As the fastest rising star of the past couple of years, Roman Reigns has built himself a reputation of being the next potential ‘top guy’ within WWE. And while fans adored some of the former top stars of the company – The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin and CM Punk, others such as Hulk Hogan and John Cena have not been so well received by the bigger wrestling fans. Roman Reigns has picked his lane and is going in the opposite direction of his movie star cousin and has aligned himself with the Five Moves of Doom Crew.
As is always with the more knowledgable fans in todays wrestling world, they like variety. They like a wrestler to have not only a varied move set, but a varied personality. Roman Reigns has neither a varied move set, nor a varied personality. The only actual moves I know of Roman Reigns are clotheslines, a flying clothesline, Samoan drop, a jumping boot to an opponent through the ropes (worse to set up than the 619 and much less impressive), the superman punch and the spear. The worst thing about that is that the Samoan drop is the most technical move he has, and you can clearly see that it was Jey Uso who taught it to him. Even the haters of John Cena are going to have an absolute field day when they realise what Reigns can do. At least Cena has some sort of variation with his five moves of doom. For a ‘powerhouse’, Reigns doesn’t do a whole lot of lifting anyone. Next thing you know we’re gonna see him doing the splash. Apart from the stolen Samoan drop, Reigns is literally run, hit, roar, repeat.
Now onto his charisma. Admittedly, Reigns was never going to be able to compete with his former Shield brethren Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins, or John Cena, or his cousin Dwayne, or Bray Wyatt, or Daniel Bryan, or Triple H, or Dolph Ziggler, or The Miz, or Chris Jericho, or Randy Orton, or.. Brock Lesnar, or…The Bellas you say? Reigns has been on the main roster with the company for two years now and has progressed so slowly, that well, he hasn’t progressed. Setting Reigns up in a feud with Randy “What’s my line again?” Orton was a terrible idea and one that has needed the likes of Triple H to carry it over the finish line with his promos. The matches they have had are of a decent quality, but while both have their five moves down, Randy executes them with the style of a veteran. The problem Roman had is that The Shield started off as heels, and then when they made their face turn, did anybody see a change in Reigns? I know I didn’t. So fans have seen that whether as a face or as a heel, Roman will be the same moody kid in the corner who doesn’t often speak and just roars a lot. By the way, Roman, it’s been done. 16 years ago, and that’s right, it was done better.
Despite being on the main roster for just under two years, Reigns has found himself in a position that every fan hates to watch. You might as well call him SuperRoman now because as we have all seen since the break up of The Shield, Reigns has not lost a match in a long time. This is the same position that the likes of John Cena, Randy Orton and Sheamus have found themselves in over the years; it leads to ridicule from the fans because again, it’s just not believable. Even when Reigns does lose, unless he has the life beaten out of him by four men, he will rise up, and he will find you. He will then either superman punch you or spear you. Cue cheers. Where it’s the FU/AA, the RKO, the Brogue Kick or the Spear, it’s not something that needs shoving down people’s throats.
Again, hitting on the point that Reigns has been on the roster for less than two years and is already touted for a WrestleMania main event just shows you how much WWE has bought in to him (Sorry to steal your line Seth). WWE have proved this time and again that if you push somebody too fast, they will fall. Look at what happened with Ryback circa 2011. They pushed him too quickly and is now teaming with Curtis Axel. The three of them should all just team up and come out to a slightly edited CM Punk theme tune “The Cult of No Personality” and get it over and done with. But exactly the same thing happened with Sheamus; he debuted and fans grew tired fast.
I’m going to go back to his move set – specifically his finisher. The Spear. Where to begin with this? It looks slightly impressive when done right, and admittedly Roman is one of the best at it but to keep yourself fresh in the WWE, you are going to need more than that. Edge had the spear as his finisher, but he also had the Downward Spiral, the Edgecution and the Edgecator to fall back on. Even Goldberg had the jackhammer.
Also, WWE has started to cater to their fans recently. With Triple H having a more prominent role in the business, the company has started to bring in guys like KENTA, Prince Devitt and Kevin Steen. Along with a roster that includes Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, Cesaro and Daniel Bryan I find it hard to believe that Reigns will be able to continue his current schtick without people turning on him. Gone are the days of Vince McMahon and his roiled up visions or superstardom. The indy scene has invaded WWE.
Time to watch the #RomanEmpire crumble.
Please let me know in the comments section if you agree with me or not and what your thoughts are.
