Royal Rumble (2014)

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Royal Rumble (2014)
Promotional poster featuring various WWE wrestlers
PromotionWWE
DateJanuary 26, 2014
CityPittsburgh, Pennsylvania
VenueConsol Energy Center
Pay-per-view chronology
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Royal Rumble (2014) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by WWE and presented by Jackson Hewitt which took place on January 26, 2014 at the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was the twenty-seventh annual Royal Rumble pay-per-view and the first WWE pay-per-view in 2014.

It was the first WWE pay-per-view event in Pittsburgh since the 2009 Bragging Rights, and the first pay-per-view event at Consol Energy Center since it opened in 2010.

Background

See also: Professional wrestling

Royal Rumble featured professional wrestling matches involving different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds, plots, and storylines that played out on WWE's television programs. Wrestlers portrayed heroes or villains as they followed a series of events that built tension and culminated in a match or a series of matches.[4][5]

As is tradition at this yearly event, the card was highlighted by the 30-man Royal Rumble match - a battle royal with wrestlers entering at 90 second intervals. 20 wrestlers were officially advertised for the match where the winner would receive a WWE World Heavyweight Championship match at WrestleMania XXX.[6] On the last episode of Raw before the Rumble on January 20, Batista returned to WWE after an absence of nearly four years,[7] and the Rumble was scheduled to be his first return match.[8] On the same episode, Director of Operations Kane announced that CM Punk would be the first entrant.[7] The remaining 18 wrestlers advertised were Alberto Del Rio, Rey Mysterio, Tag Team Champions Cody Rhodes and Goldust; Intercontinental Champion Big E. Langston, Kofi Kingston, The Miz, R-Truth, Xavier Woods (who eventually did not participate), Fandango, United States Champion Dean Ambrose and his Shield team-mates Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns; The Wyatt Family's Luke Harper and Erick Rowan; Damien Sandow and the Usos (Jimmy Uso and Jey Uso); Bad News Barrett was originally advertised but later removed from advertisements.[6]

Another highly promoted match featured WWE World Heavyweight Champion Randy Orton defending the title against longtime adversary John Cena. At the TLC pay-per-view in December 2013, WWE Champion Orton defeated World Heavyweight Champion Cena to unify the titles and become the first WWE World Heavyweight Champion. On the December 30 episode of Raw, Cena was awarded a rematch for the title against Orton at the Rumble, with the match stipulation of a traditional one-on-one singles match, except that it could only be won by pinfall or submission only. On the January 13 episode of Raw, Orton suffered an upset loss to Kofi Kingston, and took out his frustrations by attacking Cena's father, who attended the event at ringside.

On the December 30 episode of Raw, Brock Lesnar returned with his agent Paul Heyman to announce his intentions to challenge the winner of the match between Orton and Cena for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Lesnar then called out any wrestler who wanted to stop him, which resulted in Mark Henry answering the challenge and the two brawling until Lesnar speared Henry through the ringside fan barricade. and hitting him with an F-5 on the arena floor. The following week on Old School Raw, Henry challenged him again only to have Lesnar dislocate his elbow with the Kimura Lock. Following this, Big Show came out and confronted Lesnar, which lead to a short physical confrontation between the two, with Show throwing Lesnar across the ring.On January 10, Big Show issued a challenge to Lesnar to fight during a Miz TV interview on SmackDown. Heyman accepted the challenge on behalf of Lesnar, and said it would take place at the Royal Rumble. Lesnar previously defeated Show at the 2003 Royal Rumble, to qualify for that year's Rumble match, which he also won. At that time, Heyman was feuding with Lesnar and managing Show.

Announced on WWE.com, Cody Rhodes and Goldust faced The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn) for the WWE Tag Team Championship on the Royal Rumble pre-show. This match was made when The New Age Outlaws defeated Cody Rhodes and Goldust in a non-title match on the January 17 episode of SmackDown due to a distraction from Vickie Guerrero.

On January 20 episode of Raw, it was announced that Daniel Bryan would face Bray Wyatt at the Royal Rumble. Bryan and The Wyatt Family had been feuding since October 2013. On the December 30, 2013 episode of Raw, a seemingly beaten-down Bryan announced he would join the Wyatts. On the January 13, 2014 episode of Raw (after Bryan and Bray Wyatt were defeated by The Usos in a steel cage match), Bryan betrayed Wyatt and attacked him, culminating with Bryan hitting his flying knee finishing manoeuvre on Wyatt. The following week on Raw Bryan explained that his joining the Wyatts was a ruse to infiltrate the stable and bide his time to strike, and that he would wrestle Wyatt at the Royal Rumble PPV.

Event

Preliminary matches

The event began Bray Wyatt defeating Daniel Bryan. Early in the match, the referee saw Wyatt's allies Luke Harper and Erick Rowan attempting to interfere, so he ejected them from ringside. During the match, Wyatt targeted Bryan's head, ramming it into the ring-post. Bryan later mounted a comeback with a running tornado DDT off the ring apron, planting Wyatt's head on the floor. Wyatt managed to escape Bryan's signature Yes! Lock submission hold by biting Bryan's hand. To avoid Bryan's signature running knee, Wyatt rolled out of the ring to the floor, then caught Bryan diving out of the ring and delivered his signature Sister Abigail to Bryan, smashing Bryan's head into the barricade. Wyatt followed with another Sister Abigail in the ring to force Bryan's head into the mat to win the match. [9][10][11]

In the show's second match, Brock Lesnar defeated Big Show. Lesnar attacked Big Show before the match started, and then hit Big Show with a chair. When the match started, Big Show landed his signature KO Punch, but Lesnar picked up the victory after throwing Big Show to the mat from his shoulders with his signature F5. [9][10][11]

In the show's third match, Randy Orton defeated John Cena to retain the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. After both wrestlers failed to win despite executing their signature RKO, Attitude Adjustment and STF moves, both wrestlers resorted to using their opponent's signature moves but still could not win the match. At the end of the match, Cena again trapped Orton in Cena's STF submission hold, but the lights temporarily went out due to the arrival of the Wyatt Family on the ring apron. Orton took advantage of the distraction to drop Cena face-first into the mat with the RKO to win the match. [9][11][12]

Main event match

The show's fourth match and main event was the annual Royal Rumble for a WWE World Heavyweight Championship match at WrestleMania XXX. CM Punk and Seth Rollins were entrants #1 and #2; they spent the longest and second longest time in the match at nearly fifty minutes. Kane entered at #5 to attack Punk, but Punk managed to eliminate him. NXT's Alexander Rusev made his debut at #6. Kofi Kingston, who entered at #8, had two feats of athleticism to prevent himself from being eliminated; first he was deposited on the guardrail, then jumped from the guardrail to the ring apron, later he hung on to the bottom rope with his feet. Rollins' team-mates in the Shield, Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns, were introduced at #12 and #15 respectively. Goldust eliminated his brother Cody Rhodes twenty four minutes into the match, and was in turn eliminated by Reigns, who had also eliminated Kingston and unannounced entrant Kevin Nash, amongst others. With only Punk and the Shield left in the ring, Sheamus returned to television at #18. Antonio Cesaro entered at #21 and performed the Cesaro Swing manoeuvre on the Miz and Rollins. Reigns continued his dominance by eliminating mascot El Torito and commentator JBL. Batista entered at #28, quickly eliminating Ryback and Alberto Del Rio. The final entrant at #30 was Rey Mysterio, who was eliminated by Rollins. When Ambrose tried to eliminate Reigns, Reigns retaliated by eliminating Ambrose, Rollins and Cesaro, leaving himself, Punk, Sheamus and Batista as the four surviving participants. Though already eliminated, Kane pulled Punk over the top rope to eliminate Punk. Reigns eliminated Sheamus to set the new record for most eliminations in one match at 12, but Reigns himself was thrown over the top rope by Batista to end the match. An exhausted Batista celebrated his victory to close the show. [9][11][13]

Reception

The upset reaction of the fans attending the event in Pittsburgh was so great that it was reported as one of the major news items coming out of the show,[9][14][15] and described as the live audience engineering a "takeover" of the final two hours of the show.[15][16] During the title match between John Cena and Randy Orton, fans chanted that "this is awful" and for Daniel Bryan, amongst other chants.[17] The fans continued to chant for Bryan during the Royal Rumble match, so when Rey Mysterio (typically a fan favorite) entered as the final entrant and Bryan's possible participation in the match was eliminated, they booed Mysterio, chanted for Bryan and cheered for Mysterio's elimination.[17][13][18] The crowd continued to boo when there were three wrestlers left in the match, but when only Batista and Roman Reigns remained, they cheered for Reigns (a villainous character for the past year) over Batista, and later booed Batista's victory as the event drew to a close.[17][13][18] After the show went off the air, Batista mocked Bryan and gestured his middle finger at the crowd.[18][19] Aaron Oster of The Baltimore Sun wrote Mysterio "received more boos than he’s ever had in his WWE career", and in the case of Batista, "besides the fact that a supposed face was getting booed, the boos were stronger than any Rumble winner I can remember, including when Vince McMahon won [in] 1999."[14]

Fans took to social media to display their displeasure towards the event. The BBC reported that regarding Bryan's exclusion from the Rumble match, "many people have also expressed anger on social media, with the phrases #RoyalRumble, #WWE and Daniel Bryan all trending on Twitter".[20][21] The Herald & Review described the reaction to the event as "WWE's PR nightmare", with the most "liked" comments on WWE's Facebook page within 24 hours of the event including "worst PPV ever", "the sound of WWE dropping the ball" and in reference to the WWE Network, "no Bryan, no buy."[22] Retired wrestler Mick Foley criticized WWE management on social media, stating, "Does WWE actually hate their own audience? I've never been so disgusted with a PPV."[20][23]

Dale Plummer and Nick Tylwalk of the Canadian Online Explorer rated the overall event was 6.0 out of 10. The Wyatt-Bryan bout was rated the highest at a "fantastic" 9.5 out of 10, the Cena-Orton bout, described as a "sloppy affair that won’t go down among the best work from either man" received 4.0 out of 10, while the Lesnar-Big Show encountered received 1.0 out of 10. They described the event as "uneven", and that "the disapproval of the fans at the Consol Energy Center at how the Royal Rumble match went down will be the lasting memory for anyone who watched the show".[9]

James Caldwell of the Professional Wrestling Torch Newsletter rated the Royal Rumble match 2.5 stars out of 5, commenting that "well, that back-fired". He wrote that the "Rumble peaked about three-fourths through, then fell off the table at the end", and described the Rumble winner Batista as "out-of-shape".[13] Caldwell also rated the Bryan-Wyatt match 4.0 stars out of 5, describing it as "easily Bray's best WWE TV match, great chemistry from both wrestlers" in front of a "hot, invested crowd". Caldwell chose not to rate the Lesnar-Show, commenting that it was necessarily short due to Show being injured going into the match.[10] Lastly, Caldwell rated the Orton-Cena title match 2.0 stars out of 5.[12]

Benjamin Tucker, who attended the event and is also from the Professional Wrestling Torch Newsletter, rated the entire event 6.0 out of 10, saying "the show began great but slowly lost steam before ending in a roar of jeers." For the Rumble match, Tucker said that "the first two-thirds especially were exciting, with several wrestlers being spotlighted well", "until lower-level players kept coming out in the final half of the match." Tucker felt that "Roman Reigns was the star of the match, even outclassing Batista. Where Batista stumbled around the ring like... well, an old, retired wrestler, Roman Reigns looked like an absolute monster." For the opening match, Tucker felt that the "deliberate pace didn't hurt the match in the slightest. Instead, it allowed Bray to keep using his character while in a competitive, big match situation." For the rest of the matches, Tucker wrote that "Lesnar looked like a relentless beast", while "Orton and Cena put on their most lifeless performance ever together. There was very little story to the match" and "no creativity at all".[16]

Aftermath

The opening segment from Raw had Stephanie McMahon, Triple H, and Daniel Bryan making reference to the snub, before Bryan claimed a spot in the Elimination Chamber match at the namesake pay-per-view event alongside John Cena and Sheamus. Later on, during a segment with Randy Orton and Batista, fans chanted for Bryan's name and ignored the segment altogether before Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman (both typically villainous characters) came out to the cheer of the crowd who wanted the Orton-Batista segment to end.[24]

CM Punk did not appear on Raw, nor was he mentioned on TV.[25][26] Despite being advertised for the SmackDown taping on Tuesday, he also did not appear in front of the live audience.[25][26] By Wednesday, WWE.com stopped advertising Punk for future events.[25][26] It was reported by the Wrestling Observer that on Monday, Punk had legitimately walked out on WWE when he informed Vince McMahon that he was "going home".[25][26]

Results

No. Matches Stipulations Time[27]
Royal Rumble Kickoff (Pre-Show) The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn) defeated Cody Rhodes and Goldust (c) Tag team match for the WWE Tag Team Championship[28] 6:37
1 Bray Wyatt defeated Daniel Bryan Singles match[29] 21:29
2 Brock Lesnar (with Paul Heyman) defeated Big Show Singles match[30] 2:01
3 Randy Orton (c) defeated John Cena Singles match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship[31]
Winner would only be declared either by pinfall or submission. 		20:55
4 Batista won by last eliminating Roman Reigns 30-man Royal Rumble match for a WWE World Heavyweight Championship match at WrestleMania XXX[32] 55:06
(c) – refers to the champion(s) heading into the match

Royal Rumble match entrances and eliminations

[33]

Draw Entrant Order Eliminated by Time Eliminations
1 CM Punk 27 Kane* 49:11 3
2 Seth Rollins 25 Reigns 48:31 3
3 Damien Sandow 1 Punk 02:08 0
4 Cody Rhodes 11 Goldust 20:50 1
5 Kane 2 Punk 00:56 1*
6 Alexander Rusev 3 Kingston, Punk, Rhodes, & Rollins 06:42 0
7 Jack Swagger 6 Nash 12:07 0
8 Kofi Kingston 7 Reigns 12:32 1
9 Jimmy Uso 5 Ambrose 07:46 0
10 Goldust 12 Reigns 11:50 1
11 Dean Ambrose 26 Reigns 33:46 3
12 Dolph Ziggler 8 Reigns 05:59 0
13 R-Truth 4 Ambrose 00:28 0
14 Kevin Nash 9 Reigns 02:29 1
15 Roman Reigns 29 Batista 33:41 12
16 The Great Khali 10 Reigns, Ambrose & Rollins 00:24 0
17 Sheamus 28 Reigns 28:11 1
18 The Miz 16 Harper 12:01 0
19 Fandango 13 Torito 02:45 0
20 El Torito 14 Reigns 01:26 1
21 Antonio Cesaro 24 Reigns 16:57 0
22 Luke Harper 23 Reigns 15:02 2
23 Jey Uso 17 Harper 04:21 0
24 John "Bradshaw" Layfield 15 Reigns 00:21 0
25 Erick Rowan 18 Batista 04:47 0
26 Ryback 19 Batista 03:49 0
27 Alberto Del Rio 20 Batista 02:47 0
28 Batista - Winner 12:52 4
29 Big E Langston 21 Sheamus 02:41 0
30 Rey Mysterio 22 Rollins 02:00 0

(*) - Kane was already eliminated when he returned to eliminate CM Punk later in the match.

References

  1. ^ "Wiz Khalifa gives a shout to his hometown of Pittsburgh". WWE. Archived from the original on 29 January 2014. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  2. ^ "Fast & Furious 6 (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)". iTunes. Archived from the original on 29 January 2014. Retrieved 29 January 2014. We Own It (Fast & Furious) 2 Chainz & Wiz Khalifa
  3. ^ Tylwalk, Nick. "Raw: A busy night for the new champ in the big D". Canadian Online Explorer. Retrieved December 17, 2013. Also, the 2014 Royal Rumble is sponsored by Jackson Hewitt.
  4. ^ Grabianowski, Ed. "How Pro Wrestling Works". HowStuffWorks, Inc. Discovery Communications. Retrieved 5 March 2012.
  5. ^ "Live & Televised Entertainment". WWE. Archived from the original on 18 November 2013. Retrieved 21 March 2012.
  6. ^ a b Caldwell, James. "WWE news: Final Royal Rumble PPV line-up for Sunday". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  7. ^ a b Tylwalk, Nick. "Raw: Batista returns with the Royal Rumble just days away". SLAM! Sports: Wrestling. Canadian Online Explorer. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  8. ^ "Batista won the 30-Man Royal Rumble Match". WWE. Archived from the original on 29 January 2014. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  9. ^ a b c d e f Plummer, Dale; Tylwalk, Nick. "Upset fans overshadow Batista's big win at uneven 2014 Royal Rumble". SLAM! Sports: Wrestling. Canadian Online Explorer. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
  10. ^ a b c Caldwell, James. "WWE Royal Rumble PPV results 1/26 (Hour 1): Bryan vs. Bray stellar match, Lesnar smashes Big Show". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
  11. ^ a b c d Martin, Adam. "WWE Royal Rumble PPV results 1/26/14 - (30 man Rumble)". WrestleView. Retrieved 1 February 2014.
  12. ^ a b Caldwell, James. "WWE Royal Rumble PPV results 1/26 (Hour 2): Orton vs. Cena WWE Title match with significant run-in". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
  13. ^ a b c d Caldwell, James. "WWE Royal Rumble PPV results 1/26 (Hour 3): Royal Rumble vs. The Crowd main event match". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
  14. ^ a b Aaron Oster (27 January 2014). "Batista wins Royal Rumble despite fan disapproval". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
  15. ^ a b "Rumble PPV news: Batista, undercard losers not included, this year's surprise entries, Bray's big night, The Crowd". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
  16. ^ a b "Tucker's Instant Reaction - Royal Rumble: In-person perspective and reaction to The Crowd's Takeover". Pro Wrestling Torch. 2014-01-27. Retrieved 2014-01-27.
  17. ^ a b c Folck, Josh. "WWE Royal Rumble: Pittsburgh fans voice displeasure about main events". The Express-Times. Lehigh Valley. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
  18. ^ a b c LaBar, Justin. "Royal Rumble's Pittsburgh debut makes memorable weekend". TribLive. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
  19. ^ "WWE news: Live Rumble report on Batista flipping off fans after winning the Rumble, more in-person notes". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
  20. ^ a b Amelia Butterly (2014-01-27). "Royal Rumble: Daniel Bryan blames WWE for exclusion". BBC Newsbeat. Retrieved 2014-01-27.
  21. ^ "More from Mick Foley on the Rumble". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. 2014-01-27. Retrieved 2014-01-27.
  22. ^ Vorel, Jim. "Wrestling fandom, Daniel Bryan and the WWE's PR nightmare". herald-review.com. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
  23. ^ "More from Mick Foley on the Rumble". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. 2014-01-27. Retrieved 2014-01-27.
  24. ^ http://www.wrestleview.com/wwe-wrestling-results/wwe-raw-results/46408-wwe-raw-results-1-27-14-royal-rumble-fallout
  25. ^ a b c d "WWE news: Report - C.M. Punk leaves WWE". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 30 January 2014.
  26. ^ a b c d Hooton, Christopher. "CM Punk 'quits the WWE' just weeks before Wrestlemania 30". The Independent. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
  27. ^ http://www.411mania.com/wrestling/tv_reports/311169/411a-WWE-Royal-Rumble-2014-Report:-01.26.14.htm
  28. ^ "WWE Tag Team Champions Cody Rhodes & Goldust vs The New Age Outlaws". WWE. Retrieved 20 January 2014.
  29. ^ Clapp, John. "Daniel Bryan vs. Bray Wyatt". Retrieved 21 January 2014.
  30. ^ Clapp, John. "Big Show vs. Brock Lesnar". WWE. Retrieved 10 January 2014.
  31. ^ Melok, Bobby. "WWE World Heavyweight Champion Randy Orton vs. John Cena". WWE. Retrieved 30 December 2013.
  32. ^ "The 30-Superstar Royal Rumble Match". WWE. Retrieved 18 December 2013.
  33. ^ Murphy, Ryan; Linder, Zach. "Batista won the 30-Man Royal Rumble Match". WWE. Retrieved 27 January 2014.

External links

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