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Throughout 2013 and 2014, Daniel Bryan rose the ranks to become the number one babyface in WWE, even surpassing the popularity of John Cena at one stage, with fans firmly on his side as he won the WWE Championship from Cena at SummerSlam. He would lose the title quickly, setting up an anti-Authority storyline over the next few months. In the logical minds of many fans, the natural conclusion to this storyline would be Daniel Bryan overcoming the likes of Triple H and Randy Orton to win back the gold, with WrestleMania offering up the perfect stage for this to happen. WWE had other ideas, and at the 2014 Royal Rumble, Daniel Bryan’s path to the Showcase of the Immortals was nearly completely ruined.
Batista’s Return Led To Daniel Bryan Taking A Backseat
In the lead up to the 2014 Royal Rumble PPV, fans were expecting fan favorites such as Daniel Bryan or CM Punk to win the match, however it quickly became clear that this wasn’t the case as Batista made a surprising return to WWE in the lead-up to the event, becoming the favorite instantly. An encounter against former friend and rival Randy Orton was the match that WWE wanted for the show due to the name value of those involved, and the expectation that Batista would be a hugely over star.
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The love for Bryan was too overwhelming though. If he were to be in the Rumble match, then the audience would have been cheering for him a great deal, urging him to win the bout. In the mind of WWE, keeping him out of the Rumble match would prevent this from happening. Therefore, he was booked for a match elsewhere on the show against Bray Wyatt, where he lost clean. WWE were hoping fans would then forget about Bryan for the rest of the night, but this didn’t happen.
WWE Fans Turned Against The Royal Rumble PPV Due To The Omission Of Daniel Bryan
During the latter stages of the Royal Rumble match, fans were still expecting the arrival and victory of Bryan given that he was the most popular choice and the man with the most reason to challenge Orton at WrestleMania 30. As each entrant came in, fans chanted for him louder, until it finally became clear after the last entrant of Rey Mysterio that Bryan was not in the match. The bout descended into disaster, with a chorus of boos raining down on the action. Even the likes of Batista and Rey Mysterio were booed out of the arena.
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In the end, Batista predictably won the match, though his victory was met with vitriol. If reports at the time were to be believed, Bryan was scheduled to have a match with Sheamus at WrestleMania instead, which would have been far lower down the card than he should’ve been given that he was the most over wrestler in the company. For all intents and purposes, it looked as though WWE’s mind was made up following the 2014 Royal Rumble, with Bryan’s title pursuits dead and buried, and the WrestleMania main event looking to be one of the most underwhelming of all time. The chances of fans hijacking WrestleMania looked likely, with a potential disaster on WWE’s hands.
WWE Changed Their Plans And Saved Daniel Bryan’s Road To WrestleMania
In the weeks that followed, fans turned even more so on Batista, even though he didn’t exactly do much wrong. He was an example of someone being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He wasn’t to blame, but WWE was for overlooking the very obvious love that fans had for Bryan, with his following being close to that of “Stone Cold” Steve Austin’s back in the Attitude Era. His pops were unreal, the fan support was constant, and to ignore that was only going to create anger.
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Thankfully, the 2014 Royal Rumble wasn’t completely a disaster, as WWE saw reason and managed to turn what happened at the event into part of Bryan’s story. The fan backlash was highlighted, with the story being that The Authority kept Bryan from the match and the main event scene because he wasn’t their image of a superstar. Batista was turned heel, adding yet another foe in his path too. Bryan would then do battle with Triple H at WrestleMania, winning to earn a spot in the main event, where he would overcome both Orton and Batista to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in one of the greatest WrestleMania moments of all time. The Royal Rumble very nearly ruined Bryan’s journey to the top in 2014, but WWE couldn’t ignore the fans for long, and they finally gave in and built what happened at the event into one of the best babyface rises in years.
