Has it really been a decade since this show took place?
Has it really been that long since we last touched this pile of shit?
So… today, we revisit the 2015 Royal Rumble show. The show that pretty much kicked off what was, at the time, the shove of Roman Reigns down the collective throats of the WWE Universe whether they liked it or not. The show that pretty much cemented that relationship for the next five years. The show that, in the long run, served as the beginning of this whole Bloodline thing that’s going on today.
I haven’t touched this show in a decade and yeah, it’s a bit interesting to go back to this one after all this time. Perhaps one of the most infamous shows in all of WWE history, but one that plays a pivotal roll in what would become the single most dominant saga for the next decade – that of Roman Reigns. All those years of the company pushing him as the next big star, only to get rejected by an audience who preferred one or others in that spot, their many attempts to garner sympathy for Roman and ultimately backfiring, all those supposed ascensions to the throne that would later be reversed and THIS TIME FOR SURE… and yet all it took was a sabbatical from the company for Roman to rethink his entire perspective and come back in late-2020 to begin a dominant run that would last damn near four years.
And yes, Roman’s run as the Tribal Chief – regardless of its actual content – is one for the ages. One of the most important and significant tales ever depicted on WWE television and perhaps the best work of Reigns’ career, as a result… and yet Roman’s story really began here. On this fateful night. Where he was to make his first step towards superstardom…
And also, there was a lot of other show here, too…
The Ascension defeated the New Age Outlaws in a short and painfully dull opening match to paint this show in a negative light. Ten years ago, we’d be joking about the New Age Outlaws getting another run despite them getting another tag title run – and yet here we are in 2025 and Billy Gunn is still a fixture on television, albeit in AEW. The Ascension, for those who don’t know, were face-painted goofs they tried to pass off as a hot act, but were booked so poorly to be embarrassed by old people that they fizzled out after their run. Honestly, this could have main evented a TNA PPV… circa 2010.
Tag-Team Champions The Usos defeated Miz and Mizdow to retain the tag titles in a perfectly acceptable tag match. Mizdow is the former Damien Sandow (a.k.a. Aron Stevens) doing a Miz stunt double gimmick that got popular for a while before creative had nothing for him and the gimmick died out.
The Bella Twins defeated Nattie and Paige (a.k.a. Saraya) in what I used to call the designated piss break match, but we don’t resort to that sort of thing anymore because women’s wrestling is more appreciated nowadays. Sadly, this match is still the drizzling shits, with the crowd so bored that they’re chanting for Sami Zayn. Apparently, this is stemming from something out of Total Divas, which is their reality show thing at the time… maybe someone should check if that show’s going to be on Netflix any time soon… so that I can NOT watch it.
WWE Champion Brock Lesnar defeated John Cena and Seth Rollins in a triple threat to retain the title. Brock came in and did his little suplexes whenever he was in the ring and the people cheered. Cena did… whatever he usually did and the people jeered. We even got a John Cena Sucks singalong for good measure – pretty certain that won’t be the case on his retirement run, but who knows? Maybe he can say something stupid on social media and that can still happen. The only highlight in this match seems to be Seth Rollins, whom people were taking a liking to despite being the other heel in this match. Probably because he’s the only guy people actually like in this match besides Brock, who gets a pass because he’s fucking Brock… not sure if that would be the case today.
And in the main event… the much-maligned main event… the main event that would go on to be called the Royal Fumble ’round these parts, Roman Reigns wins the 30-man Royal Rumble to a chorus of boos despite being propped up by the Rock. That banner on top tells the whole story.
Well, not really, there’s the other story of the guy that people REALLY wanted to see win the Rumble, Daniel Bryan Danielson, come in at #10, running wild for a few minutes before being eliminated by Bray Wyatt just before Goldust comes out. Once that happened, the crowd pretty much stopped giving a shit about this match and JUST BOOED EVERYONE until the BIG DAWG himself shows up and the bed is pretty much shat on. It also doesn’t help that this Rumble was just so FUCKING BORING. Kofi’s annual Rumble save involves a body surf with a bunch of groupies for one of the flash in the pans before being outed anyway. We got a re-appearance by the Boogeyman for some reason. DDP gets a payday, at least.
I mean, listen, there was only two people in this match that the crowd thought had any hope of winning… and once one of those guys was out of the picture, you really only had one… except that one guy was the last person anyone wanted to see. And that’s when they turned on this match BIG TIME. No matter what they did, no matter how much they tried, they simply refused to get behind Roman, who was stuck doing the same tired babyface run that Vince McMahon likes to give his top stars because if it worked before, it has to work again. And this is what kicked off a tainted run that took a long time to correct.
The really sad thing about all this is that just a year earlier, Roman Reigns was dominating the Rumble and people were actually getting behind him in a totally natural way. Once you got the machine behind him and he started doing and saying stupid things, that’s when things started to sour. If Roman was just allowed to be more himself or possibly even lean into more heelish tendencies early on, that early run might have been a different story and Roman would’ve been more beloved than ever at a much earlier time… and you wouldn’t need a declaration of leukemia to stop the booing all of a sudden.
Ten years after the fact and things haven’t changed. There was a reason that I referred to this as a Royal Fumble in my original thoughts. This was a bad show with a bad Rumble that everyone hated.
Now that we got this out of the way, we can celebrate Joe Hendry’s big win on Sunday… next week.
dtm666 