YouTube
After the annual Royal Rumble event concluded this past Sunday night, fans railed against the WWE with a user-generated hashtag "#CancelWWENetwork," that was trending worldwide by the end of the evening.
@WWE is wasting a locker room full of great young talent. Fix it or it will only get worse #CancelWWENetwork
- Frank Wible (@FrankWibble215) January 26, 2015
Why the anger? Turns out that after Roman Reigns emerged as the victor of the Royal Rumble, fans felt that this was another way in which the company was forcing Reigns on them before he earned the respect of viewers and fans alike.
In short, Reigns, who's coming off of an injury, is being treated like the company's golden ticket, and people aren't happy.
Adding fuel to the fire was the unceremonious way in which fan favorites Daniel Bryan, Dolph Ziggler and Dean Ambrose were eliminated from the Royal Rumble match.
This isn't the first time fans have lashed out at the company's creative decision-making following a Royal Rumble event. The WWE Universe's displeasure at superstar Dave Bautista's victory at the Royal Rumble event last year resulted in a major creative overhaul. After winning the Rumble event, Bautista was supposed to headline Wrestlemania XXX, but fan backlash forced the WWE creative team to change the main event so that fan favorite Daniel Bryan could be involved. Bryan ended up winning the World Heavyweight Title at Wrestlemania.
Time reports, that "Sunday night's fiasco was the latest in a long line of setbacks for the WWE since the company launched a subscription-based digital network last year that has largely failed to win over its own base."