Royal Rumble 2014 Royal Rumble was a professional wrestling pay - per - view ( PPV ) event produced by WWE that took place on January 26 , 2014 at the CONSOL Energy Center in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania . It was the 27th annual Royal Rumble event . It was the first WWE pay - per - view in the 2014 pay - per - view line - up . It was the first WWE pay - per - view event in Pittsburgh since the 2009 Bragging Rights , and the first pay - per - view event at Consol Energy Center since it opened in 2010 . The event was critically panned , some labeling it as one of the worst WWE PPVs ever . CM Punk left the WWE the day after the PPV and later retired from professional wrestling . Background . Royal Rumble featured professional wrestling matches involving different wrestlers from pre - existing scripted feuds , plots , and storylines that play out on WWE ' s television programs . Wrestlers portray heels or faces as they follow a series of events that build tension , and culminate in a wrestling match or series of matches . The main feud folding out at the Royal Rumble features Randy Orton and John Cena , with their dispute over the former ' s WWE World Heavyweight Championship . In order to crown the one " champion of champions " and the " face of the WWE " , the on - screen Chief Operating Officer , Triple H , had called for the WWE Champion , Orton , and the then - World Heavyweight Champion , Cena , to compete in a title - unification Tables , Ladders , and Chairs match at the pay - per - view in December ; Orton defeated Cena to become a four - time ( and final ) World Heavyweight Champion , retiring the title by unifying it with his WWE title to become the first - ever WWE World Heavyweight Champion . On the December 30 episode of " Raw " Stephanie McMahon announced a rematch from the TLC event , seeing Orton defend the WWE World Heavyweight title against Cena at the Royal Rumble in a traditional one - on - one singles match with no outside interference or added stipulations and where the victor would be decided via pinfall or submission only . On the December 30 edition of " Raw " , Brock Lesnar returned with Paul Heyman to announce his intentions to challenge the winner of the match between Orton and Cena . Lesnar then called out any wrestler who wanted to stop him , which resulted in Mark Henry answering the challenge and the two brawling until Lesnar ended the brawl with an " F - 5 " . The following week on " Old School Raw " , Henry challenged him again only to have Lesnar dislocate his elbow with the " Kimura Lock " . Following this , Big Show came out and confronted Lesnar , which lead to a short physical confrontation between the two . On January 10 , Big Show issued a challenge to Lesnar to fight at the Royal Rumble on Miz TV on " Smackdown " . Paul Heyman accepted the challenge on behalf of Lesnar , and said it would take place at the Royal Rumble . Announced on WWE . com , Cody Rhodes and Goldust will face the The New Age Outlaws ( Road Dogg and Billy Gunn ) for the WWE Tag Team Championship on the Royal Rumble pre - show . The New Age Outlaws defeated Cody Rhodes and Goldust in a non - title match on the January 17th edition of " SmackDown " due to a distraction from Vickie Guerrero . On January 20 edition of " Raw " , it was announced that Daniel Bryan will face Bray Wyatt at the Royal Rumble . Bryan and the Wyatt Family had been feuding since October . On the December 30 , 2013 edition of " Raw " , a seemingly beaten down Bryan had announced he would join the Wyatts . On the January 13 , 2014 episode of " Raw " , ( after Bryan and Bray Wyatt were defeated by The Usos in a steel cage match ) , Bryan attacked Wyatt , culminating with Bryan hitting his flying knee finishing maneuver to a thunderous response of the entire crowd chanting " YES ! YES ! YES ! " . The following week on " Raw " Bryan explained that his joining the Wyatts was a ruse to infiltrate the stable and bide his time to strike , and that he would wrestle Wyatt at the PPV . Reception . The upset reaction of the fans attending the event in Pittsburgh was so great that it was reported as one of the major news items coming out of the show , and described as the live audience engineering a " takeover " of the final two hours of the show . During the title match between John Cena and Randy Orton , fans chanted that " this is awful " and for Daniel Bryan , amongst other chants . The fans continued to chant for Bryan during the Royal Rumble match , so when Rey Mysterio ( typically a face ) entered as the final entrant and Bryan ' s possible participation in the match was eliminated , they booed Mysterio , chanted for Bryan and cheered when Mysterio was eliminated by Seth Rollins . The crowd continued to boo when there were three wrestlers left in the match , but when only Batista and Roman Reigns remained , they cheered for Reigns ( a heel for the past year ) over Batista , and later booed Batista ' s victory as the event drew to a close . After the show went off the air , Batista mocked Bryan and gave the middle finger to the crowd . Aaron Oster of " The Baltimore Sun " wrote Mysterio " received more boos than he ’ s ever had in his WWE career " , and in the case of Batista , " besides the fact that a supposed face was getting booed , the boos were stronger than any Rumble winner I can remember , including when Vince McMahon won 1999 . " Fans took to social media to display their displeasure towards the event . The " BBC " reported that regarding Bryan ' s exclusion from the Rumble match , " many people have also expressed anger on social media , with the phrases # RoyalRumble , # WWE and Daniel Bryan all trending on Twitter " . The " Herald & Review " described the reaction to the event as " WWE ' s PR nightmare " , with the most " liked " comments on WWE ' s Facebook page within 24 hours of the event including " worst PPV ever " , " the sound of WWE dropping the ball " and in reference to the WWE Network , " no Bryan , no buy . " Mick Foley criticized WWE management on social media by stating that " I ' ve never been so disgusted with a PPV . " Bryan responded to fans on Twitter , writing " They try to keep US down and away from the top spots , but they can ’ t ignore the reactions forever . Keep voicing your opinions " . Dale Plummer and Nick Tylwalk of the Canadian Online Explorer rated the overall event was 6 . 0 out of 10 . The Wyatt - Bryan bout was rated the highest at a " fantastic " 9 . 5 out of 10 , the Cena - Orton bout , described as a " sloppy affair that won ’ t go down among the best work from either man " received 4 . 0 out of 10 , while the Lesnar - Big Show encountered received 1 . 0 out of 10 . They described the event as " uneven " , and that " the disapproval of the fans at the Consol Energy Center at how the Royal Rumble match went down will be the lasting memory for anyone who watched the show " . James Caldwell of the " Professional Wrestling Torch Newsletter " rated the Royal Rumble match 2 . 5 stars out of 5 , commenting that " well , that back - fired " . He wrote that the " Rumble peaked about three - fourths through , then fell off the table at the end " , and described the Rumble winner Batista as " out - of - shape " . Caldwell also rated the Bryan - Wyatt match 4 . 0 stars out of 5 , describing it as " easily Bray ' s best WWE TV match , great chemistry from both wrestlers " in front of a " hot , invested crowd " . Caldwell chose not to rate the Lesnar - Show , commenting that it was necessarily short due to Show being injured going into the match . Lastly , Caldwell rated the Orton - Cena title match 2 . 0 stars out of 5 . Benjamin Tucker , who attended the event and is also from the " Professional Wrestling Torch Newsletter " , rated the entire event 6 . 0 out of 10 , saying " the show began great but slowly lost steam before ending in a roar of jeers . " For the Rumble match , Tucker said that " the first two - thirds especially were exciting , with several wrestlers being spotlighted well " , " until lower - level players kept coming out in the final half of the match . " Tucker felt that " Roman Reigns was the star of the match , even outclassing Batista . Where Batista stumbled around the ring like . . . well , an old , retired wrestler , Roman Reigns looked like an absolute monster . " For the opening match , Tucker felt that the " deliberate pace didn ' t hurt the match in the slightest . Instead , it allowed Bray to keep using his character while in a competitive , big match situation . " For the rest of the matches , Tucker wrote that " Lesnar looked like a relentless beast " , while " Orton and Cena put on their most lifeless performance ever together . There was very little story to the match " and " no creativity at all " . Royal Rumble entrances and eliminations . A new entrant came out approximately every 90 seconds . ( * ) - Kane was already eliminated when he ran back into the ring and eliminated Punk later in the match . ( * ) - Including Glenn Jacob ' s total persona ' s as " Kane " , " Isaac Yankem " and " Diesel " , Kane tied Shawn Michaels who has most eliminations in the Royal Rumble history with 39 . Glenn Jacob as Kane has 38 eliminations . ( * ) - Roman Reigns breaks Kane ' s record for most elimination in one match with 12 eliminations . Kane previously had eliminated 11 superstars in 2001 . ( * ) - Including Glenn Jacob ' s total persona ' s as " Kane " , " Isaac Yankem " and " Diesel " , this was his 17 Royal Rumble appearance . He appeared as Kane 15 times , as Isaac Yankem 1 time ( 1996 ) , and as Diesel 1 time ( 1997 ) .