Backstage morale was down last night at the WWE Royal Rumble pay-per-view.
PWInsider reports, via a number of sources in the company, that there was frustration over the constant changes made over the past week to the Rumble matches. The feeling is that all of the constant changes are the reason why the quality of the Rumble matches was down from previous years.
There were reportedly 20 changes made over the course of the week to the Men’s Rumble match. There were some spots that were changed and discarded. There were also changes made to eliminations, order of entrances and there were changes made to how some of the talent interacted at different points during the match. Even worse for the Men’s Rumble match is that Kofi Kingston’s daredevil spot was mistimed and he was eliminated earlier than he was supposed to and that forced them to cancel spots that were planned for him and Big E.
There were also many changes made to the Women’s Rumble match and that led to people being frustrated throughout the day because there were so many move parts to keep up with. It was described as a “confusing hodgepodge of things” that some people needed to remember or get out of their brain if an idea was scrapped.
It was noted that Vince McMahon was deeply involved in every aspect of the pay-per-view and morale was very down. One talent said, “We were all in a whirlwind. Just as you had your role and spots down, everything started over and over and now most of us were back to square one. It changed again and again and again. It wasn’t an easy night even before we hit the ring.”
As previously noted, several names that were invited to be at the Rumble ended up not being used.
