WWE Royal Rumble 2014

Image Source: Wrestling
DVD Network

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Genre: Wrestling
Produced By: WWE
Format: Pay-Per-View
Date: January 26 2014
Location: Consol Energy Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
Attendance: 15,715

Royal Rumble is usually one of the most anticipated and exciting supershows of the WWE calendar. One reason is due to its unpredictability, as it's the one night of the year when literally anybody could potentially show up in some capacity (well, maybe not those under contract to competitors, but you get the point). A bigger reason, though, is its knock-on effect on WrestleMania: as every WWE fan knows, whomever wins the Royal Rumble match earns a World Title shot in the main event at WrestleMania (usually, anyway). This year, with WrestleMania hitting its 30th entry, there was even more interest on who would win the Rumble match, boosted further by the fact that the recent unification of World Championships means that there would only be one World Title match at WM, further heightening the importance of winning the Rumble match.

Going in, the most likely contender seemed to be Batista, after his much-hyped return to WWE; an Animal victory would set up a star-studded main event for Mania. CM Punk was also in the Rumble, albeit from the #1 position, reducing his chances of victory. There were no other real contenders, at least amongst those officially announced, meaning that a surprise entry would have the best chance of upsetting the odds. As it turned out, however, it was the non-entry of a certain wrestler which would ultimately be the most memorable aspect of the 2014 Rumble match.

On the night of annual unforeseen developments, there was a surprise on the pre-show, as The New Age Outlaws - who returned at Old-School Raw, then stuck around long enough to turn heel on CM Punk and become minor members of The Authority - unexpectedly defeated The Brotherhood combo of Cody Rhodes and Goldust to win the WWE Tag Team Titles. That Road Dogg and Billy Gunn were even back in a regular role was surprising enough, but the fact that they won their first WWE Tag Team crowns for nearly 14 years was fairly shocking. Surely this is a short-term run to set up the next babyface triumph, which may very well be Goldust and Cody again.

Kicking off the PPV proper was Daniel Bryan vs. Bray Wyatt, in the culmination of a strange yet intriguing storyline. The Wyatts targeted Bryan and CM Punk in October, and Bray said "The devil made me do it" which hinted at Authority involvement. That didn't happen, and Punk disappeared from the picture after Survivor Series, but Bryan remained a Wyatt target. Then, on the final Raw of 2013, Bryan unexpectedly joined the Wyatts, although it became clear that he was going to destroy the group from within. It seemed like this plotline would last months rather than weeks, but only a fortnight later, Bryan turned on Bray inside a steel cage to an unbelievably loud "Yes!" chant, all of which set up Bryan vs. Bray here.

This was Wyatt's biggest match to date, and it was by far his best match yet; Bray showed skills here which fans have yet to see from him, which combined with the always-energetic Bryan, and the loud Pittsburgh crowd, made for one hell of an opening match. Bryan started strong with a high crossbody, but after plonking his head on the steel stairs, Wyatt took control. Wyatt largely worked on Bryan's head and arm over the next few minutes, but Bryan mounted a big comeback, which hit a peak with a great top rope hurricanrana. A running Wyatt crossbody was followed by a huge tornado DDT by Bryan, with the crowd now truly loving this back-and-forth match. Bryan hit a sequence of running dropkicks, the last of which was countered by a big Bray clothesline. Bryan tried to win with the Yes Lock and a top rope headbutt to no avail, and after a failed attempt at a Running Knee, Bryan unleashed a tope to the floor. But Wyatt reversed it into a cool and painful-looking Sister Abigail into the ringside barricade. Wyatt laughed as he threw Bryan back in the ring to hit one more Sister Abigail for the pinfall win.

This was a superb battle, and a fantastic start to one of WWE's biggest events of the year. As noted earlier, it was Bray Wyatt's best match to date by a wide margin, and the first sign that Wyatt's big push is also justified by his in-ring skills, as well as his unique character and topnotch mic work. The one surprising aspect of this match was the result, and the fact that Bray won cleanly. It was assumed initially that it could lead to a rematch at Elimination Chamber where Bryan finally put Wyatt in his place, but Wyatt-related developments in a later match would put that theory to bed. Confusion led to uproar when Bryan wasn't seen again later, which I will explain in due course.

Next up, we had Brock Lesnar vs. Big Show. It seemed strange that WWE would use one of Lesnar's few PPV encounters against a man he had fought in his initial WWE run, but the layout of this bout made it clear that Show was simply installed as Brock's opponent to take a brutal beating. Indeed, Lesnar pounded Show with chairshots before the bell rang, and whilst Show retaliated once the match officially began with a killer WMD punch, Brock survived it and hit an almighty F5 for the quick win. Afterwards, Lesnar picked up the chair and again unleashed a ferocious beating on Show, even breaking the chair and leaving Show with nasty-looking cuts and welts.

I thought Lesnar would be entered into the Royal Rumble match, but the fact that WWE kept him away (despite Paul Heyman stating Brock's intentions to win the WWE Title) means that WWE is either going to have Lesnar win the gold at Elimination Chamber and defend it at WrestleMania against the Royal Rumble winner, or he is being saved for another match with a view to his title shot coming after Mania. If the goal was to make Lesnar look like a killing machine, this match achieved it perfectly, even if Show oddly walked out, albeit slowly and in pain, rather than being carted out (which he has been in the past, despite his enormous size).

Following this, we had Randy Orton vs. John Cena for the WWE Title, in Cena's mandatory rematch following the title loss/unification at TLC. Logical thinking, one would assume, except that Orton and Cena have fought so many times that it's not even funny. To be fair, their last extended feud was in 2009, with sprinkles of square-offs since then, and their pairing at TLC could be justified given the significance of their match. That they were meeting again, even if only to end their latest feud (Orton even attacked Cena's dad again in a repeat of his actions back in 2007), was not a wise decision, even if it could be justified by the fact that the World Title match at RR is sometimes forgotten due to the Rumble match, meaning that in many cases the number one contender has little chance of winning. In front of the right crowd, it might have worked. In front of this hardcore, smarky Pennsylvania crowd, it didn't.

Indeed, whilst the action was respectable and at times rather entertaining (and the two men deviated from their routines by hitting the other man's finishing moves; Orton hitting an AA, and Cena laster nailing an RKO), one could not enjoy the match because the crowd pretty much s--t all over it. Awakening memories of when the New Jersey crowd hijacked Raw the night after WrestleMania 29 during Orton's match with Sheamus, the audience let the combatants and WWE know that they had no interest in what was happening in the ring, The big difference here from when it happened the night after WM 29 was that, unlike Orton vs. Sheamus - a basic match on a weekly episode of television - this was a World Title match on the second or third (depending on your point of view) biggest event of the year, and it involved arguably WWE's two biggest full-time stars. Cena has received similar treatment for years, so it went over his head, but Orton (the heel) was clearly not amused, and at one point played to the crowd in such a manner that it said "I'm pretending I'm liking this because I'm a villain, but in reality I'm fuming".

After the random chants for the likes of Chris Jericho, Randy Savage and Daniel Bryan, and several remarks about how bored the crowd felt watching what, if muted, was an adequate title match, the fans finally came to life when a potential Cena victory was unexpectedly thwarted by an appearance by the Wyatt Family, whose presence distracted Cena enough to taste an RKO that kept the WWE Title on Orton. Afterwards, the Wyatts beat Cena down, and Bray ended the pummelling by hitting Cena with Sister Abigail. No, Wyatt vs. Bryan isn't continuing, because this was a heavy hint that we're getting Wyatt vs. Cena, either at Elimination Chamber or perhaps at WrestleMania. As for Orton, it looks like he'll either be defending the WWE Title at WrestleMania, or he may lose it to Brock Lesnar at Elimination Chamber. Unfortunately, most will remember this match for the apathy showed by the Pittsburgh crowd. Even worse for WWE, it would prove to be just a sample of what was to come later on.

After WWE's typically well-presented video to promote the 30-man collision (although it needs a refresh, since WWE has essentially used the same video save for a few clips since 2008), to quote Howard Finkel, "It is (well, was) now time for the ROYAL RUMMBLLLE!" (Actually, Vince McMahon's old-school intros were the best when he used to rip his throat apart by growling "It's time to RUMMMBLLLE!" It's time for the ROYYYYYYYYYYYAL RUMMMMMMMMMMMBLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLE!") CM Punk was out as #1, as announced beforehand, and Seth Rollins was #2. The two ex-ROH Champions had some nice exchanges before the arrivals of Damien Sandow and Cody Rhodes at numbers 3 and 4. Kane come out as #5 in corporate attire, only for the man with the most eliminations ever in a single Rumble to be eliminated almost immediately by Punk. (By the way, I'm only going to cover significant eliminations, since two-thirds of the throw-outs are usually of little importance.) NXT star Alexander Rusev was next in at #6 to virtually no reaction, although he looked strong and competitive during his Rumble stint. Jack Swagger and Kofi Kingston were in at #7 and #8, with fans beginning to wonder how Kofi would miraculously survive elimination this year.

Jimmy Uso and Goldust entered at #9 and #10, and after a multi-man effort, Rusev was ousted (which bodes well for his future, paradoxically). Rusev remained at ringside when Kofi was knocked over the top rope, and Rusev attacked Kofi, leaving him laying on a ringside barrier (which was a stupidly obvious indicator of what was coming; why wouldn't someone force Kofi's feet to the floor? At least allow Kofi to fight Rusev off to get to this point). From there, since he was still in the match, Kofi unleashed a huge leap from the barrier to the ring apron, to an almost standing ovation, and he re-entered play as Dean Ambrose arrived as the 11th entrant. The ring began to get crowded as Dolph Ziggler and R-Truth entered in 12 and 13, and number 14 was the first big surprise with Kevin Nash resurfacing, although I doubt he will stick around after Rumble this time. Kofi humorously saved himself again by whacking Swagger with his own boot; Kofi is beginning to become Mr. Royal Rumble, just as Shawn Michaels was Mr. WrestleMania. More impressively still, Kofi has never won a Rumble, and probably never will.

Roman Reigns was a significant arrival at #15, for he would soon dominate proceedings. Before The Great Khali arrived at #16, Reigns had already eliminated Kofi, Dolph (following a wicked Spear) and the veteran Nash (in a passing-of-the-torch moment, perhaps). The Shield worked together to eliminate Khali, and Goldust inadvertently threw out Cody (in a nice piece of accidental revenge for Cody previously eliminating Goldust from the Rumble ... assuming it was an accident, of course), and The Shield then eliminated Goldust, while first entry Punk was still hanging in there. We then got the surprise return of Sheamus at #17, with the Celtic Warrior having been on the shelf since July 2013. The 2012 Rumble winner got a nice pop as he began to take control in his first match for six months.

The Miz was #18, but fans were more interested in Fandango at #19, as the Pittsburgh crowd began Fandangoing at a deafening volume. El Torito was a novelty entry at #20, although he humorously managed to eliminate Fandango before Reigns tossed the little bull out. Antonio Cesaro was in at 21, who hit Cody and Rollins with a Giant Swing, followed by Luke Harper at 22 and Jey Uso at 23. John Bradshaw Layfield then surprisingly rose from his commentary position to enter at #24, but after handing his coat to Michael Cole, he was eliminated in near-record time by Reigns to boos. At this point, Reigns had claimed seven eliminations, as the OTHER announcers, Cole and Jerry Lawler, began to wonder if he would beat Kane's aforementioned record (11 eliminations in the 2001 Rumble).

Erick Rowan and Ryback entered at #25 and #26; this underlined how far Ryback has fallen since the 2013 Rumble, where he was a genuine favourite and the last man dispatched by John Cena. Here, he was just another face in the crowd, as the number of remaining entrants began to rapidly decrease. Alberto Del Rio was in at #27 and, since he had slated Batista aplenty prior to his return, it was a typical WWE coincidence (wink, wink) that Batista was in next at #28 to a big cheer (remember that), and he quickly threw ADR out to the floor. Big E Langston was in at #29, leaving one man left to enter the match.

Now, let's pause. If the show had ended there, the Rumble match would have been considered a moderate success with some momentum for Reigns, a few nice surprises and a good reaction to Batista's official comeback appearance. Unfortunately for WWE, it had to continue, and the match, and the event as a whole, were about to take a pretty big turn for the worse.

Fans were loudly chanting for Daniel Bryan to enter at #30, assuming he was entered (although WWE had never officially announced him as a Rumble entrant). That Cody and Goldust were included meant that it wasn't impossible for WWE to use Bryan here. Nevertheless, he was never an announced participant, so it wasn't like WWE had shafted Bryan. However, it still made little sense that the most over guy in the company wouldn't at least be given a shot at winning the Rumble. Regardless, fans were expecting Bryan to come out, and hoping that he would win. In truth, I knew he wasn't because, when watching the Rumble each year, once it comes down to around #25, I begin thinking who's left that has been announced as an entrant. (The best years are those when the last of those names arrives at #29, setting up a surprise final entrant.) And I remembered that WWE had advertised Rey Mysterio as a Rumble participant. So, once Big E was in, I knew that Rey was #30 and that Bryan wouldn't be included. The fans hadn't realised this. When they did ...

Rey Mysterio came out at #30 and, after a few seconds of stunned silence, fans began booing. Very loudly. And chanting for Daniel Bryan very loudly. Rey, the unfortunate scapegoat who once won the Rumble (in 2006) to huge cheers, had his every move booed and his elimination by Reigns was loudly cheered. Strangely, fans now also turned on Batista, who they had just cheered when he came out, probably because Bryan's non-entry made it clear that Batista was going to win the match. Whilst the crowd was hijacking the Rumble match, CM Punk was dragged out by Kane (whose hidden presence at ringside was accidentally caught on camera just beforehand) and he was Chokeslammed through an announcer's table. Let's discuss whether wrestlers should really be eliminated by eliminated competitors or non-competitors another day; the point is, Punk was out. At the time, this seemed to set up Punk vs. Kane, which in all likelihood would set up Punk vs. HHH at WrestleMania. Or so we thought ...

More on Punk in a bit, as we resume covering the Rumble match. In between the crowd expressing their disgust at Bryan's non-entry, Ambrose tried to dump out Reigns, but Roman put a stop to that, and Dean looked worried. That came back to bite Ambrose when Reigns dumped him, Cesaro and Rollins out in one big triple elimination (Rollins had been in since #2, a fact which wasn't emphasised enough by the announcers); Reigns had now equalled Kane's record of 11 throw-outs. This meant that the Rumble match came down to Batista, Sheamus and Reigns. Three big men of the preferred Vince mould. Not Daniel Bryan. Fans booed loudly.

The trio exchanged strikes and moves before Reigns eliminated Sheamus to a big cheer, and Roman had now broken Kane's record; he had set a new record by eliminating 12 participants here. By now, the fans had turned almost 100% on Batista, and were loudly cheering the younger star Reigns on to a previously-unlikely victory. Each man tasted a signature move from the other, and it was clear that fans, to make up for Bryan not being entered, really wanted Reigns to win as a substitute. So, they of course weren't happy when Batista eliminated Reigns to win the match, and heavily booed as Batista did the usual "stand on the ropes and point at the WrestleMania sign to set off fireworks" pose. Batista was back, had won the Rumble and was main eventing WrestleMania, and Roman Reigns had seen his career take a huge step forward (this pretty much confirmed that Reigns will receive a major solo push in the future), but none of it seemed to matter. Despite an eventful Rumble match, the only thing that you could think about was just how much the crowd loathed the ending of this match, primarily the fact that Daniel Bryan was not entered into the match. Not exactly the way that WWE hoped to begin the trek towards the milestone thirtieth edition of WrestleMania.

So, this was certainly a memorable show, if not for the reasons that WWE had hoped for. The opening bout was awesome, Brock Lesnar's match served its purpose, and the Rumble itself had some cool spots, surprise appearances and a dominant display by Roman Reigns. I daresn't say that had the crowd responded more positively to the outcome, the match would be remembered quite fondly.

Unfortunately, they didn't. The reaction to the WWE Title match was embarrassing for the participants, albeit one which embodied the feeling of fans who have watched Cena vs. Orton so many times. But it's the response to Batista's win and Daniel Bryan's non-entry which will be the most memorable aspect of the 2014 Rumble event. As if WWE wasn't having enough of a backlash from this show, things took another twist when it came out that CM Punk had walked out of WWE before Raw the next night, torpedoing the Punk-HHH match pencilled in for Mania.

Has Punk really left? If so, will he return in time for WM XXX? Or has he really decided that enough is enough in the occasional political minefield that is WWE? Who knows, but this couldn't have come at a worse time for the company given the negativity in the aftermath of the Rumble match.

The Road To WrestleMania XXX has begun with several big speed bumps rather than with a flying start. Can WWE turn things around? It may well depend on whether the CM Punk walk-out is in fact permanent, because right now without Punk and with Batista favoured over Bryan in spite of the wishes of the fans, it seems WWE has a challenge on its hands to have its audience invested in the historic thirtieth WrestleMania. From an in-ring standpoint, Royal Rumble was pretty good (hence the rating I gave the event), but the show will always be remembered for the night that the fans stood up to WWE and told them what was wrong with their booking. If that didn't send them the message, CM Punk's walkout certainly did.

Overall Rating: 7/10 - Respectable