However, the WWE World Heavyweight Championship triple threat match received high praise from critics and fans.

[7][8] At SummerSlam, Brock Lesnar defeated John Cena and won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.

[9] Cena would receive his rematch the following month at Night of Champions which he would win by disqualification after Seth Rollins interfered and attempted to cash-in his Money in the Bank contract.

[13] On the final Raw of 2014, Rollins attacked special guest host Edge and threatened to perform a Curb Stomp on him if Cena did not reinstate The Authority.

[19] On the January 12 episode of Raw, Brie Bella defeated Paige due to distraction by Tyson Kidd.

Later in the night, it was announced that The New Day would face Cesaro, Kidd and Rose in a six-man tag team elimination match on the Royal Rumble Kickoff Show.

[14] Over the next few weeks, the duo would easily defeat local preliminary wrestlers and compare themselves to famous tag teams, like The Road Warriors.

[21] The actual pay-per-view opened with The Ascension (Konnor and Viktor) facing The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn).

The Ascension had control for the majority of the match, however, Gunn came back with a tilt-a-whirl slam and positioned Viktor for the "Famouser".

During the string, Curtis Axel, who was supposed to enter at #6, was attacked by Erick Rowan and was unable to compete in the match.

Like in 2014, the namesake match's reception flipped again to a turning point for worse as Wyatt eliminated fan-favorite Bryan, disappointing the audience potentially more than the previous year when he was absent.

Towards the end of the match, Kane (entering at #24) and Big Show (entering at #29) from The Authority teamed up to go on a string of eliminations - including Wyatt and other popular stars like Ryback at #23, final entrant at #30 Dolph Ziggler, and Dean Ambrose at #25 (who had teamed up with Roman Reigns as The Shield went against the duo).

[22] The final four consisted of Rusev (who was outside the ring at the time having gone under the bottom rope), Reigns, Kane and Big Show.

[25] Dave Scherer of PWInsider wrote that the event "is definitely worth watching for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship triple threat match and how the Rumble went bad".

[22] Kenny Herzog of Rolling Stone questioned the possibility of the Royal Rumble match being the worst in history, arguing that several factors such as the poor treatment of former Intercontinental champions, Daniel Bryan's unexpected early elimination and Kane and Big Show's dominance over younger talent all detracted from the match.

Herzog concluded, "That was less a Rumble match – i.e. the kind replete with feats of endurance and athleticism, free-for-all chaos and dozens of developing stories – than random gauntlet of triple-threat and four-way slugfests with no pacing or point.

Despite this, Herzog praised the lively Philadelphia crowd, the return of Bubba Ray Dudley and Rollins' performance in the WWE World Heavyweight Championship match as positives.

[29] Luke Winkie of Sports Illustrated was less critical of the Royal Rumble match, attributing Bryan's elimination to good storytelling and an instance where "you're supposed to hate the product".

[30] WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley, who had been critical of the previous year's show, wrote that he was saddened by the prospect of the Royal Rumble losing its luster and relevance as an annual event, and that he now considers it to be "a roadblock to the good will and excitement needed for a truly memorable WrestleMania atmosphere."

[31] Observing the ensuing debates among wrestling enthusiasts, communications psychologist Carrrielynn Reinhard commented the online discourse highlighted fans' emotional attachment to wrestlers' fictional personas, similar to that of "shippers" in other fandoms.

[35] The day after the Royal Rumble, Dave Meltzer reported on Wrestling Observer Radio that Vince McMahon and WWE had expected that Reigns's victory would receive some backlash, but not to the level they had experienced, and that despite this, WWE would not add Daniel Bryan to the main event at WrestleMania 31, since Vince felt that "it would be a repeat and gone to the well one time too often".

McMahon labelled it as a vocal minority upset that "the babyface did not win" and "Santa Claus didn't come on that PPV", but he expected those who complained to continue watching WWE anyway.

WWE decided to have Raw come from WWE headquarters in nearby Stamford, Connecticut instead, announcing it would hold a live SmackDown on Thursday from Hartford, honoring tickets that would be used for Raw, while allowing fans in Boston to either exchange their tickets for an upcoming house show on June 27 or obtaining a full refund.

[42] The post-Rumble Raw showed the WWE World Heavyweight Championship match and the main event of the Royal Rumble, albeit with commercial breaks.

Seth Rollins, Brock Lesnar, Paul Heyman, Roman Reigns, and Daniel Bryan did in-studio interviews with several WWE announcers, such as Michael Cole, Renee Young and Byron Saxton, while Dean Ambrose "walked" to WWE headquarters from Hartford due to the statewide 9 PM travel ban.

[43] Although Curtis Axel being unable to participate in the Rumble match was not unprecedented, the fact that Axel was not eliminated (having never officially entered the match) ended up trended on Twitter following the event,[44][45][46] and also received supportive tweets from former WWE wrestlers Lance Storm[47] and Tommy Dreamer,[48] and then later from current WWE wrestlers Xavier Woods,[49] Zack Ryder,[50] and David Otunga, the latter offering his legal services.

Instead of facing Brock Lesnar, Axel participated in the second annual André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania 31,[56] but was the first wrestler eliminated after the majority of the field threw him out of the ring.