"Why the Royal Rumble Was Secretly Brilliant" or "The Only Thing Wrong With WWE's Booking is the Fans"

January 26, 2014. It's Sunday, and it's time for WWE's annual January tradition, the Royal Rumble. During the entire preceding year there was a wrestler who quickly gained favor with the WWE fans. He was a smaller wrestler with a kind, laid back personality that we could relate to. In short, he wasn't what WWE was looking for. This man's name was Daniel Bryan. All year we had spent our money to come to arenas all over the country and chant "YES!" in honor of our new favorite wrestler. That fateful Sunday night we sat down to watch the Royal Rumble match, and slowly each of the thirty men entered. With each one we wondered how long it would be before we would see our hero get his chance to compete in one of the most important matches of his career. Eventually we got through number 29, and there was no Daniel Bryan. Every last one of us was positive we would see Daniel walk through the curtain at number thirty and win the Royal Rumble. Slowly the counter ticked down. 3...2...1... and we were greeted with... Rey Mysterio. There would be no Daniel Bryan in that years Royal Rumble. We were heartbroken. Not only that, but with all the young superstars in the Rumble that year, the man chosen to win was an over the hill, semi retired movie star named Batista, who had already been getting lukewarm reactions for his return. This was a colossal booking mistake, and was rectified when they shoehorned Daniel Bryan into the Wrestlemania main event anyway. Now, let me tell you why what happened at this year's Rumble is nothing like that.

Last year WWE's plan was to ignore Daniel Bryan entirely because they didn't understand what made the crowd love him, and so they were rightfully afraid they wouldn't be able to write properly for it, at least that's how I saw it. This year they responded to the Daniel Bryan fans by booking the most secretly genius ending to a Royal Rumble I have ever seen. The first genius move they made was the elimination of Daniel Bryan. First of all, WWE has noticed, as have I, that every time Daniel Bryan loses, the ratings don't go down, subscriptions don't go down, but fans certainly get louder. The more they hold him back, the more the fans want him, and if they can keep that tension at a boiling point just before they pull the trigger, they can have a new Stone Cold on their hands. Second reason Daniel Bryan's elimination was brilliant has to do with the man who eliminated him, Bray Wyatt, an incredibly promising heel that is so cool, it's hard to get crowd to boo him. Him eliminating Daniel Bryan was WWE's attempt to put the monstrous heat of taking out the WWE fans chosen star on him. It didn't work, but more on that in a minute.

The next brilliant move involves two other wrestlers, men the fans would have gladly accepted as substitutes to win. Those men are Dolph Ziggler and Dean Ambrose. Late in the match they were both dumped over the top rope unceremoniously by Kane and the Big Show, painting them as careless assholes who had no respect for either of these stars. This was the WWE attempting to take the heat from eliminating the other two fan favorites, and placing it on the Big Show and Kane. At the end of the match Roman Reigns eliminated both Kane and Big Show, and was he treated to the welcome of a hero who vanquished two men who had earlier treated the fan favorites with such disdain? No. He was booed.

The question we have to ask ourselves is why, when in any other era these decisions would have done exactly what they meant to do, did none of it work? The answer is the fans. Fans today seem to have a tendency to read into everything that goes on. Because they know more about the product than ever, and because they read into things, they didn't see Big Show and Kane treating Ziggler and Ambrose with disrespect. In the fans minds they saw the writing team dumping those men like bags of garbage. You put this booking in any other era and it would work perfectly. Bray Wyatt would be a much more over heel, and Roman Reigns would be a conquering hero who dispatched of the bullies Kane and Big Show. The only problem I can think of is the fans.

Now, is it because the fans are spoiled, and feel like they have the right to demand that their favorite guy win? Maybe, but unlikely. What I think is more likely is that wrestling fans, in the post-kayfabe era, find it much harder to watch the show as a fictional product. They understand that the matches are predetermined, but because of that they have lost the ability to see that it was Kane and Big Show who eliminated Ziggler and Ambrose. They refuse to see it that way, instead blaming the writing staff. When a character you love is killed on Game of Thrones, most fans don't blame George R.R. Martin. They blame the evil character that killed them, because the veil between reality and fiction is much thicker with books and other T.V. shows. The veil between reality and fiction is much thinner in professional wrestling, and so it becomes much harder to separate the reality of the writing staff from the fiction that is what you see on the show. Either way you slice it, it's clear the fans are the problem with WWE's current booking.

That being said, if the fans are your problem in the entertainment industry, it's still your job to change to suit them. Going back to another television show, if an audience grows up with a show like Saved By The Bell, the audience will inevitably change as they grow. If the show fails to grow with them, you can't blame the fans. The writers have a responsibility to keep their fingers on the pulse of the crowd and change with them as much as they can. WWE failed to do this on Sunday at the Royal Rumble. They booked a fantastic story with a hot up and coming babyface with all the natural gifts to make it. It was perfect. The only problem is that it wasn't booked for the current audience, and so it all fell apart in front of them. They got a reaction, which is better than nothing, but the heat being on your writing staff rather than your wrestlers is not good.

What does this mean? Should WWE just give in and always let the fan favorite win? How should WWE handle this sudden change in audience tone? I have no idea. That's probably why I don't work for WWE. What I do know is they need to figure something out, or they'll have a hard time catching up and figuring out how to manipulate the crowd once again.I will end by saying that I absolutely do not think Jamming Daniel Bryan into the main event once more is the answer. Think you DO have the answer? Go ahead and leave a comment below and let us know what you would do if you were WWE.