After watching WWE’s 2014 Royal Rumble pay-per-view, I joined in the outrage of the company not giving fans what they want. Fans in the audience, on Twitter and around the world wanted Daniel Bryan to win the Royal Rumble match. We wanted Bryan to at least be in the rumble match. However, after calming down and thinking about it, I realized something. WWE doesn’t care what the fans want, they will just do what they think is best for business.
[adinserter block=”1″]WWE doesn’t care if the fans wanted Bryan because chances are it is not going to stop them from watching the product. One of the greatest things about WWE and pro wrestling is that fans disagree on a lot of things. It’s best for business for fans to have different favorite wrestlers and characters. It wouldn’t actually be good if everyone only liked Daniel Bryan. Others like John Cena, the Undertaker and Dolph Ziggler I am sure sell a lot of merchandise. Chances are, as a fan, you won’t like and agree with every booking decision and result of every match. But you will keep watching. You will probably continue to purchase merchandise.
If WWE doesn’t like Daniel Bryan for some reason, if they don’t see him as their world champion, then they won’t book him as such. What happens as a result? Fans chant for Bryan throughout a show he is barely on and boo the stars that are there. Booing Rey Mysterio has probably never happened prior to the 2014 Royal Rumble match. Batista may have returned to WWE as a babyface, but after the booing and the Rumble winner’s reaction to fans, he may have turned heel. Why? Because the fans made him turn heel.
When Batista returned on Raw, he didn’t get much of a reaction. So why is WWE pushing him? Is it because he is friends with Triple H (like the other Royal Rumble 2014 winners)? Or is it because he is in movies?
Both.
It sure helps being friends with the guy in charge, but being in the entertainment business isn’t going to hurt either. Vince McMahon loves when WWE mixes with entertainment. It’s a big reason why The Rock became WWE Champion last year. If WWE is going to receive mainstream attention by putting the belt or attention on a particular person, they will do it.
However, I am sort of embarrassed for WWE. Do they realize what Batista’s win means? This is someone who openly said he doesn’t like the PG era. So Triple H and WWE are basically saying, we will give you a rumble win and main event match at WrestleMania if you come back. Oh yeah, and a lot of money. That makes WWE look bad in my opinion.
[adinserter block=”2″]WWE will look at ratings and pay-per-view buy rates and argue this and that, but how can they ignore the crazy reactions that Daniel Bryan gets? Because people like you and me will continue to watch WWE. I love pro wrestling and I grew up watching WWE. I actually stopped sometime during the Invasion until about 2005. It was a combination of getting to an age where my priorities changed and unsure if I liked where the product was headed. If angry WWE fans want change, that’s how to do it. Stop watching. If you are like me and won’t stop, then we just have to appreciate the good. Like Roman Reigns breaking Kane’s record of eliminations during the Royal Rumble and the future of Bray Wyatt. Because when it comes down to it, WWE doesn’t care what we want. They are just going to do what is best for business.
Seth Guttenplan is the owner of GuTTWrenchPowerBlog and WWE blogger for ProWrestlingPowerhouse.com. When Seth is not writing about wrestling, he is a Special Education teacher in New Jersey. To read more from Seth, follow him on twitter (@sethmikey) and visithttp://guttwrenchpowerblog.com
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Yeah, but that's the thing.. people, even wrestling fans, do have limits.
For me it's not just Dbry. It's watching every guy in this company that works his butt off become a 2nd tier player while has beens and part timers take the top spots because they want to play it safe. Last night was just the explosion that had been building for many, many months.
My 15 year old son asked me to get a refund on our EC tickets. We won't be watching Raw tonight, we have no desire to. Not because of last night, last night was only the exclamation point.
If WWE reaches a point where they want talented guys that work their butts off in the main event, we'll watch again. Ziggler, Bryan, Punk, Sandow, etc. But a Batista/Orton WM? I'd rather peel my fingernails off with a pair of pliers.