[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]To set the scene, WWE fans rallied behind Daniel Bryan after losing his title in 8 seconds to Sheamus at WrestleMania 28. Since then, Bryan’s popularity soared into MEGA HOT territory, peaking coming into the Summer of 2013, where Bryan beat Cena (clean) for the WWE title. However Aitch immediately heel-turned on Bryan, allowing Randy Orton to cash in his MITB briefcase, therefore nullifying any great work Cena had done and placing the heat on themselves. They delayed giving Bryan his big run as champion and tried to quell the crowd rallying behind him, which only made things worse. “#HijackRAW” was a thing – fans destroyed segments by chanting “YES” and “Daniel Bryan” during any segment they saw fit, demanding Bryan be the top guy. Most hilariously during the go-home RAW for TLC (Orton vs Cena), Steph was praising Triple H and fans completely killed the segment chanting for Bryan. The WWE machine decided to not only delay Bryan’s run, but cancel it entirely, in favour of a returning Batista vs Orton main event of WrestleMania. Fast forward to the Rumble. They booked Bryan in a singles match with Bray Wyatt and said he’s definitely not competing in the Rumble. Although fans (including myself) knew this, we expected that to be an obvious swerve. They couldn’t really cast aside the freshest, most popular full-timer around, could they? Surely he’ll be #30, right?
Watched this last night, here’s my thoughts on it:
• Beforehand Flair (on the pre-show panel) predicts BATISTA (which gets boos). An incensed Flair shouts “learn to love it!” Ha!
• Punk (#1) was still with the company! Wears a Gracie Academy hoodie. Odd how he carved out a niche as the guy who does what he wants (ie nobody else, save Brock, could do that). He looks ABSOLUTELY KNACKERED (he’d walk out before RAW the next day, refusing plans to wrestle Aitch at Mania). His haircut and chops makes him look like SUCH a Pikey! Himself and Seth kick off, they’re great together, wish they had a singles PPV match.
• Cody (#4) pre-stardust with his cool woah-oh heel song. JBL’s got his cog notes and throws out “this guy won at this entry” facts every so often.
• Rusev’s main roster debut, pre-lana but has the song. Swagger goes right for him – i.e. they’ve been teasing Rusev Swagger since his first night out of NXT.
• Kofi (#8) gets big pop as the crowd know he’ll do something awesome. This time Rusev catches him on the outside and puts him on the barricade; Kofi does a running jump to the apron (awesome!) gets a huge cheer. He then hangs on by hooking both feet under the bottom rope, and twats Swagger with his own boot.
• Ambrose & Reigns enter via the regular entrance way, it’s weird.
• Kevin Nash’s dyed brown short hair & goatee show up to the nWo theme.
• Reigns murders everyone, people boo Ziggler’s exit, as he was well over in Pittsburgh. With 3 members (and Punk skulking in the corner), they dominate.
• WWE’s production truck allocated 10 seconds for Khali’s song (#16) but he was only halfway down the runway. He’s immediately thrown back out, his knees must’ve been really bad. Not complaining!
• Sheamo returns to take on the shield. Gets a loud cheer returning from a shoulder injury 5 months ago. I’ve been enjoying him not being on TV recently. Hopefully they do something different with him, “babyface bully” wasn’t great!
• #19 Fandango – fans immediately sing his song and do the finger dance. That’s what you get for being concussed Fandango, buried and repackaged with a new song people can’t hum.
• El Torito does a hold-the-midget-at-arm’s-length with Punk, he eliminated Fandango before being eliminated by Reigns – Fandango catches him on the outside and lays him down gently so he doesn’t take a bump. What a great guy.
• Cesaro swing: fans go out of time at the FORTH revolution and start cheering at 17.
• JBL at #24. Cole quips that this is the “JBL character’s first match” (as Bradshaw entered at least the 98 Rumble). I know he’s trying to make this a big deal but don’t call people characters. Otherwise they’d better count Isaac yankem and Fake Diesel amongst Kane’s appearances then too, ya bastards! JBL does a stupid “hold my coat” routine and gets eliminated immediately. I get he’s not wrestling but it just makes him look like a moron, JBL’s not an idiot character either. He gets “you still got it” chants, oh fuck off.
• During JBL’s entrance, Kane sneaking under the ring is caught on camera, a rare fuck up.
• Usos and Wyatts gets no crowd reaction, same with Big E. Ryback gets immediate Goldberg chants. When did those stop? I suppose he got de-pushed with Rybaxl so he stopped getting backlash from fans.
• Batista gets a pop and then a few seconds later, gets loud boos. The turnaround is ridiculous! Really funny.
• R-O-N Mastrio (#30) enters, Cole reams off his fact sheet (jaysus, he’s terrible for that) and immediately the fans cop Daniel Bryan’s not coming out. They loudy boo and chant for Bryan. I’ve never heard anything like it in a rumble. It’s relentless and gets louder for Rey’s spots, jeering him with a pop when he’s eliminated and back to hijacking the show.
• Reigns eliminates Seth, Dean and Cesaro for trying to eliminate him, breaking Kane’s record at 12.
• Kane does a run-in and takes out Punk to more boos. (Punk never gets praise for going 49:12 in this Rumble! He did Road Dogg in the corner for most of it though!). Pairing Punk and Kane. Now they’re pairing Bryan and Kane. Why can’t they pair someone shit with Kane?
• FINISH: Three guys left: Sheamus, reigns an Batista, as the crowd loudly boo. Anyone buy this on DVD – did they dub the audio? I’d forgotten how bad the boos were. They chant “no” instead of “brogue” to Sheamo beating his chest. Crowd eventually chant for Roman and Batista delivers a nasty stiff spear, OWW. Reigns is much softer. Fans boo Reigns’ elimination and BOOOOOOOOO, no! and daniel bryan chants. Besides Batista looking a little pissed, they still all did their spots (I imagine they thought they’d fix it in post.) I can’t recall any other WWE PPV quite like it. Batista/Big Show ECW Hammerstein they weren’t rallying behind anyone, just booing these lads. I watched it live in the Woolshed Pub first time around so I couldn’t hear much of the audio (beyond there were boos) and it wasn’t until 2nd viewing I heard just how vicious it was. It’s worse than I remember! That said, I’m so happy the crowd forced WWE’s hand to MAKE FANS HAPPY (why is this a fight?) but it tinged Bryan’s WM win with bitterness of how hard we had to work to get it.
Rumble 2015: Since Reigns is pegged to win it, and it’s in smark town Philly, he’ll get a bad reaction, but I think since Bryan’s in the Rumble, the pressure and focus is taken off him, so it won’t nearly be half as bad. Just brace yourself, tonight’s gonna be another #FuckyouBritain! I think we all gotta accept Cena and Reigns are gonna win, set those expectations low so we can’t be disappointed!
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If you missed it, here’s my new Tough Enough S1 Eps 5-6-7 review and OSW update![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
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