Is the Entire WWE Roster Stale?
Has the WWE gone too far down the Roman Reigns rabbit hole to turn back?
Whenever discussing the aggressive Roman Reigns push, naysayers often cite the abundance and depth of talent on the current roster in the WWE locker room and how there is a multitude of other Superstars who are equally worthy of the main event spot. The inherent alternative is that WWE needs to cool its jets on Reigns and instead focus on building up the likes of Cesaro, Dolph Ziggler, Dean Ambrose, etc.
But is that approach actually feasible? Could the WWE change its mind and shift the spotlight to other Superstars in hopes of establishing a different, new face for the company?
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At this point, no: the WWE has spent so much time on Roman Reigns that a conscious company push behind any other Superstar would feel just as clunky and inorganic as that of Roman Reigns’.
Striking while the iron is hot is of the utmost importance in pro wrestling. Read any interview or listen to any podcast where a WWE Hall of Famer discusses his or her successes, and often there’ll be the mention of being in the right place at the right time. A wrestler can have all the talent in the world, but momentum—and the company’s recognition and fanning of that momentum—is equally important, if not more so, to creating a true star.
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The obvious, most recent example is Daniel Bryan, of course, but the WWE nearly blew it on that one as well. Bryan had generated a buzz that hadn’t been felt by the WWE Universe in years and was peaking just at the right time: WrestleMania season. Bryan had reached the point of guaranteed success; all the WWE had to do was book the logical storyline of Bryan winning the 2014 Royal Rumble and heading on to WrestleMania.
Yet, they didn’t. Batista infamously won, causing a backlash of epic proportions. The WWE did inevitably right the ship and put Bryan in the WrestleMania main event, but the moment could’ve been that much more special had it not required an extra two months of the WWE realizing they screwed up and fixing their mistake.
So fast forward to the present, and here we are in another upheaval—except this time fans aren’t rallying around a single wrestler like Bryan; they’re rallying around anyone who isn’t Roman Reigns. And as warranted as such a feeling may be, the reasoning does not lend itself to another Superstar’s success, should the WWE choose to abandon Reigns.
The differing motivations between the two sentiments—pushing Bryan back in 2014 versus pushing anyone other than Reigns now—is that with Bryan, people were invested in his success. Today, people are invested in Reigns’ failure.
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On paper, the WWE has succumbed to the latter desire by having Sheamus cash in on Reigns and becoming the WWE World Heavyweight Champion. For numerous reasons, that cash-in was an empty moment, devoid of any actual emotion, but a prominent contributing factor to that ennui was that the Sheamus cash-in was plainly dropped in our lap. There was no build up to the moment, simply a pair of Brogue Kicks and a three-count.
Ho hum.
The thing is that although there would be an initial pop should someone like Dean Ambrose randomly win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in the next couple weeks, it too would be without the resonating, triumphant feeling that accompanied Bryan’s victory back at WrestleMania 30. Again, the culprit would be a lack of momentum.
Every potential alternative to Reigns has already seen the wave he could’ve ridden to a rousing title victory come to pass: Ambrose’s right time was this past summer during his feud with Rollins. Ziggler’s right time was after last year’s Survivor Series. Cesaro has already experienced a couple of these surges throughout his career to no avail, the most recent being back in June.
Did the WWE ever capitalize on any of those instances? No. Instead we saw those wrestlers become background players, sentenced to supporting roles while their flames cooled off and eventually vanished. It’d be great to see any of those guys ascend to the main event and capture the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, but unless it’s on the back of a new boost of momentum, there will be a brooding hollowness in their celebrations.
To an extent, the concept that these windows of opportunity are that small cheapens the lifework of any wrestler. It’s sad to think that these careers are made or broken in a matter of weeks or months, but historically it’s the truth.
Take a look at Steve Austin’s popular run, and it’s evident that he could’ve faded out just as easily had it not been for timing. His popularity in the WWE really started to pick up after WrestleMania 13 in the match against Bret Hart, but the next thing you know, he was dropped on his head at SummerSlam—knocking him out of in-ring action.
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Had Austin sat at home, his stock would’ve dropped. Instead, a month later, he stunned Vince McMahon for the first time ever, and his stock kept rising. It rose and rose, and the WWE was smart enough to pull the trigger at WrestleMania 14 and make him the new face of the company. Thus the Attitude Era kicked into full gear.
No one is on the rise like that today, and odds are that no one will be on the rise like that any time in the near future. Even Reigns, who is at the forefront of all WWE programming, is without an iota of similar propulsion. Many attest that it’s because Reigns’ push is coming too soon, but it’s actually the opposite: like so many other superstars, the WWE has already missed the boat on Reigns.
Back at the Royal Rumble 2014, when fans were clamoring for Daniel Bryan, the WWE actually had an ace up their sleeve that they wasted. Fans bitter over Bryan’s omission in the Rumble match aggressively jeered Batista—the obvious company pick to win the Rumble. But who stood across from him when it was down to the last two? Roman Reigns. As the two traded blows, every shot landed by Batista was met with a chorus of boos, while every shot landed by Reigns was met with resonating cheers.
For a brief moment, Roman Reigns was as popular and universally loved as he may ever be.
Had Reigns won that night, there would’ve still been an ensuing backlash over Bryan being slighted; however, Reigns would’ve also been celebrated as a breath of fresh air. Reigns managed to topple the great Batista—the man who was the odds-on favorite to win.
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It would’ve been an organic underdog story, as opposed to the contrived one we’re faced with today. The WWE could’ve had their success with Reigns nearly two years ago, instead of having to spend the time since then trying to make something of him now.
That failure to strike while the iron was hot significantly harmed Reigns’ popularity, as well as the WWE’s. Even worse, the WWE now lets all the shooting stars around them fizzle out, while they continue to try to light a spark that died so long ago.