Bryan's knowledge of submission holds makes it believable. It's not David vs Goliath in which David is flying around the ring delivering frankensteiners and hurracanranas to Goliath; it's someone that, albeit smaller, knows which veins to close off to put his opponent to sleep. That's what BJJ is based on entirely. I've seen this happen in real life and it's funny/infuriating to see how some just don't buy someone smaller being able to knock out someone bigger.
I've heard rumors that Bryan will not be involved in the title match because "Vince doesn't want to repeat last year, it would be overkill." I'm not believing them out of respect for Vince and Hunter. Once upon a time, I thought Vince was monumentally stupid and used every occasion I could to be very vocal about it, but come to think of it, there is no way he can be THAT bad, right?
If you're wondering what I mean: I meant to say that "overkill" is a weak argument after repeating HBK vs 'Taker and Cena vs Rock ("ONCE in a lifetime"). Whoever says that has a part of their brain dead.
Part of the reason why Roman Reigns got booed was not only out of bitterness from Bryan's early elimination (nearly everyone was getting booed after that) but because the crowd is getting aware that perhaps he has been granted a free first class trip to the main event due to family influences. The Rock's appearance only made matters worse. I don't think either of them deserved that. But in a way, it shows how dumb they were to have Batista win last year when Reigns was getting received well by the audience.
Speaking of the audience, I'd like to add one last thing: I absolutely loved the way they received John Cena but it's such a shame that it happened so late. Many years ago I saw a video on youtube which claimed they had this revolutionary way of booing Cena, and that's where I first heard people singing "John Cena sucks" along with his song. I thought it would be wonderful to pick that up because it would ruin his entrance so much that the WWE would have to change something (at best, Cena gets some kryptonite; at worst, they change his theme song). It's right up there with Kurt Angle's. However, the plate is already broken and there's no mending it. It doesn't matter if they make him "descend from the top" and/or turn him heel, it doesn't matter if every arena in the universe boos him, his era of absolute perfection has forever left a mark.