There was plenty of surprises with this year’s WWE Royal Rumble, but the biggest ones are the superstars we didn’t get to see. Some were pulled due to injuries, but word has it that Lita and Victoria were pulled from the Royal Rumble thanks to leaks.
Yep, you read that right. Leaks.
Apparently, a fan noticed the titantron showed them practicing in the ring and recorded it with his or her phone and released it to the internet. Worse, Lita and Victoria were heartbroken to learn they wouldn’t be appearing because of said leak.
Out of all the reasons for pulling someone from the event and hurting them and the fans, this is the weakest one.
Now, had they been injured like Sasha Banks (reportedly since January 3) and had to be replaced with Kelly Kelly, it’d be understandable. But this given what it meant to the talent in general?
There’s an understandable reasoning to this
It’s understandable to be upset that spoilers leak. We share spoilers all the time with the word “Spoilers” in the title. But not everyone is so caring to offer a warning.
In an age where everyone carries a computer in their pocket, leaks are bound to happen. It’s the way things are. That doesn’t mean fans don’t have a certain responsibility to not share something right away, but to overreact by having Lita and Victoria pulled from the Royal Rumble is overreacting.
It can be enormously frustrating planning something in secret to have it slip out without warning. But it’s to be expected when you allow fans entrance before the event or people working there want to make the news for a split second’s worth of fame.
Being an insider can be really tempting, especially when others make a huge career out of them, and the money flows into their pockets to keep the information flowing.
There’s plenty of reasons to be unhappy about this.
Even some fans agree, as they’ve taken to social media to complain about fans spilling the goods and ruining what could be an awesome experience.
There’s one problem with that. Only one person has to power to withhold talent out of pettiness, and that means…
Vince McMahon punished the fans and talent
But there’s more to it than that.
In what can probably be attributed to his micromanaging nature, Vince McMahon decided to pull Lita and Victoria from the match because the surprise factor was gone.
So what?
Seriously, we’d still love to see them appear even if we knew it ahead of time. We knew Edge was coming back (don’t try to deny it) and the place still exploded when his music hit.
We’ve become used to the WWE advertising superstars and not delivering (Undertaker was told he wasn’t needed for Smackdown’s move to Fox despite a week long promotion. Talk about a slap in the face of fans), but this is beyond… stupid.
The only reasonable reason for this appears to be a way to punish the fans for leaking the video. Of course, it also punished the talent and ruined what could’ve been an awesome experience, but that’s okay, McMahon got to flex his muscles and pay us back for breaking his secret.
And people wonder why AEW and other companies are so popular.
