Analyzing the Impact of Fan Backlash on WWE's Booking

WWE heard the uproar in Philadelphia at the Royal Rumble and rearranged the bricks in the road to WrestleMania accordingly.

Today's fans act like wind weathering and shaping the rock that is the WWE product. The audience is no longer passive, watching the world created in the ring. It rejects and demands. Its voice resonates.

We saw that at play when WWE veered from the expected route to Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar. All of a sudden, Daniel Bryan is a major player in that story.

The audible that WWE called on Monday's Raw is a tribute to the strange nature of this business, especially in a post-kayfabe era. WWE presents a story arc, but should fans reject it loudly enough, the company is forced to alter it.

In his podcast interview with Steve Austin after Raw, Triple H remarked that WWE is set up to adjust on the fly:

That appears to be what happened en route to last year's WrestleMania.

All the seeds had been planted for a CM Punk-Triple H collision. WWE played up Punk's anti-authority attitude. The Authority came down hard on him, sending out various goons to throttle him.

Batista won the Rumble to a response only Reigns can understand.

That set up Batista vs. Randy Orton in the main event and Triple H vs. Punk slightly down the card. Where Bryan would fit in was unknown. Perhaps another showdown with Sheamus, an afterthought of a match, was on the way.

Punk quitting opened the door for Bryan to take his spot, but the fans catapulted the bearded warrior into the title match as well.

Bryan's fanbase would take nothing less than him getting a chance to be the man. WWE had jerked the audience around with a frustrating story of The Authority stomping all over him. Crowds chanted "Yes!" with extra fervor, their voices thundering night in and night out.

WWE listened. Bryan got his shot, something that certainly didn't appear to be in the script when Batista last eliminated Reigns.

Jonathan Bachman/Associated Press

A year later, the tale of Reigns' rise to the throne is experiencing similar changes. Vocal anger about Bryan's early elimination from the Royal Rumble hasn't gone unheard. 

Triple H's anticipated announcement on Raw ended up being him and Stephanie McMahon poking apart the validity of Reigns' Rumble victory. The Rock had interfered on his behalf, creating an asterisk next to his name. Never mind that Big Show and Kane interfered as well with the intent to lay Reigns out.

The wrestling heel has always been half-blind to the truth.

The important thing is that this was WWE's way of working Bryan into the mix.

Triple H set up two matches to clear up this controversy. Seth Rollins and Bryan would fight on Raw. The winner would take on Reigns at Fastlane to determine who actually battles Lesnar come WrestleMania.

As clunky as that setup was, it served the purpose of placating Bryan fans and working to give Reigns a better shot of winning them over.

It's hard to imagine that this is what WWE Creative dreamed up before the Rumble match. But that was before Reigns got the Batista treatment and the headlines coming out of the year's first pay-per-view centered around the fans' negative reaction.

Bryan's loss and the resentment for Reigns became issues that WWE had to address. It couldn't simply tell a story of a babyface on the rise getting a crack at an unstoppable monster. The fans had to be wooed.

That process began on the snowed-in Raw following the Rumble. Reigns sat down with Byron Saxton and talked about his family lineage. He told a story of his Hall of Famer father throwing him in a pool before namedropping a string of members of the famed Anoa'i family.

Reigns' connections to The Rock, The Usos, The Wild Samoans and Rikishi had yet to come up much onscreen. Bringing it up at this point certainly felt like a way to show that Reigns was no outsider getting something he deserved.

The narrative focused in on how long he has loved this business, acting almost like a political ad.

Maybe WWE would have gone that route even without the backlash in Philly. The timing, though, makes it seem that this was a tool brought out in an emergency.

To continue down this path, to have Reigns avoid having to turn heel like Batista last year, WWE had Bryan defeat Rollins on Raw. A babyface-against-babyface battle is now set for Fastlane on February 22.

That smells like an audible all the way. 

Reigns seemed destined to lock horns with Big Show at that event. Not only had their story progressed closer to a climax, their rivalry getting more antagonistic along the way, but that's the bout WWE told fans was coming.

As Wrestle Zone's Nick Paglino notes, the FedExForum's website advertised a Last Man Standing match between Reigns and Big Show for Fastlane in Memphis, Tennessee.

Plans have since changed. You have to credit Bryan's loud, passionate fanbase for some of that in addition to WWE's willingness to rewrite on the go. He may not win and take Reigns' WrestleMania spot, but it's clear that WWE is in damage-control mode.

Big Show vs. Reigns likely would have led to a rain of boos at this point. Incorporating Bryan allows Reigns to further earn his career-changing chance. A great match against Bryan aids him in winning fans over and proving that he's ready for the headline spot.

Should Bryan shake Reigns' hand after losing, that'd be a huge boost for the No. 1 contender as well.

If Bryan signs off on Reigns, issuing a vote of confidence and telling him, "Go get him, Reigns," it'd work to sell folks on Reigns being on the WrestleMania marquee—not Bryan.

Or least that's the theory. 

Getting fans on board today with a wrestling story or star's push is an onerous task. The force that is the company's ardent fanbase isn't just going to watch WWE construct roads. It compels the company to change direction.