Is Roman Reigns Becoming the Next Diesel?
By Jay Sichler
Roman Reigns, title reign is starting to look very similar to Diesel’s title reign in 1995.
For the last two years, the primary objective in WWE was to make Roman Reigns the top star in the company. However, as much as WWE has tried the fans have rejected and have been against this decision. Ever, since he won the Royal Rumble last year Reigns has been booed out of numerous arenas.
He was booed out of Philly last year at the Royal Rumble and the boos continued for most of the year. The boos scared WWE to the point where they called a last second audible and instead gave the WWE Championship to Seth Rollins rather than Roman Reigns at WrestleMania last year.
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Reigns continued to get booed and heckled for the rest of the year. He got especially heckled in Brooklyn for Summerslam when an issue of the former Shield man overselling on the outside caused the crowd to chant “Roman’s Sleeping!”
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Come the fall WWE hit a surplus with injuries with John Cena, Randy Orton and Seth Rollins all going down with injuries. It seemed that WWE was finally ready to give Roman Reigns the WWE Championship at Survivor Series. However, Sheamus cashed in Money in the Bank and won the title from Reigns.
WWE at this time has been struggling with ratings with ratings to close to an all time low. With injuries and ratings affecting the product WWE looked to make a huge splash, and here’s where the comparisons to Diesel come in. Out of nowhere WWE decided to have Reigns win the WWE Championship from Sheamus on an episode of Monday Night Raw.
WWE did a similar thing in November 1994 when they had Diesel win the WWE Championship from Bob Backlund at a house show in Madison Square Garden. Both championship changes were both designed to change the current and to help ratings.
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However, Diesel’s reign in 1994-1995 ushered in no rating changes. In fact, WWE’s ratings and financial gain were both at all-time lows during Diesels title reign. Reigns title reign has been very similar. Although his the night he won showed a bit of increase from prior viewership, ratings have once again began to dip.
Diesel for a long period of time was viewed by Vince McMahon as the future of WWE and the guy who would be the leader of the New Generation. Reigns has been viewed by McMahon as well to be the next big star in WWE.
Diesel, however, was never able to catch on with the fans. Stars at the time such as Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker seemed to be who the fans wanted to see on top. Reigns is seeing the same thing. Most fans want to see stars such as Kevin Owens, Cesaro and Finn Balor as the top star in WWE.
Reigns and Diesel were both big guys who were both limited in the ring. They also lacked mic skills and had issues cutting promos and getting over with the fans. After nearly a year of failing to get him over WWE finally took the title off of Diesel and gave it to Bret Hart at the 1995 Survivor Series.
If history is to repeat itself the same move will happen to Reigns if something doesn’t change. He has the luxury that there is no one on the roster really threatening him for his place on top. With injuries and the roster extremely thin no one seems close to knocking him off the top just yet.
Diesel would eventually leave WWE for WCW in the Spring of 1996. With established stars like Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart his leaving really did not upset many fans. Unfortunately for Reigns haters, WCW closed in 2001, so it seems that we’re stuck with him.
Reigns isn’t unfixable but he needs a lot of work. The biggest fear is the comparison he has already gained of being the next Diesel. Typically when Vince gets fixated by a talent this much it usually ends up failing. Lex Luger, Diesel, Marc Mero just a few of those names.
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A heel run might be the best thing for Reigns to do to try and save his run. WWE tried doing this also with Diesel but it was too little too late. With hot stars from NJPW like AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura coming, and with Seth Rollins and John Cena eventually coming back from injuries this is the key time for Roman Reigns to step up his game.
Now is the time for Roman Reigns to prove the naysayers wrong. Can he do it? Only time will tell. However, if he can’t the fate that occurred with Diesel will surely happen to Roman Reigns as well.