FanPost

A live perspective of fans turning on the Royal Rumble in Philadelphia

WWE.com

Hey everyone! Long-time reader, semi-regular commenter, and first-time Fan Poster here, with some thoughts from the live Royal Rumble show. I was asked by a couple people to put up a fan post with my thoughts on the annual event since I was in attendance. Unfortunately, I have a pretty full schedule between work, school, and my kids, so I will have to keep this short and use bullet points.

  • I was on the upper level, on the same side as the hard camera, so I was watching from the same angle as the home viewers for most of the time. My awesome wife got me the tickets for Christmas, she’s a non-fan but went with me and we had a great time in Philly.

  • We watched the pre-show on my phone since we couldn’t see the team too well from our angle. Michael Cole came out to a chorus of boos, but JBL and (somewhat surprisingly) Lawler were warmly received. No national anthem from Lillian Garcia, which was a bit of a surprise.

  • The pre-show match was a good indicator of how the crowd was going to be: hot, passionate and in no way beholden to how WWE wants us to act. Tyson Kidd and especially Cesaro were super over, and The New Day were booed out of the building. People reacted positively to Kofi’s big spots and even when Big E speared (I believe) Kidd through the ropes, but the gimmick died on the vine to the point when Woods started banging on the apron to get a clap-along going, it turned into a "New! Day sucks!" chant. The crowd popped loudly for the finish and it was a very good match.

  • It has to be said, the New Age Outlaws were used perfectly here. The crowd was hugely into them and they still looked sharp. The Ascension has been a debacle so far but they did get some genuine heel heat from beating up the Outlaws. This match still probably should have been on the pre show though.

  • The tag match was pretty fun, although they went too far in making the Usos look practically immortal from kicking out of so many finishers. It probably doesn’t need to be said that Mizdow was insanely over. One of the Usos looked like they botched a plancha spot and landed scarily.

  • The divas match was what it was. I’m a big Nikki Bella fan and a huge Paige fan and would have preferred a one-on-one match, but the Bellas did do some pretty cool tag team moves. Too bad the crowd couldn’t care less.

  • The world title match was absolutely amazing. Cena was booed mercilessly by easily 85% of the crowd, Rollins got a decent amount of cheers that got steadily louder with every big spot that he pulled off, and Brock Lesnar was hailed as a conquering hero with every merciless German Suplex. One of the best matches I’ve ever had the privilege of witnessing live.

  • I’m told it didn’t get on TV, but we gave Rollins a very well-deserved standing ovation after the match.

  • The Rumble started off amazingly. Bubba Ray’s return was greeted by thunderous cheers, the Bray Wyatt run through the jobbers and surprise returns was also very over, naturally Daniel Bryan was hailed as the hero of the match, and people absolutely loved seeing DDP one more time.

  • And then…Bryan was eliminated.

  • I have never, in my life, experienced anything like how the air went out of that room when Bryan hit the floor. The shock, disbelief, and slowly growing anger was palpable. Chants of "Daniel Bryan!" were heard well after he was eliminated. As the match progressed, even the countdowns from 10, were listless. A couple guys like Ambrose and Ziggler were still well-received, but everyone knew what was going to happen when Reigns came out, and man oh man, was Philadelphia not having any of it. Chants of "Bull****!" "We want refunds!" and "This is awful!" permeated the whole building. The real anger didn’t start until Dolph Ziggler, the unexpected hero of Survivor Series, was unceremoniously dumped to make Kane and The Big Show look strong. After that, even The Rock (whose initial pop was massive) couldn’t save the show.

  • I didn’t hear The Rock’s post-match promo, I was too disgusted. Leaving the building, everyone looked like they had been kicked in the teeth. I can’t say I’m surprised that the show was so poorly received on TV, even though I would say everything other than the last 30 minutes was a big thumbs up. Way to go, Vince, way to go.

The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Cageside Seats readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cageside Seats editors or staff.