WWE Royal Rumble 2016: Worst Booking Decisions from PPV

Royal Rumble 2016 kicked off WWE's year with a fanastic pay-per-view that won over an audience tired of the monotony and lethargy that has engulfed the company's programming for the last eight months. The show featured wild and chaotic action, new champions crowned, returns and debuts.

It was, in short, a smorgasbord of awesomeness for fans to pick and choose from.

Like any great smorgasbord, though, the Royal Rumble was not without its cauliflower.

Amid the great and phenomenal, there were a few booking choices that left fans weary, confused even. They are the decisions that have not gotten much play in the aftermath of an otherwise spectacular production but may still rear their ugly heads at some point on the Road to WrestleMania.

What were they, and how did WWE Creative manage to let them slip through the cracks of what was, with those few exceptions, a fantastic script?

Let's take a look.

Credit: WWE.com

Playing "Hot Potato" With the United States Championship

What exactly was the point of switching the United States title from Alberto Del Rio to Kalisto on the January 11 episode of Raw, only to shift it back to the former champion three days later on SmackDown, if the purpose of the feud was for the masked luchador to wind up with it anyway?

All those quick switches did nothing but erase the heat Kalisto had been building and, worse yet, led to the continued diminishing of the U.S. Championship.

Sunday's title change did not help matters. While WWE sees Rey Mysterio when it looks at Kalisto, utilizing 50-50 booking with him will inevitably lead to the same missed opportunities to create stars that have plagued the company for the last decade.

And, again, the credibility and legitimacy of the title will continue to suffer. Rather than a coveted prize, it will languish as a prop for storytelling purposes, nothing more.

That is always the worst possible outcome.

Credit: WWE.com

Becky Lynch: Afterthought

Arguably the best babyface on WWE TV leading into the Royal Rumble, Becky Lynch was tossed aside like a sad-sack after losing to Divas champion Charlotte, treated like garbage as WWE Creative focused its attention on the returning Sasha Banks.

The Lass Kicker is the purest babyface Diva the division has, an underdog who fights hard for what she believes in and covets the championship because of what it means, not because it cements some prophecy linked to her family. She is the female Daniel Bryan, a lovable loser who fans legitimately want to see succeed.

Throwing her away like garbage is a slap in the face to the audience, even if it's equally as excited about Banks' return to the title picture.

A three-way feud would be the best option, in that it would allow both Lynch and Banks to stay relevant.

Having watched plenty of WWE product over the last five years, though, would it really surprise anyone if the fiery red (orange?) head was shoved to the background, left to play second or third fiddle, as she was during the early days of the Divas Revolution?

Credit: WWE.com

Roman Reigns Takes A Nap

Roman Reigns endured a vicious beating at the hands of The League of Nations that necessitated his disappearance from the Royal Rumble. Then, late in the bout, he exploded through the curtain, knocking out Sheamus and reentering the match.

The only problem is that the amount of time that passed between Reigns' being escorted out by officials and medical personnel to the time that he returned was entirely too long to convince fans that he was fighting through the pain to get back out into the ring.

Instead, it felt more like Reigns was hanging out backstage, taking a breath, eating a yogurt and stealing a few Z's. 

By the time he returned, he felt like an opportunistic villain taking advantage of his break than someone like Chris Jericho or Dean Ambrose, who had fought and clawed their way to the finals of the match.

The same story failed miserably in 1999 when the company tried it with Steve Austin, so to suggest it would work with someone not nearly as over as he was is a major misstep on the part of the writing staff. 

When it was over, Reigns was not even remotely close to being the most talked-about star coming out of the Royal Rumble. Given the fact that the entire show was built around him and his quest to retain the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, that is damning.