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#9 Roman Reigns, not Daniel Bryan, wins the 2015 Royal Rumble
It's easy to forget that just one year prior to Roman Reigns' infamous victory at the 2015 Royal Rumble, the former Shield member was heavily cheered as the battle royale's hopeful winner over Dave Batista. Fast forward to the next year and not even The Rock could stop the Philadelphia crowd from rejecting the company's new heir-apparent.
Reigns' babyface momentum had already started to go the wrong way prior to this night, but a major mistake by WWE booking caused the wheels to finally fall off. The mistake was having the company's most popular superstar, Daniel Bryan, enter the Royal Rumble for his first match back since forfeiting the WWE Championship in June 2014.
Bryan was the overwhelming crowd favourite and was heralded as such when he entered the match at #10. Unfortunately, he was eliminated only moments later, thus angering the crowd for the rest of the night; the verbal venom culminated in a relentless rejection of Reigns as the 2015 Royal Rumble winner.
Under those circumstances, Roman Reigns was unlikely to get over in any arena that night, but certainly not in front of the knowledgeable, passionate fans of Philadelphia. It was a major mistake that WWE, and Roman Reigns, have been struggling to overcome ever since.
