Report: WWE's Reaction to the Royal Rumble Backlash

People in WWE could not have ignored the overwhelmingly negative reaction to Roman Reigns' victory at Sunday night's Royal Rumble pay-per-view.

It actually managed to be worse than Batista's disastrous and embarrassing win last year—which previously seemed inconceivable. It wasn't just the people in the arena; fans on Twitter were furious about the result, too.

Some would suggest one way for WWE to appease its fans following this latest debacle is to find a way to insert much-loved babyface Daniel Bryan into the title bout at WrestleMania 31.

Interestingly, as F4WOnline.com (via WrestleZone.com) mentions, Vince McMahon is apparently unwilling to consider adding Bryan to Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar, feeling it would be too much of a repeat of last year.

F4WOnline.com is reporting there are absolutely no plans to add Daniel Bryan to the WWE World Heavyweight Championship match at Wrestlemania 31.

Fans were very upset over Bryan's elimination from the Rumble last night, and it was discussed that they could maybe add him into the match and have another triple threat match. Reports are saying Vince McMahon is totally against that idea, thinking putting Bryan in that situation would be overkill, considering he was in the same type of match at Wrestlemania 30.

The report also mentions that while people in management were expecting some sort of backlash over Bryan's early exit in the 30-man match, even they were shocked at just how badly it was received by the audience. The Rock—who, in one of the most shocking moments of the night, was vociferously booed when he tried to endorse Reigns after the match—apparently wasn't happy with how things turned out, either.

No kidding. All that booing and jeering must have made him feel like it was 1997 again.

In fairness to McMahon, it is true that inserting Bryan would be extremely similar to the company's booking in the spring of 2014. But really, it couldn't be any worse than keeping the former Ring of Honor performer out of the title scene altogether and going with Lesnar vs. Reigns in a singles bout (No disrespect to either Lesnar or Reigns, but this is not an appealing option at all right now).

Fans will forgive predictability. They may, however, be less willing to forgive a terrible and ill-conceived WrestleMania 31 main event.