Friday, March 4, 2016

No Roman Reigns On The Road To Wrestlemania

Roman Reigns won the right to face Triple H at Wrestlemania. One night after that, Triple H came out on Raw and destroyed Roman Reigns. They have created an injury angle and Reigns has not been used since.

The popular opinion with many fans is that Roman Reigns was taken off the road to Wrestlemania because he would get destroyed by fans that dislike him. The WWE is visiting some rowdy crowds around this time, including Chicago for Raw next week. Roman Reigns succeeded in winning over his critics for a brief time, but they still hate him. Not only is he likely to be booed on the road to Wrestlemania, but he might get a terrible reaction at Wrestlemania.

Just for the sake of fairness, let me bring up some other possibilities for why the WWE would take Roman Reigns out for a brief period. The injury was not real. There are no reports of Reigns taking time off for a real injury. But how about doing this to further the storyline? Roman Reigns took Triple H out for a couple of weeks with a brutal attack. It is not unusual for the WWE to turn the tables on someone to further a storyline. The Undertaker got an advantage over Brock Lesnar last year with some low blows. A low blow from Lesnar to Taker eventually led to Taker's downfall in their final encounter. The WWE could just be trying to add some heat to the story between Roman Reigns and Triple H.

How about taking Roman Reigns out of the picture briefly so Dean Ambrose can have this mini-feud against Triple H? Dean Ambrose will get a title shot at Roadblock against Triple H. Is there a possibility that the WWE doesn't want Roman Reigns involved in this mini-feud and just decided to take him out a few weeks to let Ambrose get the spotlight? They might not want to congest things too much.

I am not denying that they could have done it to avoid rowdy crowds. Of course, they can't dodge these fans forever. If they do not have confidence in Roman Reigns going out there, he should not be their centerpiece. It is one thing to want to protect your centerpiece in terms of not putting him in a position where he'll look bad, but not having the confidence to use him during your biggest time of the year? The centerpiece is like a star quarterback. You might rest him in meaningless games, but you want him to be prepared heading into the Super Bowl. If this was done for the sake of adding heat to the feud between Reigns and Triple H, fine. If this was done just to have Reigns avoid crowds that would shred him, the WWE might want to reconsider what they are doing. Roman Reigns hasn't even been the new top guy for long. And a top guy like this can become a distraction for the WWE. Time and energy is going to be put into protecting Roman Reigns that could have been put into other workers on the roster.

Some people might say Roman Reigns is looking worse than John Cena, another centerpiece that has been bringing questionable results. I do see some fans being hypocrites. They were upset when John Cena got "fired" during the Nexus angle and took no time off. When Roman Reigns takes some time off to sell a brutal beating from Triple H, they are upset over that. People wanted a break from Cena for the longest while. They don't have to wait long to get a break from Reigns. I do think some fans are being unfair to Roman Reigns. He's not the greatest performer, but it is seems like people will criticize him and what the WWE is doing with him whether he is there or not. If some fans eased up their criticism, maybe the WWE would not need to protect Roman Reigns so much. Or just stop watching, coming to the events, and spending money on the WWE. If the WWE dislikes that, maybe that will motivate them to change.

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