Instant Reaction - WWE Royal Rumble PPV
By Benjamin Tucker, PWTorch TV specialist

Overall Score - 5.0

In 2014 Batista was relentlessly booed for being the wrong person at the wrong time to win the Royal Rumble. Approximately 365 days later, WWE had a chance to do the Rumble right; not going with a product of the machine who is still cutting developmental-level promos. This time around Vince McMahon had hindsight to tell him that the crowd would boo a Roman Reigns win. This is a man who swears that he listens to the fans.

If this is true, then he must have heard thousands of fans chanting "bulls---" at the end of the 2015 Royal Rumble match. For the second year in a row, WWE failed the audience.

And from a distance, Roman Reigns winning the Rumble seems like an insignificant deal in the big picture. What's the big deal over one green wrestler winning a match over someone else? In the end, it boils down to WWE showing once and for all that they are out of touch with the modern wrestling fan, continuing to deter viewers who have suffered through a decade of John Cena on top.

For nearly ten years a large portion of the WWE audience has booed the top star of the company. Not to play along with storylines, but because they don't like him. WWE insisted that they knew better, with ratings gradually dropping to numbers nearly two-thirds the level they were in 2006. Roman Reigns is the next symbol of WWE's refusal to face their problems and try something different from the norm. What follows is another decade of dominance by one man, holding down the rest of the roster and preventing any growth at the expense of the company. And no matter what vocal audience members say or do, the Dolph Zigglers and Daniel Bryans and Sami Zayns will never be given the true chance that they deserve because "WWE knows what is best."

The 2015 Royal Rumble was a giant middle finger to the average wrestling fan. Dolph Ziggler eliminated in three minutes. Mizdow eliminated in 30 seconds. Complete domination by Big Show and Kane. No hope for any face not named Roman Reigns. The moment Daniel Bryan was eliminated, the Rumble match sucked, quickly becoming one of the five worst in history.

History repeated itself again this year. But, even if Daniel Bryan winds up in the main event of WrestleMania 31, will it even matter? Or, is it just delaying the inevitable?

The sole bright spot of the card was the triple threat match for the WWE Championship. Brock Lesnar, Seth Rollins, and John Cena told a wild and innovative story that holds up against the greatest triple threats of all-time. Rollins was the star of the show, serving as the foundation of the match, and Lesnar came across as an absolute monster, more-so than he has since Summerslam.

The rest of the card, though? Filler, filler, and filler. This was a two match show that only halfway delivered. No amount of surprise entrants can change that. I gave WWE my heart, and once again it was thrown to the ground and stomped on.

Questions? Comments? Reactions? Find me on Twitter @BTuckerTorch, where I talk about wrestling and... stuff!

[Graphic (c) WWE]

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