Immediately after the backlash surrounding Royal Rumble and raucous fans in Pittsburgh who were not happy — and that’s putting it mildly — that Daniel Bryan was excluded from the main event of the show, Randy Orton and Batista, in particularly, were said to have been equally enraged backstage as the WWE Universe largely rejected their matches and booed them six ways to Sunday. This fever more or less developed organically, as the live crowd went nuts when Danial Bryan opened the show, only to lose in a five-star match with Bray Wyatt. Fans then waited with bated anticipation for the better part of 2 1/2 hours for what they really wanted to see, which was Bryan not only getting into the 30-man battle royal, but winning the match to get a shot at the title at Wrestlemania, despite the fact that WWE did not advertise Bryan as a participant.
For what it’s worth, Batista, Orton and bookers backstage were apparently not anticipating the kind of reaction the show would receive, according to online reports. To compound the amount of vitriol WWE is still receiving from fans, CM Punk’s departure, whether he left because of sour grapes or to address real health and stress concerns, leaked online and now bookers are rethinking their approach leading into Wrestlemania because of these two main developments. Vince McMahon has apparently taken negotiation power away from Triple H and company officials regarding Punk and is doing it himself, which I find mildly humorous.
In any case, I can’t imagine why they would be so surprised by any of these outcomes. First take the John Cena and Randy Orton match at Royal Rumble. These have been WWE’s consistent cash cows for the past 10 years. I get that, and I think anyone who takes off the Bryan/Punk blinders will have to admit to this fact. But other simple truth is that fans are burned out on Cena and Orton, no matter how much they might be over with casual audience. Every few months after WWE has busily worked to repair Cena’s image by throwing him in front of the camera with troops or kids with cancer or some other sympathetic figure, and thus guilt-tripping fans into cheering him — After all, who would boo a guy who’s granting wishes to sick kids and supporting the troops? — most adults who aren’t female and especially Internet fans inevitably begin raining down boos on him, and company has to begin the laborious process all over again. So, how many times is the WWE going to fall back on the Orton/Cena program instead focusing on building up fresh talent?
The company will certainly milk Orton/Cena for all their worth, but discounting the fervor over Bryan, the Royal Rumble showed that fans, both in the arena and at home, have had enough of this tired feud and their listless, non-innovative and mediocre matches. We all know and understand that Cena and Orton are nearly ubiquitous and are going to be a significant part of every PPV for as long as they can go, but I don’t think anyone would raise much of a fuss if they were in more high-profile non-title feuds. Does WWE really think that people will only come to see Orton and Cena if they are in the title hunt? Cena and Orton have had 19 title WWE title reigns combined the last 10 years, while Punk and Bryan have had four runs since coming to the company. Bryan’s total days as WWE champ can be counted on two fingers. Granted, WWE threw fans a bone and allowed Punk to have the longest title reign in the modern era, but most of that time he was as a “cowardly heel” and wasn’t main-eventing PPVs (the final match) or winning cleanly.
I also can’t fathom why WWE somehow would have expected the story about CM Punk walking out of the company to remain a secret. We are coming off of one of the “big four” PPV’s of the year and leading in the WWE’s proverbial Super Bowl, with asinine sign-pointing aplenty, and fans would naturally have been wondering why Punk was not appearing on RAW or Smackdown each week.
I think it’s a positive that the writers are considering options for Wrestlemania with and without CM Punk in the mix, and whether or not he comes back, and this could — I stress could — be a sign that WWE is at least feigning interest in listening to the fans at this point. I hope they are keen enough to know that a stadium full of hardcore wrestling fans who traveled far and wide to see the show will be vocal about what they are seeing in the ring, and if Bryan (and Punk if he comes back) aren’t big parts of Wrestlemania, they might as well expect the rain of boos to commence. Lest anyone forget, if the fans gave up on the company tomorrow, there would be no Wrestlemania.
Read the first part of this series here.