WWE: Rowan may struggle to stay relevant after feud with Roman Reigns

The Sept. 10 edition of WWE SmackDown was the final showdown between Roman Reigns and Erick Rowan before their match at the upcoming Clash of Champions pay-per-view, a night that could greatly affect the future of Rowan’s creative direction.

Last night’s WWE SmackDown got fans ready for Clash of Champions this Sunday in a variety of ways, one of those ways including a final brawl between Erick Rowan and Roman Reigns just days before they square off in a no disqualification match where The Big Dog will be looking to get revenge.

It’s well-documented and established what has been going on with Reigns over the past several weeks with the attacker storyline that has been taking shape.  It all started with someone attempting to crush him backstage with part of a forklift, but it wouldn’t end there.  The next example would come courtesy of a car trying to run down Reigns in the parking lot on an episode of Raw.

And since then, the search has been on for who tried to attack Reigns and potentially end his career.  The search has been wild, unpredictable, and even just flat out weird over the past few weeks.  Buddy Murphy was a key piece to this angle due to him apparently seeing who did it backstage and when Reigns approached Murphy about it, he said it was Erick Rowan.  However, Daniel Bryan and Rowan got Murphy to change his tune and he then said he lied about it.

Bryan and Rowan’s own search led to them finding a man that looked exactly like Rowan who was at fault, but that wouldn’t last and more backstage footage eventually showed the culprit was Rowan.  This shocked Bryan and even though Reigns still thought he was behind Rowan’s actions, Rowan attacked Reigns and took out Bryan as well after admitting he was the culprit all along.

Last night saw Rowan boasting about his work and what he will do to The Big Dog at Clash of Champions, but Reigns wouldn’t take that lying down and he came out looking for a fight.  The two would brawl around the ringside area, but Rowan’s aggressiveness took over and he hit Reigns with just about everything except the kitchen sink, including using one of the cameras to sling it right into Reigns and the rest of the backstage personnel.

More from SmackDown

• Randy Orton signs with SmackDown to go after The Bloodline
• Potential Challengers for Roman Reigns before WrestleMania
• WWE SmackDown Predictions: AJ Styles Will Help Randy Orton
• WWE SmackDown Predictions: Street Profits Will Dethrone Judgment Day
• SmackDown reminded us of how pointless the brand split is

For as good as this angle has been for Rowan so far, you still have to question what his career will look like after this feud is over with.  Because let’s be honest, WWE has had major issues with sustaining success with certain superstars over the years.  Rowan has had some really good moments in the WWE over the years starting with his time alongside Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper in The Wyatt Family.  That’s where it all began, but he has had more success since then.

He also had a successful tag team with Harper known as The Bludgeon Brothers, who emerged as one of the best tag teams the WWE has produced in a long time.  However, after injury issues, The Bludgeon Brothers eventually fading away, and Harper’s exit out of the company, Rowan’s future was in question.  He found refuge once he returned, however, in The New Daniel Bryan, who he helped keep his WWE Championship at the Royal Rumble back in January.

Rowan was solely in Bryan’s corner for months following his return, but now that Rowan is apparently on his own, where does his career go from here?  Just think about it, everything Rowan has done of significance in WWE has been alongside someone else or multiple others.  He has yet to have serious singles success and even though he is more than capable of having a stellar singles run, it’s all on the shoulders of the creative team in some regards.

Letting superstars fade to nothing after certain angles has been a bad trend the creative powers that be have done too much.  And unfortunately, Rowan feels like a likely candidate for that trend to continue.  Even if he ends up feuding with Bryan, assuming that could be on deck after this Reigns angle, he would likely be in creative trouble after those matches.  It would be highly unlikely that the WWE pushes him to the moon.

And sometimes, if Vince McMahon doesn’t push you to the moon, he doesn’t do anything with you at all.  Look at the likes of Jinder Mahal, who got immediately and abruptly pushed to the WWE Championship, only to fade into the background in a matter of weeks following his exit from the title picture.  There’s a lot at stake for Rowan in this feud, there’s no denying that.

No matter how great he might be in this Reigns and Bryan angle, the future is hardly clear for Rowan moving forward and that’s a direct issue with how the WWE books people and builds them up.