Royal Rumble 2015

[Stanford]

Boogeyman is a beast.

[Newz]

Bryan added a lot of interest, excitement and intrigue to the Rumble and I'm sure he sold some network subscriptions. It was a no-brainer business move to bring him back. That's why he was brought back when he was instead of in a couple weeks.

I don't agree with this line of thinking. To get their product back to what it used to be I think WWE needs to stop thinking about immediate buys for upcoming PPVs and start to focus more on entertainment, which will hook fans in long-term. Part of the appeal of watching wrestling at its peak was the idea that anything could happen.

If you get 50,000-100,000 less buys because you didn't reveal Bryan earlier... then that sucks for that one PPV. But the people watching are going to freak out because he comes back out of nowhere and the people who didn't order the PPV are going to start to think "I should really start ordering these shows so I don't miss the best things they have to offer".

Just like I disagree with them teasing things like The Rock returning/being in Philly.

[skbucks1985]

Bryan added a lot of interest, excitement and intrigue to the Rumble and I'm sure he sold some network subscriptions. It was a no-brainer business move to bring him back. That's why he was brought back when he was instead of in a couple weeks.

I don't agree with this line of thinking. To get their product back to what it used to be I think WWE needs to stop thinking about immediate buys for upcoming PPVs and start to focus more on entertainment, which will hook fans in long-term. Part of the appeal of watching wrestling at its peak was the idea that anything could happen.

If you get 50,000-100,000 less buys because you didn't reveal Bryan earlier... then that sucks for that one PPV. But the people watching are going to freak out because he comes back out of nowhere and the people who didn't order the PPV are going to start to think "I should really start ordering these shows so I don't miss the best things they have to offer".

Just like I disagree with them teasing things like The Rock returning/being in Philly.

I don't necessarily disagree with you in principle. But looking at it from there perspective, they're a publically traded company and its easy for us to sit here and say they should re-insert the element of surprise but as a publically traded company you can't do something that would leave money on the table and you can argue that going down this course of action will yield greater results in the long term but that is far from a sure thing.

[Vandal Savage]

if you like Bryan enough to subscribe to watch him, you already have for the Rumble. The Rumble sells itself. Bryan wont make a difference. Now for Smackdown moving to Thurs or Fast Lane then yes he would.

[SpReEfOrAlL]

[instagram]http://instagram.com/p/yT6y3qIh_e/[/instagram]

[Prince12]

Did anyone else see the interview after the show with Rock and Reigns. Wow this is gonna be an extremely cringeworthy couple of months with Heyman v Reigns on the mic..

[studcrackers]

if you like Bryan enough to subscribe to watch him, you already have for the Rumble. The Rumble sells itself. Bryan wont make a difference. Now for Smackdown moving to Thurs or Fast Lane then yes he would.

We probably should've feared when he made the comments he wants to be the face of smack down

[TheKingofSting]

I can't believe The Rock got booed. Philly fans.

Mizdow

[Prince12]

Mizdow is entertaining sure but it's still sad to see where he's fallen from being so close to knocking off Cena for the title. Whilst I can accept Cesaro lacks mic ability, Sandow is almost the complete package.

[TheGameChanger]

Mizdow is a great talent who has been poorly used. Same with Miz,Ziggler,Kidd,Cesaro and Titus O'Neil.

[Morris_Shatford]

Did anyone else see the interview after the show with Rock and Reigns. Wow this is gonna be an extremely cringeworthy couple of months with Heyman v Reigns on the mic..

Yeah,
Reigns is awful on the mic.

Its one of those things you would think they would have realized before they gave him the main event at Wrestlemania,
I can only hope they bring back Slick the Doctor of Style to act as his mouthpiece.

[Dunthreevy]

Not sure how many of you read Brandon Stroud's Best/Worst articles but I've been checking them out over the past couple months and I usually tend to agree with a good chuck of what he says, and at worst they're written in a funny way so they're entertaining.

Here's his Best/Worst of Royal Rumble 2015, with a focus on this one segment that I find to be pretty spot on.

http://uproxx.com/prowrestling/2015/01/ ... le-2015/5/

"Worst: WWE’s Fingerpoke Of Doom

Watching Kane and Big Show nonchalantly eliminate Dolph Ziggler, Bray Wyatt and Dean Ambrose — three of the most important characters in the match, all with great motivations — was the most obvious, heavy-handed f*ck you I think I’ve ever seen. It was the past calmly and defiantly **** the future, because they can do it.

They’re eliminated with ZERO fanfare. Bryan’s elimination was similar, but at least he looked like he put up a fight. Ziggler enters at #30, and before he’s been in long enough for anyone to care he jumps off the top rope into a knockout punch. Kane and Big Show pick him up by the shorts and dump him to the outside like he’s Heath Slater. While we’re seeing a replay of that, Bray Wyatt gets knocked out and tossed. Bray Wyatt, the character who dominated the early portion of the Rumble and eliminated the most popular guy in the match. Tossed like he’s nobody by BAD GUYS. Dean Ambrose makes a stand, but when Roman’s down he gets beaten up and tossed just the same. So not only do you have WWE’s chosen guy winning the match against the very-easy-to-observe will of the people, you’re making sure to tell those people their favorites don’t matter. There’s no struggle. No drama. Just two old guys from 20 years ago saying “this is how it is.”

That bothered me so much more than Roman winning. I think we all kinda figured Roman would win. He’s Roman Reigns. He delivers promos like someone snuck up behind him and hit him in the back of the head with a hammer, but he’s the guy. He’s related to the Rock, he’s handsome, he can work a little. He’s in great shape. He’s tall enough. It’s what they want. If they’d created some kind of exciting fight or moment of back-and-forth that put Roman over without so profusely pointing out how over he’s supposed to be, it would’ve been okay, I think."

[loserX]

They’re eliminated with ZERO fanfare. Bryan’s elimination was similar, but at least he looked like he put up a fight. Ziggler enters at #30, and before he’s been in long enough for anyone to care he jumps off the top rope into a knockout punch. Kane and Big Show pick him up by the shorts and dump him to the outside like he’s Heath Slater. While we’re seeing a replay of that, Bray Wyatt gets knocked out and tossed. Bray Wyatt, the character who dominated the early portion of the Rumble and eliminated the most popular guy in the match. Tossed like he’s nobody by BAD GUYS. Dean Ambrose makes a stand, but when Roman’s down he gets beaten up and tossed just the same. So not only do you have WWE’s chosen guy winning the match against the very-easy-to-observe will of the people, you’re making sure to tell those people their favorites don’t matter. There’s no struggle. No drama. Just two old guys from 20 years ago saying “this is how it is.”

I kind of agree and disagree. They`re still trying to build Reigns up, and one way to do that is to have him overcome overwhelming odds. So have two massive heels team up and start clearing the ring of all the other big-name faces...just utterly demolishing guys. (Also have your announcers talk about how said heels are setting all sorts of elimination "records". They must be unstoppable, right?) Then have Reigns triumph.

So for me, concept was basically okay if that's the way they want to go, it was just the execution that was botched. #1 reason: NOBODY CARES ABOUT KANE OR BIG SHOW. AT ALL. NOT AT ALL. We literally do not want them on our screens, let alone taking most of the big minutes at one of the year's biggest events. I'm not sure if there were really any other heels that would have worked in this spot, but those two guys sure didn't.

If the idea was to get Reigns over, it seems to me the obvious solution would have been to simply never put DB in the Rumble at all. Give him another match with someone. Hell, let him fight Triple H again or something. Just keep him out of the Rumble, where the fans would accept no other outcome than his winning. That would have been the easiest way to protect Reigns IMO. The fans might still not have liked a Reigns victory, but at least it doesn't come right on the heels of a DB burial.

EDIT -- I happen to like Reigns just fine, so may be defending him more than warranted

[Newz]

The worst part about the Kane/Big Show thing is that they had Reigns smack around Big Show on Raw. If you wanted that to be the thing... to impress people by eliminating some super huge dudes... then save that for the Rumble, don't have him do it on Raw.

Also, I don't even think you can fool fans with the "AH MAH GAH HE JUST THEW THAT BIG GUY OUT THAT WAS CRAYYyy!!1!!1" nonsense anymore. Cesaro threw Big Show out of the ring like he was nothing and that guy has been reduced to a jobber at this point.

[studcrackers]

Stanford and I have been touting Stroud for years on here Dunthreevy. He's top notch for the most part

[Dunthreevy]

Stanford and I have been touting Stroud for years on here Dunthreevy. He's top notch for the most part

I know I had heard his name a long time ago, probably from you guys, but I never started following his articles or twitter account until the past couple months. Really good stuff.

[TheKingofSting]

Did fans really block in the wrestlers cars after the show?

[Max Green]

Title match and the Rumble was awesome up until DB got eliminated. I wanted DB to win but you could've sold me on Ziggler, Bray or Ambrose winning. It's sad to say because I've always been a WWE fan, even during the MNW's I favored the WWE but Vince is completely out of touch with his own product.

[studcrackers]

Did fans really block in the wrestlers cars after the show?

no, that was a rumor

[TheKingofSting]

I was going to say Vince may never go back to Philly.