Jeremy Ackman
@jaackman321

It’s no secret that the WWE hosted a pay per view here in the city of Pittsburgh on Sunday night, first since October 2009. Fortunately, I had tickets 2 rows from ringside and enjoyed myself greatly, until about 1040pm est.
The pay per view was pretty solid, and what made it was the great performances by the WWE’s young talents, the awe of a pay per view, and the fantastic crowd that surrounded me. I have been to several WWE event here, and have been disappointed by the crowds that show, but Sundays made up for all the other times.
It’s a shame really, because such crowd live and the millions who spent the money on the event, were for the majority upset over the product. I am not talking about the bore fest known as the title match, in which chants of “end this match” and “boring” echoed, not to mention fans found it more entertaining to do a wave. I am talking more so on the Rumble match itself.
For starters, The Royal Rumble has been known to produce past legends to show up and make an appearance for 10 minutes or so, get a good crowd pop, do a few moves and call it a night. The WWE crowd had one in Kevin Nash. This was lack luster because he has done this 2 years ago, been there, saw that.
Next, he Rumble give the ability to see young talent from their “minor leagues” down in Florida, affiliated with their program NXT. It’s a great boost for such superstars to get to be a part of such event and show what some miss. The fans had one, and were treated to maybe ten minutes of him in the ring.
Another point, kind of feeds of the previous two, and its wasted spots. Instead of having a legend show for a unique moment, or a young gun, we had corporate Kane show up just to be eliminated. THEN, interfere with the ending of the match by eliminated fan favorite CM Punk. Also we had ring announcer JBL get called in, just to see him show off, take his suit coat off, then be tossed within seconds. Why were these two guys even in it? JBL served no purpose, and Kane if needed for future stories could have come in and just eliminated Punk without being a wasted entrant.
What rally started the snowball of disapproval, was towards its conclusion, and the final entrant was called, fans realized there would be no Daniel Bryan. As I have blogged before, and as any WWE fan knows, Daniel Bryan, regardless to the dismay of corporate suits, IS the next thing for this company. He sells tickets, ppvs, merchandise, and fans cannot get enough. With his absence in an event that was missing a few things at first was one thing, but for fans then to realize we all have to wait for his push just a bit longer, upset over a million people within seconds. This set the stage for the verbal riot that was about to take place, and all we needed was a spark to ignite it. That spark has a name, and it’s Batista.
Before this evening even took place, Batista was showing to be the heavy favorite to win, and this began the fans outcry of hopes it wasn’t going to happen. At the event, I was even asked several times of who I want to win versus who I think. I told everyone I thought Batista, but hoped for anyone but. I did not receive one rebuttal against me in that matter. There was probably a handful of the 16,000ish fans in attendance that wanted that to occur.
My biggest frustration behind this, is that we, the paying customer, are the voiceless. The WWE has now PROVEN that the fan bases opinion doesn’t matter. Another frustration is that the WWE won’t get it. I know when this is all said and done, they (the suits) will feel that this is the fan base “throwing a temper tantrum” over the fact Bryan wasn’t in it or didn’t win….boy are they wrong again.
I guarantee you, without a shadow of doubt, if Roman Reigns wins that rumble at the final two, we wouldn’t be having this backlash. Fans who get the sport, who appreciate the sport, generally older fans, know the business better than the suits. We study, know, see, and be entertained by the work horses of the company. Your CM Punks, Dolph Zigglers, Shield, Daniel Bryans, Bray Wyatts, Usos, Cody Rhodes, we see these guys work so hard, work 300 days a year. None of them get the push they deserve.
What does the WWE give? Orton, again. Cena, again. Cena, a third, fourth, fifth, sixed time, but worst of all…rentals. Why does a Batista, walk into this company, and get handed a WWE title main event at the biggest Wrestlemania event?? Why does Lesnar, after pursuing other career moves, walk into the WWE with a very limited schedule, and get the push he’s going to get this upcoming month?
Think about it in a non-wrestling persona. You work for an office company. You put in un-mandatory overtime to get things done and help the consumer. You make extra work for yourself just to make the customer happy. Dave (pun intended), who was somewhat like you, left the company to pursue other things. Just when you are ready for a promotion, and your boss finally sees the worker you are to your customers and your fellow employees, Dave comes in after years of absence and steals your promotion.
That’s exactly what happened to Bryan, Ziggler, Reigns, and every other young talent that SHOULD be the future of the company…not a 45 year old part timer.
The WWE lately has had the habit of defecating on their fan base. Enough so, that legends are outraged. Mick Foley, WWE Hall of Famer, has been very open via social media within the past 12 hours after the show, regarding such decision.
Yes, we WWE fans know it’s pre-determined. It’s not like MMA or boxing or even the NFL or NHL where the results of the matchup is up to who performs better. The power is in the hands of the ones who decide what’s best for business. This makes this sting more.
I have no clue why the people buying and supporting such business have no say. I have no idea why the work horses of the company get no say, reward or acknowledgement for their hard work. All I do know, is that the WWE messed this one up, badly. With the launch of a WWE Network, the biggest time of year for them with Wrestlemania, they cannot make mistakes. This is not just a non-push of talent. This is not cancelling a pay per view or ending a match scenario that fans liked. This is not like they released a fan favorite…this is worse. This is bad, and it needs fixed, the best way they can without looking as if they are patronizing.
One things for sure, they chose a terrible time to piss off a fan base. Good luck fixing this one suits….