Tuesday, March 19, 2024
EditorialIs WWE Taking Too Much Risk With Roman Reigns?

Is WWE Taking Too Much Risk With Roman Reigns?

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In a previous article I predicted Seth Rollins would not cash in his briefcase, Cena or Lesnar would win the title match, and Daniel Bryan would definitely win the Rumble. I was left as disappointed as the Philly crowd in attendance when Bryan was unceremoniously dumped out of the Rumble by Bray Wyatt. I knew from early on that the Philly crowd would not cheer for Reigns. This was easily noticeable in the pre-show match between The New Day and Cesaro/Tyson Kidd, when Cesaro had the crowd firmly behind him.

I didn’t want to react to the Royal Rumble right away. We have seen many articles here about the Rumble, and I didn’t want my thoughts to be lost among them. I spent almost a week thinking about the Royal Rumble match, and why they booked it the way they did. I keep trying to find the positives, but the negatives keep cropping back up. I keep imagining the reaction Daniel Bryan would have received if he won. I keep imagining the reaction if Ziggler or Ambrose won. And then I think, could it have been worse?

What happened to the Royal Rumble match?

I remember the Royal Rumble being a very special event that made careers, or at least kept the most over guy in the spotlight. I remember my first Rumble in 2000, The Rock won the match by eliminating Big Show. To be honest, The Rock won this match and didn’t even get a singles match for the title, it ended up as a fatal four way at Wrestlemania 2000 (with a McMahon in the corner of each wrestler), making his win rather worthless. Probably a bad example to start with, but in the years after we saw many great Rumble winners.

Royal Rumble 2001 set up Steve Austin (the winner) against The Rock at Wrestlemania X-Seven, which is a classic. Triple H won in 2002 and went on to beat Chris Jericho. Brock Lesnar in 2003 and went on to beat Kurt Angle. Chris Benoit won in 2004 from the #1 spot, an amazing accomplishment never mentioned for obvious reasons, but it set up one of the greatest triple threats WWE ever produced at Wrestlemania XX. Batista was shoved into the spotlight in 2005, and although it wasn’t a really popular decision, he went on to beat Triple H at Wrestlemania for the title. John Cena won the WWE Championship in the match beforehand. This is the start of the fall of the Royal Rumble match.

Wait! Wait a minute! Because Batista won in 2005 means the Rumble lost its value? Not quite. What I actually mean is, the brand split was running its course, and WWE decided to move forward with Batista, a guy who had the look, but wasn’t quite over yet. They were hoping the victory at the Rumble and Wrestlemania would put him in the main event scene and the fans would get behind him. They did to a certain degree, but the brand split was beginning to hurt the Royal Rumble. With two World Championships, the winner of the match wasn’t as important to WWE anymore. I can imagine, if there was only one World Championship in 2005, Cena would have won instead.

2006 was a tribute match more than anything else. It’s blatantly obvious to everyone that the only reason Mysterio won from the #2 spot was to pay tribute to the recently deceased Eddie Guerrero. Rey Mysterio went on to win the World title, but it wasn’t the main event. His match was before a Torrie Wilson vs Candice Michelle Playboy Pillow Fight (seriously), and John Cena defending the WWE title against Triple H.

2007 was another funny Rumble match. Despite The Undertaker being a total legend, he won from the #30 spot (like the Undertaker really needed to enter last), and it allowed him to go on to beat Batista at Wrestlemania 23. The biggest problem was the position of their match on the card. The match was #5 on the card, behind ECW Originals vs New Breed, Lashley vs Umaga, Melina vs Ashley, and Cena vs HBK. Once again, The Royal Rumble winner was an afterthought to John Cena defending the WWE Championship.

2008, another entrant at #30 wins, and it was John Cena. It wasn’t a popular win at all, and it didn’t amount to much either. He ended up in a triple threat match against Randy Orton (c) and Triple H, and Orton retained. The match wasn’t the main event, once again devaluing the Royal Rumble winner. The match was on before Mayweather vs Big Show, and The Undertaker taking the World title from Edge. 

2009 was an exception, as Randy Orton won from the #8 spot and fought Triple H at Wrestlemania in the main event. This marked the first time the Royal Rumble winner had made the main event since 2004. Orton didn’t win the match, but at least the Rumble winner got to go to Wrestlemania and main event the show. In 2010, Edge won from a late entry, #29, challenged Jericho for the World title, and lost. Once again the Rumble match winner was not the main event, and their match was on before a 10-Diva Tag match, Cena vs Batista, and The Undertaker vs HBK.

Sorry for the history lesson, but I have to prove a point here. 2011 was a 40-man Rumble, and Alberto Del Rio, who was still a newcomer pretty much, won the match from the #38 position. It was a lackluster Royal Rumble, and he went on to face Edge in the 1st match of the main show. I always found it funny how they decided to book the World Champion and the Royal Rumble match winner in the first match. Del Rio didn’t win, meaning the 40-man Rumble was for nothing. All it served was to give Edge his last great victory before retirement.

Oh lord, it gets better! In 2012, Sheamus won the Royal Rumble, which wasn’t too bad of a choice (I suppose), but he went on to beat Daniel Bryan in the first match of the night in 18 seconds for the World Championship. So the Royal Rumble winner was now reduced to the first match of the show, in a match lasting 18 seconds! Could it get any worse?

The Royal Rumble 2013 PPV saw the main event of The Rock vs CM Punk, relegating the Rumble match for the 7th time in its history. Cena won the Rumble, an incredibly predictable result, and The Rock defeated Punk, ending his lengthy title reign. This set up Cena vs Rock II for the title, and for the first time since 2005, the winner of the Royal Rumble match won a World Championship in the main event. 

And then we move on to two of the worst received Royal Rumble matches in history. Batista, a 45-year-old who had returned after several years, won the match from #28 despite only having one televised match prior. The match was booed heavily after Mysterio was revealed as #30 and Daniel Bryan wasn’t going to be in the match. The crowd chanted for Reigns to win on the night, but only because the crowd would rather had seen Reigns win than an old man like Batista. Reigns was the lesser of two evils on the night, and Reigns had an excellent year with The Shield. The Rumble match winner, Batista, did get his main event at Wrestlemania, but it was to put Daniel Bryan over, as WWE fans threatened to boycott Wrestlemania XXX unless Bryan became champion.

With the brand split gone, I feel like WWE have failed to realize how important the Rumble winner is. It should be used to put over the most popular/hated wrestler the roster has, and that is clearly Daniel Bryan at this time. Reigns victory in 2015 was overshadowed by the disgust of Bryan’s early elimination, and the terrible booking decisions in the match. 

These decisions include the way fan favourites such as Bubba Ray Dudley, Damien Mizdow, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, Bad News Barrett, Cesaro and  Dolph Ziggler were eliminated. Big Show and Kane have been irrelevant for some time, but WWE felt Reigns needed the two biggest monsters on the roster to “make him look strong” (tired of hearing that quote), and everyone could see it happening. The biggest downfalls of the match came at pivotal points, these include:

  • Bubba Ray Dudley was made to look like an aging legend, as he was thrown out rather easily. He was TNA World Heavyweight Champion, and he dominated TNA for a long time, and the fans know this. The fans were disappointed, because Philly is ECW territory, and they needed someone to cheer for.
  • Daniel Bryan eliminated rather early, despite the hype built up around him to win, or at least go far into the Rumble match. This KILLED the tone of the match, and there was no one to cheer for after his elimination.
  • Damien Mizdow received a huge pop, the fans seriously needed someone to cheer for, as the ring filled up with wrestlers they didn’t care for. Mizdow needed to stay in and keep the crowd interested. His quick elimination just made the crowd in attendance more annoyed.
  • Ziggler was probably the crowds second favourite to win the match, and they were cheering for him over Ambrose. He was never likely to win and main event Wrestlemania, but the way he was eliminated just added to the overall frustration of the night. After his elimination, a Reigns victory was even more obvious to the crowd.
  • Bray Wyatt, a man who dominated a good portion of the Rumble, was eventually eliminated like a jobber by Kane and Big Show. How Big Show and Kane can suddenly take out all these guys I do not know. Once again, his elimination made it more obvious Reigns would win, because it sure as hell would not have been Big Show or Kane.
  • Ambrose was one of five men the Philly crowd wanted to get behind. Ambrose deserved this Rumble victory, after spending most of Daniel Bryan’s injury as the most over babyface. His feud with Rollins, and his recent relegation, made me wonder if WWE was trying to sway everyone and was going to reward Ambrose with a match against Lesnar. The very second Ambrose’s lifeless body was dumped to the outside, the Philly crowd went from pissed, to steaming. The crowd knew the result, I knew the result, anyone with half a brain cell knew the result. It was an incredibly dull and predictable way to finish the match, and even The Rock couldn’t save it.
  • After Big Show and Kane was predictably eliminated (and the bell rang for some reason), the crowd was already steaming hot with hate. Rusev, a guy who is undefeated and probably one of the best heat magnets on the roster, was cheered by the crowd. They wanted Rusev, they wanted something different to what was predicted many weeks in advance, and when Reigns easily eliminated the undefeated Russian, it was probably the most anti-climatic ending to a Royal Rumble ever.

Why couldn’t Daniel Bryan win the Rumble?

The more I think about this, the more it hurts my head. On one hand, Bryan vs Lesnar would have been an amazing David vs Goliath story, and end up being one of the best Wrestlemania matches in recent history, but after thinking about it some more, I realize that it wouldn’t have been the best decision.

Bare with me! I am a huge Daniel Bryan fan, and I have been for many years (even before his WWE career), and I wanted him to win the Rumble match just as much as anyone, but there are factors we have to consider.

Considering Daniel Bryan’s neck injury, one has to assume that WWE couldn’t choose Bryan as the winner. The Rumble match winner is likely decided in advance, and WWE could not pick Bryan in case something went wrong with his return. If Bryan had returned only to find he wasn’t ready to compete at 100%, he would have taken more time off and lnot entered the Rumble match at all. It was bad timing, if Daniel Bryan had waited til after the Rumble to return, the match would have played out differently, and the Philly crowd would have kept their excitement for a lot longer. Instead, they opted to do what essentially got Daniel Bryan over. Have him lose in glorious fashion.

How many times has Daniel Bryan lost a match in supreme fashion only to get more over? He doesn’t need to win, he just needs to be hyped like he definitely will win, only to lose suddenly. It sounds like an odd thing to do, but at the same time, it gets people talking. It gets people upset, and when people are upset, they want change, and they will cheer for Daniel Bryan even more now. You can’t book an underdog like John Cena or Brock Lesnar. Daniel Bryan’s losses are arguably more important than his victories at this point in his career. 

There will come a time when Bryan is required to be the face of the company, and when that time comes he will win a lot more matches, but it seems that WWE doesn’t want to do that yet, they want to build other stars to rival Bryan. They know how over Bryan is, and he is so over that it hurts the other wrestlers they want to push. They are not on his level, and that is worrying for WWE.

Does Roman Reigns deserve it?

WWE doesn’t care whether their top names can deliver five-star wrestling matches, all they care about is money, advertising, and telling the story. Reigns has the look, he has the wrestling family, and he has been working for this his entire life. He has grown up in a wrestling family, and he has so much expectation from his family. They know he has the potential, WWE knows he has the potential, The Rock knows he has the potential, but the WWE failed to book Reigns in the right way. They booked him like a John Cena clone, and that’s what the Philly crowd was most annoyed about.

So what is holding Reigns back?

  1. He is green. No, he’s not the Hulk, when I say he’s green, I mean he is inexperienced. He played a really good part in The Shield, but he had Rollins and Ambrose to cover up his weaknesses. His solo run has highlighted his lack of ring psychology, lack of wrestling moves, and his superman-like endurance.
  2. He has no identity. While Rollins and Ambrose broke away from The Shield attire immediately, Reigns did not. Rollins and Ambrose evolved their characters, they worked hard to become their own characters, and they have both done an amazing job. Reigns has not been allowed to move away from The Shield entrance, and The Shield attire. All he has is “believe that”. We don’t know who Roman Reigns is, and it’s difficult to care about someone when you don’t know who they are. It would be like giving The Ascension the tag team titles right away. No one will buy it, no one will care, and that’s why Reigns isn’t over yet. He has a following, don’t get me wrong, but he isn’t over like Daniel Bryan, or even like John Cena.
  3. His microphone skills are limited. It’s a challenge for Reigns, and sadly he doesn’t have any time left to improve his skills. He was apparently sent to “acting classes”. Whether they helped or not remains a mystery, as his recent promos have been ridiculed. Apparently he is being fed lines by Vince McMahon, and some of the content has been questionable. Luckily the Reigns vs Lesnar feud has Heyman there to pick up the slack, but when Lesnar clearly owns Reigns on a microphone, you know something is wrong.

Roman Reigns will be 30 years old this year. WWE hasn’t done enough in recent times to push younger wrestlers into the spotlight, as they have repeatedly opted to fall back on older wrestlers. They didn’t want to take the risk of pushing younger wrestlers. This has created a huge gaping hole in the WWE roster which many are trying to fill. You see Bray Wyatt, Rusev, Rollins, Ambrose, Ziggler, Barrett, and so many others trying to get over, but without the proper push, they will always be seen as mid-carders at best. 

They all have the talent, but Reigns is third generation, and we all know how WWE loves to push third generation stars. They have taken a huge risk with Roman Reigns this year, and I guess they somehow didn’t expect the negative reaction from the Royal Rumble. They underestimated the Philly crowd, and all it would have taken was to ask Paul Heyman how to book the Rumble match. He knows what they are like more than anybody.else, they were the heart of ECW, and they are not stupid. They hate having their intelligence insulted, they ain’t going to chant for anybody just because WWE forces someone on to them, they will always react and cheer for whoever they think is cool, and Roman Reigns is definitely not cool.

You would assume WWE would have learned lessons from the previous year, but it appears they did not. The Rumble match winner is in a constant state of decline, and this year could be no different. Do they think Roman Reigns could handle being WWE Champion? How will the fans react to that? Would they cheer for Lesnar instead of Reigns? What if Reigns turns heel and joins Heyman, would that work? 

I want to end this with my current expectations of WWE. Never hope for anything in WWE. I have learned over the years (since around 2005) that WWE has no idea how to book the Royal Rumble, and Wrestlemania often gets screwed up as well. The Royal Rumble will continue to be a disappointing and controversial PPV until WWE relearn how to book the match. When you hear someone is predicted to win, fully expect that wrestler to win. WWE doesn’t like to surprise us anymore. I was praying for a surprise this year, I was hoping, I was pleading, but in the end it was inevitable. WWE will continue to be predictable and insulting to anyone who knows how it all works. We just have to live with it I’m afraid. Sad but true.

Is WWE taking too much of a risk with Reigns? The answer is up to you, but in my honest opinion, I think it’s a risk they have needed to take for a very long time, and it comes at the expense of those who wanted something a little different. My answer is no, but when I say no, I only mean it in the way that WWE seriously needs to boost more talent to compete with Daniel Bryan, otherwise we might as well rename Raw and Smackdown “The Daniel Bryan Show”. Thanks for reading.

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