Credit: WWE.com The 2018 Royal Rumble poster has WWE fans up in arms as poster-shaming ensues.
Let's take a quick second to break this down: There are 43 WWE Superstars featured on the 2018 Royal Rumble poster. Wrestling fans, with nothing better to do, took the time to play process of elimination and are now obsessed with the fact that one particular WWE Superstar is missing.
There are several reasons pro wrestling is nowhere near as cool as it once was. The previous paragraph you just read is a reason why it never will be again. We are officially at the point in time where rabid wrestling fans think posters are real.
The digitalization of WWE consumerism has given way to incessant #NerdRage in every corner of WWE's product. In recent years, the Royal Rumble has become more about who didn't win the event than who did.
Daniel Bryan's absence from the 2014 Royal Rumble, and his shockingly early elimination from the 2015 event, submerged the pay-per-view franchise in a two-year swamp of outrage and WWE Network death threats.
And just as fans have developed a tendency to zero in on perceived victims of the Royal Rumble match, the same psychology has trickled down to the annual official release of pay-per-view posters.
It's a new phenomenon which can only be described as poster-shaming—the fruitless criticism of which independent wrestling veteran is being jobbed out to the man by being excluded from a high-profile advertisement.
Credit: WWE.com The official Royal Rumble 2018 has a glaring omission.
This time last year, AJ Styles was hidden in the back of the Royal Rumble 2017 poster. The gesture caused so much of an uproar, Styles himself was forced to comment as the current WWE champion voiced displeasure of his own, saying:
It's actually people reacting on Instagram and Twitter showing me. I think they were a little more upset than I was. I get what's going on here on the poster. Those are your stars that have been here for a long time. So I get it. They're in marquee matches as well. They're faces that people recognize. Don't get me wrong, I'm not happy with it. I think that the WWE Champion should be definitely up front but, at the same time, I understand the reasoning for the poster
Headlines pertaining to the 2017 Royal Rumble poster made Styles sound like a missing child from a suburban neighborhood.
"Royal Rumble 2017 Poster: Can you Spot AJ Styles?" (SEScoops.com)
"Official Royal Rumble Poster with Top SmackDown Superstar Missing" (Sportskeeda.com)
"Search Parties, Police, Continue Desperate Pursuit of Missing WWE Superstar AJ Styles."
Okay, that last one is made-up, but you get it.
Several weeks later, Styles was once again included near the back of the WrestleMania 33 poster. Of course, the flyer was equally unacceptable for the poster roasters.
Come SummerSlam 2017, Styles was nowhere to be found on the official poster. Clearly exasperated by the petty complaints at this point, Styles was rather short in his response:
"It's an advertisement that fans will buy tickets for..."
The official poster for the 2018 Royal Rumble has no such controversy regarding AJ Styles, who was promoted all the way to the third row. But that only means a new face must arise in the pro wrestling sub-genre of victim politics.
And his name is Sami Zayn.
Despite being advertised to compete in a WWE Championship match alongside Kevin Owens, Zayn was snubbed from the 2018 Royal Rumble poster.
Oh, the humanity!
The news has not sat well with WWE's hardcore fanbase, which is now rallying around the co-leader of the "Yep Movement," despite the fact he is currently in a main event role on a flagship show.
Though there may be no way of fully pleasing WWE's hardcore fanbase, this is hardly a cause for concern when it comes to WWE's business model. In fact, WWE's profits soared last quarter because, in addition to cutting costs, it raised ticket prices on its more dedicated, group of core consumers. The successful third quarter has given way to record stock prices for WWE ahead of ongoing negotiation for television rights.
Credit: WWE.com Sami Zayn was snubbed from the 2018 Royal Rumble poster.
Maybe wrestling fans just love to be miserable. If this is the case, the rising trend of poster-shaming will add more fuel to their lucrative, arena-filling rage.
If WWE wants to outdo its own impressive WrestleMania 30 attendance for the Superdome, perhaps the WrestleMania 34 poster should be one giant picture of Vince McMahon.
">The good news is WWE's official 2018 Royal Rumble poster has been released. The bad news is WWE's increasingly aggressive fanbase feasted their eyes on it and noticed Sami Zayn was left out.
Credit: WWE.com The 2018 Royal Rumble poster has WWE fans up in arms as poster-shaming ensues.
Let's take a quick second to break this down: There are 43 WWE Superstars featured on the 2018 Royal Rumble poster. Wrestling fans, with nothing better to do, took the time to play process of elimination and are now obsessed with the fact that one particular WWE Superstar is missing.
There are several reasons pro wrestling is nowhere near as cool as it once was. The previous paragraph you just read is a reason why it never will be again. We are officially at the point in time where rabid wrestling fans think posters are real.
The digitalization of WWE consumerism has given way to incessant #NerdRage in every corner of WWE's product. In recent years, the Royal Rumble has become more about who didn't win the event than who did.
Daniel Bryan's absence from the 2014 Royal Rumble, and his shockingly early elimination from the 2015 event, submerged the pay-per-view franchise in a two-year swamp of outrage and WWE Network death threats.
And just as fans have developed a tendency to zero in on perceived victims of the Royal Rumble match, the same psychology has trickled down to the annual official release of pay-per-view posters.
It's a new phenomenon which can only be described as poster-shaming—the fruitless criticism of which independent wrestling veteran is being jobbed out to the man by being excluded from a high-profile advertisement.
Credit: WWE.com The official Royal Rumble 2018 has a glaring omission.
This time last year, AJ Styles was hidden in the back of the Royal Rumble 2017 poster. The gesture caused so much of an uproar, Styles himself was forced to comment as the current WWE champion voiced displeasure of his own, saying:
It's actually people reacting on Instagram and Twitter showing me. I think they were a little more upset than I was. I get what's going on here on the poster. Those are your stars that have been here for a long time. So I get it. They're in marquee matches as well. They're faces that people recognize. Don't get me wrong, I'm not happy with it. I think that the WWE Champion should be definitely up front but, at the same time, I understand the reasoning for the poster
Headlines pertaining to the 2017 Royal Rumble poster made Styles sound like a missing child from a suburban neighborhood.
"Royal Rumble 2017 Poster: Can you Spot AJ Styles?" (SEScoops.com)
"Official Royal Rumble Poster with Top SmackDown Superstar Missing" (Sportskeeda.com)
"Search Parties, Police, Continue Desperate Pursuit of Missing WWE Superstar AJ Styles."
Okay, that last one is made-up, but you get it.
Several weeks later, Styles was once again included near the back of the WrestleMania 33 poster. Of course, the flyer was equally unacceptable for the poster roasters.
Come SummerSlam 2017, Styles was nowhere to be found on the official poster. Clearly exasperated by the petty complaints at this point, Styles was rather short in his response:
"It's an advertisement that fans will buy tickets for..."
The official poster for the 2018 Royal Rumble has no such controversy regarding AJ Styles, who was promoted all the way to the third row. But that only means a new face must arise in the pro wrestling sub-genre of victim politics.
And his name is Sami Zayn.
Despite being advertised to compete in a WWE Championship match alongside Kevin Owens, Zayn was snubbed from the 2018 Royal Rumble poster.
Oh, the humanity!
The news has not sat well with WWE's hardcore fanbase, which is now rallying around the co-leader of the "Yep Movement," despite the fact he is currently in a main event role on a flagship show.
Though there may be no way of fully pleasing WWE's hardcore fanbase, this is hardly a cause for concern when it comes to WWE's business model. In fact, WWE's profits soared last quarter because, in addition to cutting costs, it raised ticket prices on its more dedicated, group of core consumers. The successful third quarter has given way to record stock prices for WWE ahead of ongoing negotiation for television rights.
Credit: WWE.com Sami Zayn was snubbed from the 2018 Royal Rumble poster.
Maybe wrestling fans just love to be miserable. If this is the case, the rising trend of poster-shaming will add more fuel to their lucrative, arena-filling rage.
If WWE wants to outdo its own impressive WrestleMania 30 attendance for the Superdome, perhaps the WrestleMania 34 poster should be one giant picture of Vince McMahon.
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