Let's talk about.....the fall of Roman Reigns

Let’s talk about….the fall of Roman Reigns

As he stood under the lights on Monday night, Roman Reigns passed his first test with flying (well, decent) colors. The newly anointed savior of our sport stood alone and cut his first main event promo, looking and sounding like he belonged in front of us. The fans ate it up like a whale at a buffet featuring all-you-can-eat Jonahs.

So where did this sinking feeling come from?

Let’s establish up front that the push of Roman Reigns has proceeded rather flawlessly; indeed, the Shield has been handled as well as any talents we’ve seen in the last ten years at this point. Slowly building Reigns up, with few jobs and strong victories, his ascension to the top of the card is nearly complete. We’re several months away from his final coronation, but barring any injury or unforeseen circumstances, he will be holding the title aloft at the end of Wrestlemania 31.

Speaking of unforeseen circumstances….

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" – George Santayana

Time for a stroll down the memory lane, don’t you think?

In the past 5 years, we’ve seen the ascension of 2 unlikely stars to the top of the ranks in WWE; CM Punk and Daniel Bryan. And we’ve seen the rejection of all of the following stars that WWE has tried to get over into that spot – Alberto Del Rio, Ryback, the returning Batista, and old card mainstays such as Cena, Orton, and the Big Show. In each instance, the fan base has rejected these options in favor of the fan-grown wrestler that the audience connected with. The booking of Roman Reigns does not fill me with confidence that this trend will be avoided in the near future.

The fact is, I think that we’re seeing a new breed of fan that has grown and matured over the last 5 years or so, and that fan is the informed fan. Not the smark, like us, who analyze wrestling to a ridiculous degree, but the fan who knows more about what is going on due to the internet or whatever medium they use than ever before. I believe that the fanbase has conditioned itself to reject many of the creations that WWE gives ‘superhero’ pushes to; initially, those wrestlers are welcomed as someone new to the main event scene.

As time goes on, however, there is a real role that the fans have taken on in determining who they want to receive a push, and not allowing that push to happen organically is playing with fire. If Reigns is indeed the long game for ‘Mania this year, the concern that I foresee is the fans getting tired or restless with his domination to the point that they will reject him the same way they eventually rejected a wrestler such as Ryback.

“Ryback? Reigns is twice the wrestler Ryback is!” Hmmmm….is that really true? Reigns has been extremely protected up to this point with regard to his weaknesses in the ring, which are very real. He fits in well as the heavy finisher in tag matches, but can he carry a match on his back when he needs to? I don’t put him in Scott Steiner territory by any stretch of the imagination, but any wrestling fan can see that he has a severely limited moveset to put it mildly. Spear, Superman Punch, dropkick to the ring apron. The rest of what Reigns does in the ring is very basic kicky-punchy clothesline type wrestling, and that type of wrestling has been a big part of what the fans have rejected in guys such as Cena and Ryback.

Remember the Ryback push? He was given a pretty big shove out there, pinning multiple wrestlers at once with big power moves to get him over as a monster. Much like Reigns has been protected in tag matches, Ryback was protected with short squashes. He was given title matches with Punk, main events with Cena, both of whom are excellent workers, and the matches came up relatively short. He was given a simple catchphrase to get over, which he did.  I think that the similarities are more evident than people think. The only difference is that, when the time comes, I think he’ll go over for the belt, whereas Ryback did not.

And that could be a problem. Because the fan’s role in deciding whether or not he finishes his push at the top when the proverbial rocket gets him all the way there is going to be determined by the epic nature of his matches. And I’m not at all convinced he’s ready for that; while we make fun sometimes of fans who may not know what’s really going on, ringwork has always gotten people over. Just look at the Steiner/HHH debacle vs the Angle/Benoit classic on the same show; wrestling fans will buy into good wrestling . Will he be ready by Wrestlemania? Of course, he could be.

But what happens if they can’t sustain his act that long? People tired of Cena’s superman act years ago, and have been vocal about that to the point where it needed acknowledgement on television, something that never would have happened to a top babyface from another era. Of course, Cena is a special case, as his merchandise sales and public image for the company require that he be kept a BINO (babyface in name only), but the boos far outweigh the cheers. I don’t know that Roman has that type of skill set yet – the ability to do the intangible things that are needed to sustain that type of run at the top.

Contrast that with the man getting the second biggest pops on the show right now – Dean Ambrose.

Ambrose is currently most smarks’ pick for the breakout star of the Shield waiting to happen, and it’s all in how he carries himself in the storytelling of his matches and his angles. He comes out and the crowd has NO idea what is going to happen next. He wrestles like no one else on the card at this time, sells like a motherfucker, and in general is a complete professional wrestler.

But the reason that I see Ambrose as the bigger star down the road is that he doesn’t feel like a WWE creation – he feels like a real (crazy) person, who has no real equal in the Fed when it comes to both his character and his unique ringwork. The fact is that if the fans are going to choose the next main event star, I suspect that they will tire of Reigns faster than they tire of Ambrose.

And that’s a real problem, because the WWE is going to forget the history of even the last few years again. 

The rise of CM Punk came because his character was unique and people were dying to see something that didn’t look like John Cena up top. The fans rejected Batista because they didn’t want to see the same thing, they wanted Daniel Bryan, who wrestled a unique and different style than anyone else at the time, and who had a character that appealed to the masses as a true underdog babyface, something that hadn’t been done in a long time. The fact is, Roman Reigns is exactly what the WWE sees when they look for a main event talent.

And the fact is, the fans have rejected that notion multiple times over the last several years.

Please understand, I’m not rooting against Roman Reigns in the slightest. I hope he pulls it together and proves me completely wrong. He not only has the look, he has the same type of attitude that put Batista over the top back in the day, the 'cooler than you vibe'. It might carry him all the way.

Or that rocket could explode before it clears the stratosphere.

And that fall can kill you.

Rick Poehling

@MrSoze on twitter