thatdemoguy
When It Reigns....It Pours
I’m not going to talk about videogames this time!!!!
I KNOW CRAZY RIGHT?!
But I am going to be talking about something that's also a large part of my geekdom. That's wrestling, or wrasslin' if you know me. In particular there's a huge elephant in the room that needs to be addressed in the professional wrestling landscape at this time. We are firmly on the road to the biggest event of the year, WrestleMania, and there are more than a number of things that just aren’t sitting right that could leave an indelible mark on not just the business, but its audience going forward.
See that guy? That's Roman Reigns and he IS your favorite wrestler. What's that you say? He isn’t? Well I hate to inform you but yes he is. You WILL like him. You WILL cheer for him. You WILL have him as your champion. I hate to tell you but no matter what you say, Roman Reigns WILL be your guy.
At least that’s what the powers that be in the WWE would have you believe. And this is a major problem. What happened to the days of allowing a character to build organically? Where fan reaction actually dictated who got the push? I know many people will want to say look at Daniel Bryan and the YES! movement that pretty much swept the wrestling and pop culture world by storm 2 years ago. This was nothing short of magical. This was truly lightning in a bottle. This made me, as a fan, feel essential to the product, you know....seeing as how they constantly push this message that WE THE WWE UNIVERSE is the most important part of the show.
But let’s not delude ourselves, they (as in the WWE) didn’t want this to happen. They did almost everything under the sun to hold this man down. From giving him really goofy and non-specific entrance music, to putting him in really silly and dead end storylines, right on up to trying to make us dislike him by making him heel at the height of his popularity. Now I know that characters change on the fly to push the drama forward, but this was almost insulting in its sloppy execution and very boring to boot.
Which brings us right to Roman Reigns *sigh*
Let's not mince words, we don’t like this guy. That collective we being the WWE Universe as a whole. I know there are Reigns fans out there, and I am not excluding them, but the prevailing and dominant fan reaction cannot be ignored or denied. Unlike the other top guy in the company, John Cena, there is nothing polarizing here. It’s a very clear dislike for the direction they are taking this "character" in. And in my personal opinion, the dislike comes from the fact they are 100% forcing him on us. In much the same way they forced John Cena on us, but in a much more rapid fashion. He's being protected in multiple high profile matches like this past year's Royal Rumble, he's being elevated and beating opponents in ways that halt their progression, and he's just terrible at making us like him with his mic work. They have been trying so hard to make us want him, that they literally played hot potato with the company's most prized possession, the WWE title, over a period of two months. It’s not all his fault though, another issue is that the writers feel that the only effective story they know how to tell is the tried and true "anti-establishment" story, where the bosses hold everyone down, but one guy who represents the people bucks the trend and opposes authority against all odds. They want this guy to be Reigns, and the authority figure and current champion to be taken down is none other than HHH himself. Now some people will claim that this is just HHH keeping himself relevant by being in the title picture. But in my own opinion I feel as if the company has been put in a bind, with a roster that’s been seriously depleted due to injury, and this current storyline screams of desperation to try and get their chosen guy over by letting him get the comeuppance over one of the company's most established villains.
But there’s a major problem. Fans are doing the exact opposite of what they want them to do. They are cheering for the heel (bad guy) while vehemently turning against the face (good guy). This just doesn’t work for this story, and something has to be done quickly to get this all back on track. What could that be? Well right there at the top of the roster is another guy that has the backing of the fans and has been in a program doing the anti-establishment thing for the last few weeks, while Reigns has been mysteriously off of television. And that’s this guy....
Now mind you I’m not the biggest fan of the Dean Ambrose character, but I can literally see how much better the program has been with him chasing the title vs HHH as opposed to Reigns. And this all culminated in a match this past weekend at an impromptu WWE "PPV", Roadblock on WWE Network, where Dean challenged HHH for the title. This felt fresh and intriguing because for the first time in a very long time, it felt like we were being listened to. Plus there was a genuine feeling of suspense given to the match because it had real long term implications that could have shifted the WWE landscape for the better. This is because if Dean had beat HHH, the new WrestleMania main event would then be Dean Ambrose vs Roman Reigns. Brother vs Brother. This would have been an infinitely more interesting story.
But how would they tell it if Dean and Roman are both good guys? That's actually very easy....make Roman a heel. Cut out the cheesy catchphrases and let him become this monster heel that we already love to hate. It's a very simple scenario that could have been achieved in a number of ways. Dean could have won at Roadblock or go back to January and he could have taken out HHH at the end of the Royal Rumble this past year, when they were the final two. Either way, while celebrating his win, his brother Roman could instantly turn on him and that would have given him an insane amount of heat right then and there. If you can’t build Roman as a fan favorite, build him as a hated villain, either way he would be needed. But that’s if you wanted Dean going in as champion. Rewind back to Royal Rumble, have the same final three, but play it out a little different. What if Roman turned on Dean with the help of HHH to retain the belt, which then signified the broken bond between the two, but also had a built in storyline of Dean seeking revenge by challenging Roman at Mania? IT WRITES ITSELF!!!!
But we get it, Reigns is going to be the champion right. So we get to Mania, Dean loses via shenanigans, but right at the close of the match or better yet the next night on Raw while Reings celebrates, or rather gloats as heels do....Seth Rollins returns. Which then sets up the big brother vs brother vs brother 3 way Shield match for the belt that we know is going to happen. But instead of next year at Mania, its set up for THIS year at Summerslam, given Rollins can rehab and be back at this time. That’s months of good television to watch. And it’s so much better than what we currently have going on.
But what do I know? I’m not a paid writer. I’m just an internet smart mark who feels entitled right?
Well for my $9.99/month I do think I deserve a whole lot more than I’m getting.
How do you feel about the current state of WWE? Are you like me and just becoming very much disenchanted with the product to the point where you don’t watch nearly as faithfully as you used to? Feel free to comment here, or hit me with a tweet at thatdemoguy.