Which was worse - Royal Rumble 2014, or 2015?

[superchamp]

I went back and watched the Wyatt/Bryan match from the Rumble 2014 as I remembered it being really good (and it is), and that kinda lead me to re-watch the 2014 Royal Rumble match on the Network. And watching it I was just thinking how horrible the match actually was.

- CM Punk, for all intents and purposes who was the number 2/3 face on the show and one of the biggest stars they had, lasted from number 1 to the final 4 and the commentators seem to go out of their way to NEVER mention him. Like he's quite prominent throughout, and I swear they mention him by name after the first few competitors all of about four times. I wonder if him going back and re-watching this that night made him think "f*** this", and I don't blame him. It's ridiculous.
- No big suprise entrants. Kevin Nash again. Yay?
- The shitstorm after Rey Mysterio comes out and they realise that Daniel Bryan isn't actually going to come out, and the crowd just completely do not care about the rest of the match. Why you would just toss aside your main storyline for the past 4/5 months which people invested in and expect a different reaction, I'm not sure. It's like if Austin wasn't in the 98 Rumble and lost a match to Kane earlier in the night, and that was that taken care of. Idiotic.
- This made me laugh. The recap video at the end of the match just focuses on Roman Reigns. Nobody else, not Batista, not Punk lasting until the final four, not Kofi's two cool near elimination spots (the first one was ridiculously contrived in setup but they're fun little spots so I don't really care), but Roman Reigns eliminating everybody left and right and spearing Batista before finally being eliminated. Right, so how exactly does this make the actual winner of the match look good when the highlight just recaps Reigns beating everyone in sight? What did that achieve?

It's just an atrociously booked match, and I thought to myself "have they ever booked a Rumble match that badly before?" - then remembered that they did a pretty good job of trying to repeat that earlier this year!

Both matches had telegraphed winners, Daniel Bryan disappointment, but in your opinion which was the worse Rumble of the two? And will we carry on this trend of this brain damage booking for Royal Rumble matches this year?

[alexwrightspackage]

I only vote for 2015 cause they didn't learn a damn thing from 2014, including why Reigns was popular in the '14 Rumble but an unpopular idea in '15.

[Mozenrath]

2014 was worse to me, just since 2015 was misguided, but the actual match bored me less.

[Deleted]

Easily 2015.
they at least managed to make wrestlemania main event work for 2014

[Aboutreika18]

2015 had the crowd begging for Rusev to win by the end of it.

Think about that.

[Captain Stud Muffin (BLM)]

2015 because the second half was so obvious and filled with some BS in the form of Kane and Show killing everyone. Though I liked main event of 2015 more because it had that sense of unpredictability to it unlike 2014 where it was a forgone conclusion Bryan was winning the belt once the stipulation for him and HHH was made.

[Mid-Carder]

I'm shocked 2015 is winning this by so much. I consider 2015 a lack of judgment - I can see how they thought Roman's win would be better received. 2014 was a blatant slap in the face to fans.

[4real]

2015 because they didn't learn from the mistakes of the year before and the whole match seemed so lazily put together and everyone that was over was quickly disposed of.

For 2014's problems it was still a decent Rumble imo just soul destroying by the end.

[Jedi-El of Tomorrow]

Nov 15, 2015 8:24:26 GMT -5 @marketpolice89 said:

Easily 2015.
they at least managed to make wrestlemania main event work for 2014

They also made it work for 2015.

Nov 15, 2015 8:45:41 GMT -5 Aboutreika18 said:

2015 had the crowd begging for Rusev to win by the end of it.

Think about that.

2014 had the crowd begging for Roman to win it.

I go with 2015 as worse, having Bryan in there only to get eliminated early was stupid beyond belief. And then having Kane and Big Show dominate when the crowd was going nuts for Dolph and Ambrose was even dumber.

[Fauxnaki]

regardless of who won in 2015 it was just a real poor rumble from an in-ring stand point also the complete lack of suspense

[g1megatronfan]

This year's was. Funny...but terrible. I recently rewatched it and still laughed my ass off at it. After Bryan got eliminated the crowd shit on everybody with the exceptions of Ambrose, Mizdow and Ziggler. Just the sight of Reigns coming out to massive boos the second his music hit...lol. I'm not even a Reigns hater but that was hilarious because you knew what it was going to be like from there on out. The Rock's reaction...lmfao. He had to have known why he was there and what the reaction was gonna be like before he hit the ring.

The 2015 gave us something very special...we actually got a "We want Rusev!" chant...that was awesome...lol. There must have been a lot of Russian sympathizers in the crowd that night...lol.

[Jiren]

2015

2014 was bad but 2015 was just spiteful

[Gravedigger's Biscuits]

2015 was worse because it seemed like WWE were actually trying to piss people off.

They knew people would hate Bryan being in for only 10 minutes, they knew people would hate Show and Kane eliminating everyone, they knew everyone (okay, a lot of people at least) would hate Reigns winning.

And yet they did it anyway. 2014 you can at least put down to naivety and the fact Bryan was never actually even hinted at being in the Rumble.

2015 was just complete bullshit from every angle.

[Eunös ✈]

2014

Even now it still baffles me that they thought Batista winning was a good idea.

[mrtuesday]

2014 was just bad call.

2015 just went to show that they learned nothing from the previous year.

[ThankGodForSidJustice]

2015 and it's not even close. Horribly put together match with the only guys coming out looking being Kane and Big Show, the two guys in the match who didn't need to look good. Everyone else, even Reigns who won, came out worse then they did. Kane and Big Show dumping all the popular wrestlers at the end like garbage was a joke.

I guess maybe because I'm one of the few people that likes Batista, but I actually liked the 2014 Rumble. Yeah Bryan should've been in the match and he should've won but for what it was I thought it was a solid Rumble with some good work from guys like the Shield, Sheamus, Cesaro, and Luke Harper. Other then Ziggler, Del Rio, and I guess Big E I also thought everyone in the match was booked right and given good ring time.

[The Unconquered Sun]

Let's see, Local Men throwing out the guys the crowd actually supported, with ease. Yeah I'll go with that one.

[1 Free Moon-Down with Burger]

2014 was actually a decent rumble. Just the wrong guy won.

2015 was badly executed all the way through. Reigns winning is the least of that rumble's problems.

[cabbageboy]

This is 2015. I don't recall the crowd completely turning on 2014 until they realized Bryan was not in it. I said as it was happening "Oh man, once Punk is tossed this is going to get ugly." And sure enough Kane screwed Punk and then the crowd was hilarious. That said, it was an ill conceived match but not one with any long term bad ramifications since Bryan ended up in the WM main event anyway.

2015 was far more damaging. It severely wounded Roman Reigns' chances for ever being taken seriously as a main eventer. It was also a far worse match in terms of its booking and wrestling. 2015's was a badly wrestled match, with horrible dull stretches to go along with the inane booking. By the time Big Show and Kane were casually tossing fan favorites it almost seemed like WWE was actively insulting the viewers.

[Woo]

2015 was just a desperate attempt at making sure Roman Reigns was not booed.

"Okay we need to put Bryan in the match. We won't have a repeat of last year hahaha! But we'll get rid of him quick so the focus stays on the other guys and the fans will be fine with that because he was at least in the match. Okay now we need the fans to cheer Roman so we'll have him be in the final four with Big Show and Kane, as nobody likes them, and the evil Russian! That is brilliant! Hmmmmm, but Kane and Show are 7 feet two and from the Attitude era, what's not to love?! Okay we'll make fans REALLY hate them two by having the two lugs team up and eliminate everybody the crowd cares about like Ziggler, Ambrose, Ryback and Wyatt. With all them out they will have to cheer for Reigns right? Hmmmm we need something else. Okay we'll have Rusev slide under the bottom rope and hide outside the ring until Roman thinks he's won and blindside attack him. Who could possibly cheer on the sneaky Russian after that?! Nobody!....But we'll have the Rock come out and raise his hand at the end just to make sure we get the desired result. The fans won't see through that will they? I'm a genius!"


2014's rumble was clearly the most idiotic. How an Earth could you not put your #1 star in the Royal Rumble? Just beyond stupid. But the fans were into it until Rey entered. The fans booed almost everybody aside from Ziggler, Ambrose and Sandow in 2015 after Bryan's exit so that one was worse I guess.

I'm going with 2014 as I can kind of see the logic the WWE did by booking the 2015 the way they did, even if it is incredibly dumb, but the 2014's exclusion of Daniel Bryan is something only a moron could agree with.