who he was. Bray Wyatt had a good showing but the way he was dumped out at the end was a poor decision. I wasn't arsed about Reigns winning but they telegraphed it so early on that you weren't expecting anything else

Anyone else thing Curtis Axel may try and get in at Mania?

 

[way 4 england]

When the U.S. fans are cheering for the monster heel doing the I hate the U.S. routine then you have to realise that you have problems? I have said before that last year when Bootista won the rumble it didn't matter to him that the fans turned on him because he doesn't have long term plans of being a wrestler. I think now like Cena it will become cool to boo Roman Reigns and I don't see his reactions turning around any time soon. I feel sorry for him, he's done nothing wrong and its not just a case of Bryan or nobody. There were a number of people in that rumble that the fans would have accepted unfortunately for the fans we were served up a meal we knew was coming 6 months ago.

I also feel a hint of sadness for Kane who has been a good business guy for a long time and his big moment breaking Michaels elimination record is shared with a Big sweaty Show and the commentary team almost missed it dropping in the record as an after thought.

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

Well i can property join in here today because while i'd not go out to watch this show i went round to a friends last night and what was about to start...........yep the Royal Rumble, so i sat down for a watch.and kept quiet about it for my friend who was watching first time, so i can actually properly review a show than just rant without watching...........a nice change.

To be honest it is by a long long way the worst Royal rumble I have ever seen, made worse i think as i watched RR 1992 the other day so i went from the best Rumble to well....that. for once though i don't even need my antiWWE bias because the general view off everyone is it was poor.

but the key is to try and be constructive about why it was bad for once since i seen the show, I think it had many many faults as to why it didn't work for me and the biggest one was the entire Rumble was dull...........incredibly, incredibly dull, it had zero excitement to it at all, no enjoyable moments, no close finishes, no one really stood out apart from one wrestler as a possible winner, but they way they built that one wrestler, then buried him sort've killed that off.

the one wrestler i mean is Wyatt, the only guy out of 30 men they attempted to make look abit strong, but he got no build from the atrocious commentary.....going back to the days of Gorilla with either Ventura or Heenan who would look at time involved, builld up them who had survived a while...didn't matter if it was Greg Valentine, Rick Martel, Bob backlund...people with no chance, they built them the entire rumble as dogged, determined people who were achieving something being in so long and battling away...........Wyatt got jack-sh*t off the commentators and worse followed for the guy with his worthless elimination, not with fight or effort or reason, just effortlessly dumped to try and add a stat on a record.

Amazingly not the worst decision making either, that cameb from the Danielson stuff. I don't think he should be winning because the crowd want it, Rumbles are unpredictable i like that faves do not always win, it was great in 1989 when Savage and Hogan got dumped......but 1989 was a warning sign for them because in 1989 when Hogan/Savage went the crowd died a death because their faves went, but in 1989 there was about 5 people left and it followed alot of storyline reason for him going, the start of Savage/Hogan feud and building the Hogan/Boss Man Feud, so it had alot of reason and interest back then and it wasn't too hurtful,

this time they elimate the crowd pleaser 1/3 into the Rumble with no storyline, no build, no reason, no effort, no point to care, he came in, did a couple of moves, then out he went not long after and boy oh boy did that crowd die a death, in came Golddust who i'd say still gets the veteran pop usually but he came out to pin dropping silence.

from then on people came out either to silence or to frustrated boo's to people who frankly the fans knew WWE may push and they didn't want............that murdered the Rumble completely because a Rumble with no fan involvement is worthless and was for me quite tough to sit and watch.

Add in your winner did NOTHING, absolutely nothing in the match till the very end, you'd not even known he was in the match until that final 4, infact Repoman and the Bezerker in 1992 had more involvement in their Rumbles than the winner in this one, he turned up, threw an odd punch here and there, laid abotu the floor or the corner for a while and did nothing...not one thing of note (well that i can remember)

Then add the borefest ending, the really plodding slow first 1/3 which was a period of 10-12 minutes of Wyatt vs anyone each time boring everyone to death, the fact only 4 people got a pop and 2 of them were Bubba Ray and DDP.....people who should not be in the Rumble.
and well finally of course that 4th man pop..........ziggler who came in and FINALLY......finally got some raise of energy outof the dead crowd then got firmly squashed and eliminated just put the cherry on the top.

when the Rock comes out to pretty much silence or boo's you know that has gone badly badly wrong. you could understand this mess if it had reason or purpose, 1999 it a terrible Rumble but it has reasons to be, it was building storylines, this built nothing, no one came out good, only one storyline in the entire thing built (cody Rhodes Vs Goldust) and the rest was worthless filler.

about 24 of the wrestlers looked like chumps or jobbers, the 2-3 pushed are past it and the winner did nothing to win it.

 

[Captain Scumbag]

@Minsterman

I kinda agree and disagree with your point about Bryan.

You're basically right. Bryan is over. He had his defining WM moment last year. If Lesnar is leaving (which seems likely), then it's booking 101 to have him put someone over on his way out. Why give the rub to someone who is already over when you can use the opportunity to elevate and legitimise a younger star like Reigns?

But there's a simple answer to that: the fans didn't want it. As it never tires of reminding us, WWE is a business. And at the risk of sounding like a walking, talking Business Management textbook, success in business depends on understanding and consistently meeting your customers' expectations. If a majority of the fans want to see Bryan win the Rumble and fight Lesnar at WM, then that's the smart thing to do. Doesn't matter if you had the feel-good moment for Bryan last year. Doesn't matter if he's already over and doesn't need the win. If people want to see it (or at least see it as preferable to Lesnar Vs Reigns), then that's what they should do.

And the thing is, it wouldn't derail Reigns if they delayed his mega-push and title win by 6-12 months. It would be better for him, actually. Give him more time. Maybe turn him heel and align him with Heyman for a bit. And when it's time, he shouldn't be going over someone popular like Lesnar. He should be going over people like Triple H, Batista, Orton and Cena – that way you can present him as the new guy who's taking on and replacing the old guard, i.e. the people the fans are sick of and actually want to see replaced.

Anyway, not much to add to what's already been said about the PPV. Title match was ace. RR match was shite.

 

[Pilgrim Meister]

At WM, what I can see happening is Lesnar beat Roman, then Rollins to cash in

 

[TheMinsterman]

@Minsterman

I kinda agree and disagree with your point about Bryan.

You're basically right. Bryan is over. He had his defining WM moment last year. If Lesnar is leaving (which seems likely), then it's booking 101 to have him put someone over on his way out. Why give the rub to someone who is already over when you can use the opportunity to elevate and legitimise a younger star like Reigns?

But there's a simple answer to that: the fans didn't want it. As it never tires of reminding us, WWE is a business. And at the risk of sounding like a walking, talking Business Management textbook, success in business depends on understanding and consistently meeting your customers' expectations. If a majority of the fans want to see Bryan win the Rumble and fight Lesnar at WM, then that's the smart thing to do. Doesn't matter if you had the feel-good moment for Bryan last year. Doesn't matter if he's already over and doesn't need the win. If people want to see it (or at least see it as preferable to Lesnar Vs Reigns), then that's what they should do.

And the thing is, it wouldn't derail Reigns if they delayed his mega-push and title win by 6-12 months. It would be better for him, actually. Give him more time. Maybe turn him heel and align him with Heyman for a bit. And when it's time, he shouldn't be going over someone popular like Lesnar. He should be going over people like Triple H, Batista, Orton and Cena – that way you can present him as the new guy who's taking on and replacing the old guard, i.e. the people the fans are sick of and actually want to see replaced.

Anyway, not much to add to what's already been said about the PPV. Title match was ace. RR match was shite.

I certainly agree with most of the points, although where I'd perhaps disagree is that "the fans want Bryan to main event Wrestlemania", primarily because the WWE caters to too many people now it's hard to actually pinpoint it. The "smarks" certainly wanted Bryan to win and go on to fight Lesnar, yet the casuals have been cheering Reigns for months, he consistently gets big pops and "ready" or not, they certainly aren't resistant to him, his biggest problem was this week he won in a smark city over the smark favourite to confirm their fears that he will get the Cena rocket.

This is for me one of WWE's biggest problems, it can't decide who it wants to cater to, it's putting too many fingers in too many pies trying to please everybody and when they please the casuals, the smarks get angry because they want a different product, when they please the smarks it turns the casuals off because it's either too "wrestling centric" with no story or they want guys they're not that into. That's not even taking into account how bi-polar and hypocritical the IWC is (Apparently Reigns didn't look a credible threat standing face to face with Lesnar, but Bryan, a midget in comparison in their eyes is just fine), I aren't sure you can ever satisfy them, they got what they wanted last year, now this year they're up in arms again.

WWE need a vision, they need an angle they want to push and they need to just do it, don't try to please everybody, you simply can't. Picking Reigns but doing this big elaborate set of events to "cushion" the hate was daft, they should have just said sod it, lets have the Rumble be exciting, we won't protect him so obviously and we'll take the reaction on that one night and move on, but they sort of tried to appease people at the same time, and worse insult some people's intelligence and it just backfired.

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

I suppose the biggest problem is this.

they put on what nearly everyone is considering the worst Royal Rumble match in the history of the event.

within 2 days even with the backlash they announce 1 million network subscribers and the Raw rating increases by a good number.

If your Vince Mcmahon right now do you think you've done wrong or do you just assume the internet and crowd is over-reacting and your completely in the right.

as I say biggest problem in WWE is for whatever sh*te they put on people come back each week en masse.

 

[Saddlerrad]

Well i can property join in here today because while i'd not go out to watch this show i went round to a friends last night and what was about to start...........yep the Royal Rumble, so i sat down for a watch.and kept quiet about it for my friend who was watching first time, so i can actually properly review a show than just rant without watching...........a nice change.

To be honest it is by a long long way the worst Royal rumble I have ever seen, made worse i think as i watched RR 1992 the other day so i went from the best Rumble to well....that. for once though i don't even need my antiWWE bias because the general view off everyone is it was poor.

but the key is to try and be constructive about why it was bad for once since i seen the show, I think it had many many faults as to why it didn't work for me and the biggest one was the entire Rumble was dull...........incredibly, incredibly dull, it had zero excitement to it at all, no enjoyable moments, no close finishes, no one really stood out apart from one wrestler as a possible winner, but they way they built that one wrestler, then buried him sort've killed that off.

the one wrestler i mean is Wyatt, the only guy out of 30 men they attempted to make look abit strong, but he got no build from the atrocious commentary.....going back to the days of Gorilla with either Ventura or Heenan who would look at time involved, builld up them who had survived a while...didn't matter if it was Greg Valentine, Rick Martel, Bob backlund...people with no chance, they built them the entire rumble as dogged, determined people who were achieving something being in so long and battling away...........Wyatt got jack-sh*t off the commentators and worse followed for the guy with his worthless elimination, not with fight or effort or reason, just effortlessly dumped to try and add a stat on a record.

Amazingly not the worst decision making either, that cameb from the Danielson stuff. I don't think he should be winning because the crowd want it, Rumbles are unpredictable i like that faves do not always win, it was great in 1989 when Savage and Hogan got dumped......but 1989 was a warning sign for them because in 1989 when Hogan/Savage went the crowd died a death because their faves went, but in 1989 there was about 5 people left and it followed alot of storyline reason for him going, the start of Savage/Hogan feud and building the Hogan/Boss Man Feud, so it had alot of reason and interest back then and it wasn't too hurtful,

this time they elimate the crowd pleaser 1/3 into the Rumble with no storyline, no build, no reason, no effort, no point to care, he came in, did a couple of moves, then out he went not long after and boy oh boy did that crowd die a death, in came Golddust who i'd say still gets the veteran pop usually but he came out to pin dropping silence.

from then on people came out either to silence or to frustrated boo's to people who frankly the fans knew WWE may push and they didn't want............that murdered the Rumble completely because a Rumble with no fan involvement is worthless and was for me quite tough to sit and watch.

Add in your winner did NOTHING, absolutely nothing in the match till the very end, you'd not even known he was in the match until that final 4, infact Repoman and the Bezerker in 1992 had more involvement in their Rumbles than the winner in this one, he turned up, threw an odd punch here and there, laid abotu the floor or the corner for a while and did nothing...not one thing of note (well that i can remember)

Then add the borefest ending, the really plodding slow first 1/3 which was a period of 10-12 minutes of Wyatt vs anyone each time boring everyone to death, the fact only 4 people got a pop and 2 of them were Bubba Ray and DDP.....people who should not be in the Rumble.
and well finally of course that 4th man pop..........ziggler who came in and FINALLY......finally got some raise of energy outof the dead crowd then got firmly squashed and eliminated just put the cherry on the top.

when the Rock comes out to pretty much silence or boo's you know that has gone badly badly wrong. you could understand this mess if it had reason or purpose, 1999 it a terrible Rumble but it has reasons to be, it was building storylines, this built nothing, no one came out good, only one storyline in the entire thing built (cody Rhodes Vs Goldust) and the rest was worthless filler.

about 24 of the wrestlers looked like chumps or jobbers, the 2-3 pushed are past it and the winner did nothing to win it.

Welcome to the 2015 creative WWE team. The talent is there, but that's what we have been getting since last WM. Vince needs to let go and give HHH is NXT setup but for the main programming. 2 writers - himself and 1 other guy. Make it more intense, less stupid stuff, more gritty sections - proper feuds built around storylines with promo's. The roster is as good and prepared as it has been since 04/05 to do good things, but WWE has absolutely not a clue on how to build it's own stars and the day that bringing old attitude era legends back for a surprise pop..it close to the end.

 

[mase]

the day that bringing old attitude era legends back for a surprise pop..it close to the end.

Nah, they've always done that, even pre-attitude era. It's a little something for the fans.