When he was with The Shield, Roman Reigns was the muscle, and would often be the man who enters the ring to destroy numerous opponents (how many times did 3MB feel the wrath of Reigns?)
As a part of one of the most dominate heel teams in the WWE, he conquered the likes of Mark Henry, Sheamus, Ryback etc, he set a new record and eliminated 12 people at the Royal Rumble 2013, was the star of his team at Survivor Series 2013, and (with the assistance of Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose) has triple power bombed the cream of the WWE with John Cena, The Undertaker, Kane and The Big Show all falling down to Roman Reigns. Along with his Shield brothers, Roman Reigns had 2 decisive wins over the power house Evolution of Triple H Batista & Randy Orton. Roman Reigns’ dominance in the ring was the big part of why fans were pleading for Roman Reigns to be The Shield member to be the first to take the leap into single main event status. Then came the chair shot…….
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgCa2uv9BLY[/youtube]
With that 1, and only 1 chair shot, Seth Rollins has somehow managed to remove the aggressive dominate Roman Reigns, and replaced him with a power house wrestle who can take a lot of punishment before turning to his combination move set to gain a victory…..sound familiar…..
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWLU0MWMR-w[/youtube]
After watching Roman Reigns vs. Kane at the live Sydney show, the script went something identically similar to a John Cena match. Roman Reigns after an initial onslaught, would play second fiddle to Kane for the majority of the match, taking an extreme amount of punishment, including being choke-slammed through a table, (a move that only 1 other wrestler I know of who would have kicked out of). After a distraction by guest referee Rick Flair, Roman Reigns was able to mount his comeback, hitting his superman punch and spear for the win. While the crowd went home happy, I went home thinking that John Cena could have easily been substituted for Roman Reigns and the script for the match would not have changed. And there lies the danger for Reigns.
The WWE wants to give the fans the ‘heroic’ face that overcomes all the odds to gain the unlikely victory. And this works well with superstars such as Shawn Michaels, Rick Flair, Daniel Bryan, Rey Mysterio, etc. A superstar who looks like the underdog, and has to overcome the odds of facing someone bigger and stronger than them. However with the WWE giving us the ‘super Cena’ character for the past 10 years, do we really want to replace him with ‘super Reigns’?
This week at Summer Slam, Roman Reigns faces his first real test at his rise to single main event status. At this stage the fans are still behind the ex-muscle from The Shield. But he needs to look like a dominate, young, hungry and powerful challenger to the main event scene, rather than another big man who relies on his 3-4 powerful move sets to gain a victory. There is time for him to develop, I like many are ready for the new breed to take over the WWE, and am hopeful that the WWE can give us a new face of the WWE, not a replacement face.
Hooroo and see you next week.
Like me, or contact me at https://www.facebook.com/authorCraigHigham
Or get my book at all good online bookstores (Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books a Million or Powell’s Books)
http://www.amazon.com/Stop-Telling-Its-Fake-Wrestling/dp/1489585508
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/stop-telling-us-its-fake-mr-craig-n-higham/1115848816?ean=9781489585509
http://www.powells.com/s?kw=stop+telling+us+its+fake&class=
