Ranking every WWE Royal Rumble PPV in history

20. WWE Royal Rumble 2014

Match card & results

• Bray Wyatt def. Daniel Bryan
• Brock Lesnar def. Big Show
• WWE World Heavyweight Championship Match: Randy Orton (c) def. John Cena
• Batista wins 30-Man Royal Rumble Match

You almost have to feel sorry for Rey Mysterio on this night. Always a fan favorite, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time in the 2014 Royal Rumble match. Well, first let’s discuss how the winner of the match was never in doubt. Batista was back after a long hiatus from WWE and it was pretty clear that he was going to the WrestleMania main event.

Roman Reigns, when he was still getting cheered, made a strong push and threw out a record 12 entrants but this night was about the lack of Daniel Bryan in the Rumble. He had lost to Bray Wyatt in the opening match of the night in what was a very good bout and the Pittsburgh crowd was sure that he would be number 30 in the Rumble match. Only it was Rey Mysterio and the crowd went ballistic. The final six in the match were Batista, Reigns, Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, Sheamus and CM Punk (his last appearance in WWE), which normally would be okay. But with no Daniel Bryan, nobody was going to be happy. I’m not saying they should have given the win to him as everything played out wonderfully (unless you’re Batista) on the way to WrestleMania XXX but at least throw him in there.

Brock Lesnar and Big Show was about what it was expected to be with Lesnar showing how strong he was and winning in about two minutes. There were some big chair shots before and after the match as well so that did take up a few more minutes. As for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship match featuring John Cena and Randy Orton, I thought they put on a good show, despite the crowd trying to hijack that match as well with the Daniel Bryan chants. There were some good nearfalls and the end was done well to set up Wyatt and Cena. Orton hit an RKO and that was that.