Thursday, March 28, 2024
EditorialWhy Roman Reigns and John Cena's Contract Signing Was Needed

Why Roman Reigns and John Cena’s Contract Signing Was Needed

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Last Monday Night, Roman Reigns and a newly acquired free agent from Smackdown LIVE, John Cena, had a verbal exchange that left many wondering whether or not the segment we just saw was off-script, or in other words, real. That was all the evidence one needed to deduce that the contract signing between WWE’s two quintessential faces of the business was a roaring success. While this did happen a week ago, I also needed about that length of time to fully digest the gravity of what I had witnessed (overtime shifts at BJ’s doesn’t help the cause either).

If this was another era, this would be your Rock/Hogan, a clash of two icons and perpetual good guys of the business (At least in WWE’s eyes). However, it has translated into somewhat of a Mayweather/McGregor deal. A big-name, money-making match between two main eventers. You’ll notice, however, that I said that this moment and promo between these two was needed. Why? Because it finally showed us that WWE does indeed recognize the disconnect between the fans and the booking team. These two were built up to be two infallible, conquering heroes when in fact the only thing the two have in common is that they get more boos and jeers than cult leaders like Bray Wyatt and self-serving egomaniacs like The Miz. This was shown the week prior when The Miz came out and essentially became the IWC’s mouthpiece and maligned Cena and Roman for the amount of air time and opportunities they are afforded while the blue-collar workers get reduced the curtain-jerkers.

The fact of the matter is that John Cena and Roman Reigns have been two of the biggest heels WWE has curated. These days, if you want to get booed, if you have to be legitimately despised or be a face that has a spot in the company that isn’t perceived to be one that is earned. Cena and Roman fit the bill of the latter. However, it was kind of ironic to see Roman, who is widely seen as a golden boy of Vince that will be protected at every turn, essentially mouth off some of the complaints the IWC have had about John Cena. Roman took shots at Cena’s part-time status. “I’ll be damned if I don’t bust my ass Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday just so you could be on the Today Show. And maybe I’ll attend an event if WWE paid me enough.” Much of the reason why a lot of the smarks have warmed up to Cena over the years is that he hasn’t been on television as often to be maligned. Cena being on television week in and week out and consistently being the main event stirred up of the ire of the fans, due to the repetitiveness and the monotony. So seeing less of him, naturally, will cause the visceral hatred to come to a simmer.

Roman continued the verbal assault as he called Cena a backstabbing shark and a carrier of a golden shovel, looking to dig up any young talent that dares steal his thunder. Despite spending the ending portion of his career helping younger talent get over, Cena’s hands are entirely clean in this regard. While Cena doesn’t have the history of essentially demanding that other superstars lay down for him because they saw them as a threat to his star like Triple H, Cena still has a history. Superstars like Zack Ryder and the infamous botch of the Nexus storyline in the summer of 2010 are clear examples. However, just as the barb of him burying talent in the past still sticks, it should be equally noted that Cena has made a conscious effort to help the younger generation in any way he can. Cena said this in defense of himself when he noted that he used the US Title as an opportunity to introduce new superstars like Kevin Owens. He also said AJ Styles, but he probably meant Sami Zayn, because Styles wasn’t even on the roster when Cena held the US title. Chris Jericho was really the person to introduce Styles to the main roster, but Cena did put him over as a pretty big deal with the series of matches last summer.

One of the aspects of WWE television that I’m inclined to believe that the internet community hates about certain superstars, especially those hand-picked like Roman Reigns, is their lack of self-awareness. Cena essentially told Roman that he’s becoming who he hates, which is Cena himself. Cena noted that he hasn’t main evented WrestleMania since 2013. Roman has main event the last 3 (soon to be 4 with Lesnar next year). Cena was the opening match at Summerslam. Roman came on last. While Roman doesn’t have the part time status that Cena has now, the personality and parallels are hard to ignore. While you could argue Roman is a better in ring performer than Cena was in, say, 2012, he’s still doing the same things that he is critiquing Cena for. Cena said he used the US title as an opportunity, but that Roman used the US Title as a demotion. That point is another tough argument to critique. When Reigns took the United States Championship from Rusev last year, Roman came off like a dick and Rusev came off as a sympathetic babyface. He did the unthinkable. He made an Anti-American heel look like a babyface underdog. Rusev was celebrating his wedding with Lana, but then Roman came out, without provocation and just started taking barbs at Rusev for no reason. Then, week after week, Roman would consistently humiliate and emasculate Rusev until he finally took the US Title from him and beat him in a Hell In A Cell Rematch. He also didn’t elevate anyone while holding the US Title because the only two he defended it against was Chris Jericho and Universal Champion Kevin Owens, and it took both of them just to take the title off of him. At the very least, you could

Rusev was celebrating his wedding with Lana, but then Roman came out, without provocation and just started taking barbs at Rusev for no reason. Then, week after week, Roman would consistently humiliate and emasculate Rusev until he finally took the US Title from him and beat him in a Hell In A Cell Rematch. He also didn’t elevate anyone while holding the US Title because the only two he defended it against was Chris Jericho and Universal Champion Kevin Owens, and it took both of them just to take the title off of him. At the very least, you could say Kevin Owens, Seth Rollins and even Sami Zayn benefited from facing Cena for the US Title.

 

However, arguably the biggest moment of the contract signing came when Cena looked Roman in the eye and told him to his face that he’s still here because Roman can’t do his job correctly. Essentially, he was saying that superstars like AJ Styles should be in Roman’s spot, but they’re not because he’s been going over talents like those all too often. It was sort of like an extended metaphor being played out. After AJ Styles feuded over the WWE Title against Roman Reigns, he moved on to Cena. After feuding with Cena, Styles became the face that ran Smackdown LIVE and propelled him to become WWE Champion. While Cena is only here part time, he noted that he’s done a much superior job of putting over the next generation (Bray Wyatt and Shinsuke Nakamura are recent examples) than Roman ever did full-time. While I’m sure you could dig through the archives and find whatever examples you can of Roman putting over superstars like Finn Balor and Seth Rollins clean, they haven’t had any long-term effect.

It also helped the cause of this promo being needed when Cena started taking shots at Roman for his below-average promo skills and his tendency to forget his lines, which it appeared that he did. Roman looked pretty startled, and Cena told him, once again, that he can’t be a top guy if he can’t cut a decent promo (and for that matter, he also said he hadn’t cut a decent one since he’s been on the main roster). He also downplayed Roman defeating the Undertaker at WrestleMania, noting that it’s hard to be impressed at defeating a battle tested veteran of over 25 years with a bad hip. He basically said he beat up an old man. It’s hard to believe that Vince and the booking team knew this kind of banter would be allowed on television because of how much it appeared that both men were going off script, but if that was allowed to be said on television, then it shows that even WWE, more specifically, Vince, can’t deny the critiques of his hand-picked top guys. That is why this was necessary. Even if Vince can still do what he wants at his own leisure, we finally, if it means anything, got the validation that WWE does, in fact, realize what they have put out there.

Now let’s see if their intervention turns into actual results.

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