[Shadrick]

I'm not the type to have knee-jerk reactions to PPVs, especially a few moments after they end. Also, my posts never get on Noid status (sup, Noid? *bro fist*), I usually keep my opinions light and engage in somewhat healthy debates here and there. However, this is one time, I have to say this, with affirmation:

Fuck you, WWE.

I'm an adamant supporter of the "lets just see where it goes" logic. As a person in my every day life, I make a point to have the "glass half full" approach. When Daniel Bryan won the title at Summerslam, and then Orton cashed in, I said "well it sucks that the moment wasn't 'authentic' but he'll chase the title, and eventually win it in some valiant fashion. Fast forward, and he faces Orton and A FAST COUNT by Ref Armstrong (which I don't think was ever explained, someone help me out here, please) and he's stripped of the title? Okay.

Enter the Wyatt family. My mind says "Alright, this will give Bryan something to do outside of the title picture. It was a good test run and they see he's over as shit so a decent run with the belt is a lock, right?" I was wrong. I'm not even including all of the times Raw ended with him not getting the upperhand when he should have. What made Austin/Rock so mesmerizing during face runs is that SOMETIMES they got the better of the authority, and sometimes the authority got the better of them. There was a balance that kept you rooting for the guy, and you legit didn't know if he'd come out on top at the end of each episode. That made it entertaining.

I completely understand Cena being the top dog and getting the belt off Del Rio in order to unify it at TLC. So now I'm saying "Well, Bryan wins the rumble, he's hot, and he gets an even BIGGER moment by winning BOTH belts after chasing them, at the biggest stage of them all." Too many times though, it seemed as if Cena just deferred to Bryan on some "Hey give this kid another shot." another thing I think hurt the momentum. But I was cool with it if it had an endgame.

After being screwed so many times, I started to wonder if WWE was doing it on purpose, to cool him off. Even if they were, it didn't work. When he broke away from the Wyatt family, and that entire crowd was with him, I had never seen anyone that white hot in a long time. Yeah, the Summer of Punk was amazing, but he was a tweener, going up against Cena, who still had major support from a good amount of the audience. Daniel Bryan had EVERYONE on their feet for him. I had never seen a crowd that involved in one guy in a very long time. Including The Rock.

Here comes Batista.

People start mentioning how Batista could win the rumble and I legit thought "no way." I didn't think there was a way a guy could come back after a few years, and just win a rumble. Just like that. One Raw, and then "oh hey guys i win lol." I'm not a Batista hater, I just thought they wouldn't do that. DB was white hot. Concussion was an issue? Clearly it wasn't, he just had a match. He could have come in at 30, bruised and beaten, and gone for a few minutes.

Fan touched on it before, Batista is no Rock. When Rock came back in 2011, it was to host Mania. When he wrestled in 2012, it was for a major match, two marquee names, you thought you'd never see. When he wrestled in 2013, it was against a guy who had an active 434 day reign, longest in the modern era. And the point was to transition over to Cena. That made perfect business sense. No one was hot enough at the time for me to warrant the "Rock is taking peoples spots" logic. But I say that to say...

I had some friends of mine joke with me today about a surprise Rock return at the Rumble to win the whole thing, and they said "Shad, I bet you'd love it if Rock came back and won the rumble" and without hesitation I said "No. That would suck. That would be a terrible decision because DB is so hot right now. Besides, Rock wrestling in a 3rd straight main event? I'm over it. I'm a Rock fan; I grew up on him like some guys grew up on Savage and Hogan, but no. NO ONE was as white hot as DB right now when Rock returned before. I just knew the WWE would do the "right" thing.

So I'm watching the rumble and 29 comes out and I say "30 has to be DB" and my buddy reminds me "Rey Mysterio." And my face falls flat. I'm not even the type to get too vested in this sport; I like to just see where things go, but honestly, if they're trying to shit on the fans, they just did an amazing job. Summerslam was 6 months ago. And Bryan has not been capitalized on like he should have been. The rumble was the chance to do so and they did not. A rematch with Sheamus would be a waste, I don't care how good the match has the potential to be.

What would have happened if in 98, they would have had a returned Kevin Nash win the rumble instead of the white hot Austin? Seems blasphemous right? Competition existed back then though.

I'm just ranting. I'm legit annoyed by the outcome of this rumble. Cheers. /Noid post.