I like that they had a title change happen on Raw. That does not happen often. They should do exciting things like that to help ratings.
The WWE didn't simply give Roman Reigns the title. It is how they did it that deserves to be mentioned. At TLC, the WWE saw that having Roman Reigns attack Triple H helped him win the rowdy fans over. They gave a little more of that on Raw. This time, it was Vince McMahon himself out to screw Roman Reigns. And if Reigns lost, he would be fired. The League of Nations would also once again get involved. The odds were just stacked against Roman Reigns. And he overcame it all himself. He even knocked out Vince. If attacking Triple H got fans to cheer him, knocking out Vince shouldn't hurt too much. The WWE has certainly put work into creating Roman Reigns.
Where does this leave Sheamus and his group? Sheamus was obviously a stepping stone. He will get his rematch. But how will the WWE continue The League of Nations? The group has only been official for a few weeks. I am getting the feeling it might already be starting to fall to pieces. I definitely do not see it remaining a main-event stable for long. If it does survive any meaningful length of time, it will be an upper-midcard/midcard angle. I have said before that I dislike when the WWE invests in a group when it is obvious they might not last long. They come up with a stable name, a group theme, and whatever else. And then the group just falls apart. I would really hate for that to happen here, especially so soon. This group had potential, despite some issues. I was going to talk about the WWE's handling of Lana in relation to the group, but I now have to wonder if the group will be around long enough to even bother bringing that up.
Back to Roman Reigns. This might be the true start of his centerpiece run. Yes, John Cena was not around the last few months, but this has not been a filler run. A few years ago, John Cena had to take time off due to injury and Daniel Bryan got pushed as filler in his place. Cena came back, won a World title, was in a match to unify the titles, and then you had Batista. While that went on, Daniel Bryan was getting phased out. That is how you know his push was just meant to be filler. Circumstances and fan backlash led to him getting back in the title picture. Roman Reigns is someone they actually want to be a top star.
The storyline with Roman Reigns is similar to the storyline with Daniel Bryan back then. Authority figures don't want a certain face to win the title and screw him. But what happened with Daniel Bryan wasn't just a storyline. The WWE legitimately did not want to push him at the level he deserved. Running the storyline they did was the dumbest thing they could have done. It just riled fans up even more. Danial Bryan was already connecting with the fans very well prior to that whole thing getting blown up further. The WWE should not have messed with that. This is not the kind of storyline you should do with someone you do not intend to eventually get a proper run at the top, especially when that someone is as hot as Daniel Bryan was.
The WWE has obviously pulled the trigger with Reigns, but what if they didn't? What if they had him win, then had Vince somehow strip him of the title right after? What if they actually had him lose and get "fired"? Would fans threaten to riot or start a petition to get him rehired? What if they screwed him out of the title and just moved on, like they tried to do with Daniel Bryan a few years ago? Would there be that same backlash? Roman Reigns may have gotten a great reaction at TLC, but you never make too much out of one thing. I would not yet say he is as hot as Daniel Bryan was back then. If the WWE decided to play with this situation and dragged it out, it probably would have not worked. They wasted no time in pulling that trigger. Probably a very smart move.
No comments:
Post a Comment