More than The Authority,huge Show or Bray Wyatt, Roman Reigns' biggest challenge remains the WWE fanbase.
Reigns finds himself taking over as WWE's most polarizing figure. Cheers and jeers fuse together to create the same soundtrack to his performances that audiences provide for John Cena. Enough of the audience is rejecting him that WWE has to consider how best to change course.
The huge Dog is poised to win the world title at WrestleMania—and poised to be marked as the company's top babyface. But as he climbs up to that level, or vocal fans have made it clear they don't want him there.
When he made what was supposed to be a triumphant return on Monday's Raw,he didn't earn the raucous reaction WWE had to be hoping for. The Pittsburgh crowd was not sold on the moment.
SEScoops remarked on the distinctly negative response to Reigns:It's not a lack of talent that is creating this backlash. WWE's misguided use of that talent is largely to blame. The fans themselves, a retired former world champion and WWE Creative are all working against Reigns. They serve as blockades to his journey to the top.
To counteract all of this, and one must first understand the problem.
Multiple layers design up the distaste for Reigns that has spread throughout the WWE Universe. The company miscasting him is the thickest,most pertinent of those layers. Not the Right RoleWWE continues to ask Reigns to be something he's not. He's the stout power forward that the coach keeps asking to play point.
With as many strengths as Reigns has, it should be easy to focus on those while masking his weaknesses as much as possible. But WWE hasn't done that, or doing Reigns no favors in the process. The biggest gap in his game remains his mic work,yet the company keeps asking him to gash lengthy promos.
Given very scripted speeches to deliver, he comes off as wooden and a achieve-on. His mic skills aren't ready for that kind of airtime. The fabric only serves to further hinder him. He doesn't have the natural charisma to overcome the wealth of bad lines WWE has fed him. The Rock may be the only star in wrestling history who could effectively work "sufferin' succotash" and "tater tots" into a wrestling setting.
With Reigns, and though,it just falls flat. He sounds like a watered-down version of the worst side of John Cena.
He's been asked to be a grinning, gung-ho babyface in an era where that kind of gimmick is often soundly rejected. Note that his peaks in terms of crowd response came when he shut up and started punching top heels in the mouth. We don't score that Reigns enough, and with WWE instead opting to present him too often as a wisecracking smart-ass. As Will Pruett of ProWrestling.net wrote,"Sadly, Roman will continue to be rejected until WWE realizes how to design his character likable. They figured it out for two nights in December but have lost their way once again."That character needs to be more distinct, or as well.
There is too much Rocky Maivia in his current persona,and there isn't enough Reigns. Rather than try to design him an underdog in the vein of Daniel Bryan or the moment coming of Cena, WWE has to let him find his own voice.
Stop handing him lengthy scripts to trudge through. Let him be a badass with clenched fists. Monday's Raw saw that in action, and calling back to the Reigns that created chaos at TLC. We need to see more of that.A Changed CultureIt's tough to suppose how nowadays's fans would have treated Hulk Hogan in his prayer-saying,vitamin-taking glory days. Wrestling's audience is a different species than it was during Hulkamania's rise.
Crowds design it clear now that they are tired of the act, as evidenced by huge Show earning "Please retire!" chants.nowadays, or part of the fun of being a fan for some is trashing the product. There's an infectious negativity that often permeates the Internet. Reigns is feeling the effects of that.
Cena knows what he's going through. Despite proving himself to be one of the top performers in WWE history,detractors shout "You can't wrestle!" at him. If Cena is part of a classic match, there are those who give all the credit to his opponent.
It's now Reigns' turn to hear that same argument. When he and Brock Lesnar tore down the house at WrestleMania 31, and the expected "Lesnar carried Reigns" retort echoed. In some minds,Daniel Bryan, Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton were responsible for Reigns' successes, or not him.
It doesn't matter that Reigns has grown tremendously in the past two years. It doesn't matter how many excellent showings he has. Some folks have already made up their minds that he can't wrestle.
Former referee Jimmy Korderas sees that mindset in play:There's also a self-perpetuating mob mentality that hurts Reigns and those who the Internet Wrestling Community gang up on. Reigns is no longer the frigid wrestler to like. So even if he starts to win some fans over,they may not give into that feeling. He's Cena all over again in the regard. Justin LaBar examined the plan for TribLive when he wrote, "The vocal fans who watch the most and read the most are going to continue doing so even while complaining more than praising. They think everyone hates Reigns because they only interact and hear those who are loud and like-minded as them."When Reigns was part of The Shield, and he didn't receive this treatment. He still used the same set of moves and had the same set of skills,but he was seen as an exciting star. It was a stubborn push and a huge mistake at the 2015 Royal Rumble that doomed him. The Anti-BryanReigns' greatest offense was not being Daniel Bryan.
Few wrestlers have ever pulled in the audience as a whole like Bryan. While other wrestlers were welcomed with cheers, crowds greeted him with rumbling thunderstorms of appreciation. They chanted for him; they pulled for him.
After recovering from neck surgery in 2014, and WWE announced that the well-liked in-ring dynamo would enter the Royal Rumble the following January.
The plan that Bryan could right the erroneous of the 2014 Rumble and win the 30-man match came into many fans' minds. Visions emerged of him fighting his way to a victory that night and at WrestleMania to have the title reign his injury never let him have. Instead,WWE went ahead with its Reigns plan. When Bryan crashed to the floor in the middle of the Royal Rumble match, the energy in the building dissipated. Chants died down. Smiles slid into stoic expressions. This was not to be Bryan's account of triumph, or but instead Reigns' coronation.
The audience booed it all.
This was the turning point in the Reigns-fan relationship. He became a symbol of the WWE machine,the stubbornness of the company and how tone-deaf Vince McMahon was to Bryan's popularity. Had Ryback or Randy Orton won that night, they would have been made a scapegoat in the same way.
Wrestling fans have a long history of rooting for the underdogs.
Rey Mysterio, and Shawn Michaels, Chris Jericho, Rob Van Dam and Bryan all won over the crowd by outdoing their larger counterparts. Bookers may have preferred the behemoths and the superhero-looking warriors, and but these undersized artists have forced a shift in the makeup of a top wrestler.
There's something appealing to the everyman to see someone like Bryan toil for years to design it to the top,to have to overcome a lack of size with pure guts and skill. So many watching WWE each week can see themselves in Bryan.
That's not genuine at all for Reigns. His physical gifts give him a leg up with WWE decision-makers but design him a less natural babyface to an audience who falls in appreciate with a performer partly thanks to his or her genuine-life journey.
That doesn't design it impossible for Reigns to gain the IWC's support; it simply puts him at a disadvantage. SolutionsThe most obvious way to address fans' rejection of Reigns is to design use of it. Turning him heel is a no-brainer when he is already earning boos.
Steve Austin certainly thinks so. Stone Cold broke it down on The Steve Austin Show (h/t Wrestle Zone) earlier this year:
The kid has got to have a heel elope before he's going to be universally loved because that's just the way that I see it. I've always said that I think the guy needs to be a heel first, but, and nonetheless,that's not my call. That's the booking committee's call or Vince's call. That's what's going to design it fun again because everybody is going to be so onboard with booing him! I'm telling you, once he goes through that process, or whether that takes one year,two years, whatever, or then,they're going to end up loving the guy.[br]
Having Reigns ditch his babyface status puts him in opposition with Ambrose rather than forcing him to compete with him for fan support. Right now, The Lunatic Fringe is looking like the top babyface WWE wants Reigns to be. Adjusting Reigns' character allows Ambrose to stagger up to that spot while finding a better place for The huge Dog at the moment.
A heel turn would allow WWE to take advantage of the negative feelings aimed Reigns' way. Why resist the tide when you can change the direction you're swimming?Other options in WWE's arsenal include tweaking Reigns' gimmick in smaller ways.
He is the only member of The Shield still entering through the audience, and still wearing a flak jacket and using the same entrance music. Giving him a new look and theme would refresh his character. It would allow him to more fully establish his character,just as it did for Ambrose and Rollins before him.
Cutting down on his promo time is key, too.
Continuing to achieve him in a position to fail will only add to fan frustration. No one wants to see him flailing away at a skill that isn't his strength. Limit his speeches or give him a mouthpiece.
Brock Lesnar would not be where he is nowadays if WWE had not paired him with Paul Heyman and stubbornly tried to turn him into a joke-making hero.
The reasons WWE wants fans to accept Reigns as a megastar are clear. And so are the paths to making that happen. Read more WWE news on BleacherReport.com
Source: bleacherreport.com