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At Extreme Rules, Bobby Lashley will go one-on-one with “The Big Dog”, Roman Reigns. Here’s why Lashley should win on Sunday.
This Sunday, Bobby Lashley and Roman Reigns will clash for the first time ever at the Extreme Rules pay-per-view. In terms of movesets and having the physique that Vince McMahon craves in his top stars, both men are fairly comparable. In-storyline, they also share a belief that they can beat WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar for the title. Simple enough, right?
Unfortunately, simple isn’t in McMahon’s vocabulary. This feud more than proves that; instead of booking Lashley and Reigns as two top athletes that want a shot at the Universal Title, McMahon and the writers have tried to make Lashley look like a top star that ditched the company for MMA (and Impact Wrestling).
Just as they did with Lesnar/Reigns during the build to WrestleMania 34, WWE hopes that booking Lashley this way gets the audience to rally behind “company guy” Reigns (the company also tried this with the John Cena/Rock feud for WrestleMania 28). History suggests that this won’t work, but it won’t stop WWE from trudging along with their plans.
Those plans seem to point toward yet another Reigns/Lesnar Universal title match at SummerSlam. However, I would like to see WWE do something different instead of maintaining the status quo. They could start by giving Lashley the win on Sunday.
3. It could start the build to a Lashley/Lesnar match
It’s safe to assume that Reigns vs. Lashley will serve as a de facto number one contender’s match for the Universal Title. If the winner of this match ultimately faces Lesnar for his gold at SummerSlam, then Lashley represents the fresher and more interesting choice.
Even before Lashley returned to WWE, he was rumored to feud with Lesnar. In many ways, the projected program makes sense; both men received immediate, meteoric pushes in their initial WWE run and they both have extensive MMA and amateur wrestling backgrounds. If WWE built the match up properly, there could be a lot of intrigue.
Even though Lashley and Lesnar aren’t particularly strong in the promo department, both men have shown that they can deliver in a sit-down interview segment. Plus, we all know that Paul Heyman will go above and beyond the call of duty to build both men up as conquerors to get fans on the fence excited about the bout. It wouldn’t take much to gin up interest in this match.
Lashley pinning Reigns provides WWE with the most direct path to a match with Lesnar. If nothing else, it beats listening to Reigns gripe about the Universal Champion’s part-time status for several weeks.
2. Lashley would gain some needed momentum.
There are some wrestlers that can overcome WWE’s uneven writing with their ability to get their heat back on the microphone. Bobby Lashley doesn’t belong in that category. For the former ECW Champion to have the most success, he has to receive the sort of booking that caters to his strengths. WWE has not done that.
Instead, the company put him in a feud with Sami Zayn that spawned some of the most tasteless segments in recent RAW history. When those unsurprisingly didn’t get Lashley over as a babyface, McMahon turned to good old-fashioned jingoism to try and endear him to the fans. Spoiler Alert: that didn’t work either.
Vince and the writers have portrayed Lashley a little better in this program with Reigns, but he has suffered from WWE’s earlier missteps and presenting him as a flake that ditched the company 10 years ago hasn’t helped. I realize McMahon and the creative team want to use Lashley to get Reigns over as a babyface, but that ship sailed a long time ago.
Even though Reigns will probably win this match, Lashley needs the W more. It would further establish him as a top star and it would wash away some of WWE’s past booking mistakes.
1. Roman Reigns needs a change
I know that McMahon sees Reigns as the future flag bearer for the company. It’s not hard to see why: he’s a great worker and has a superstar presence. However, this Reigns babyface push isn’t working.
This company has tried EVERYTHING to get fans to cheer Reigns. They tried some facsimile of John Cena’s United States Championship open challenge. They put him in feuds with foreign heels, twice. When things truly got dire, McMahon himself came back to TV to try and get Reigns over (and it worked…for a few weeks). Now, WWE is hoping that positioning Reigns as the loyal company guy will do the trick. Ask John Cena how well that worked out for him.
Despite all the missteps, McMahon has continued to push Reigns as the top babyface. That will probably continue this Sunday when Reigns presumably beats Lashley en route to another match with Lesnar. McMahon and the creative team will probably book that feud the same way they did during the build to WrestleMania, which would be disappointing.
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History shows that they won’t, but WWE needs to shake things up creatively with Reigns. They should probably turn him heel, but that idea seems highly unlikely. At the very least, they can’t go back and do the same tired nonsense with Lesnar again. If that means that Reigns has to lose to Lesnar, then so be it.