**OFFICIAL** 2015 Royal Rumble Thread - The Road To Wrestlemania Starts At TPWW

[Mr. Pierre]

I was at the show last night, and like Vito said, it was obvious that WWE just wanted to get Bryan outta the way so Roman can have a better shot of being cheered in the second half.

The Rumble should be used to get multiple people over, but instead it hindered several performers at the expense of Reigns, who was literally being boo'd so badly that I could barely hear his music in the arena.

I just wanted to mention how fucking awfully thought out this Rumble was, and list some guys who were truly screwed:

Reigns - The obvious one. Fucking wow. What are they doing to do this guy? He has a great look, seems to have a great head on his shoulders, and was developing nicely until around Summerslam. Also, it's fairly obvious that his opponent for WM is Lesnar, who has now been turned into the #1 babyface in the company. It wasn't like Lesnar was just cheered by a bunch of loud smarks, but the WWE wrote him as a babyface last night. If Reigns goes up against Lesnar at this point, with Lesnar leaving the next day, it has potential to get ugly very fast.

Ambrose - What the fuck? His only purpose in this match was similar (but to a much lesser extent obviously) to the Rock's. His popularity was attempted to get Reigns over with the crowd as they fought off Show and Kane at the end. Completely forgettable performance, but not due to a lack of effort by Dean, but because it was his job to throw punches for 10 minutes and then be "Roman's boy" in the final moments. Just fucking lame. No direction, no nothing. Literally tossed out like a piece of garbage by a duo of wrestlers who don't need any sort of rub, especially one at the Royal Rumble.

Ziggler - Ok so he wasn't booked to win it, fine. But why not have him come out a bit earlier and let this guy have a nice performance? I know the answer, and it's because WWE went out of their way to make Dolph look average to make Reigns look great. Two months ago, Dolph just beat the Authority. Last night, he lasted in the Rumble for 3 minutes. What the fuck is going on here?

Bryan - Vito hit the nail on the head. Essentially Bryan would have the first half of the Rumble, be eliminated, and Roman would have the second half in hopes of helping his cause. It made things even worse. Bryan was the most over guy in the match by a mile, not just in Philly, but anywhere, and he was out within 12 minutes. Not to mention, his elimination sets up no future storyline or direction.

Wyatt - What a first half he had. Showcased amazingly, bitching people out. I loved it. Then when the Roman Reigns Show began, he was completely lost in the shuffle, and tossed out by the Authority. What? So Wyatt has a monster performance, and we can't even get a babyface (please not named Roman), to dump him over the ropes? Why couldn't Ambrose get an ounce of heat back from the Wyatt feud and have a fun spot with him? Why couldn't Wyatt's WM opponent start some shit with him here? Just fucking brutal

Rusev - So, WWE couldn't let Roman and Rusev each grab a corner of the ring for all of 10 seconds so commentary and the audience (TV and arena) can establish that "These are our final two participants"? Instead, Rusev runs in the ring like a total goofball, runs into the Spear and tossed over the ropes before anyone can process, "Wow this Rusev guy is legit, making it to the finals in the Rumble."

I honestly think that last night may have been the worst booked Rumble match in history. I can't recall a worse one. Not only did the wrong wrestler win, but they did it at the expense of so many people

Anyways, I also wanted to point out how fucking awesome that triple threat was. Just wow, whatta match. Great stories told all around, lots of fun spots, tons of emotion by everyone involved. I loved every minute of it.

Cena did a great job here, Lesnar is just amazing, and Rollins is a star. This match could not have been any better. Excellent booking (I personally enjoyed the Lesnar face-turn spots, but it's truly baffling why Reigns is the one going after him this Mania season), and literally had me guessing until the very end.

Amazing how WWE can do such a perfect job orchestrating their show from 9:00-10:00 PM, and then completely shit the bed in the final hour. It truly does feel like there's two minds with totally different visions operating the machine.