This is really crazy news. It is not unheard of for main-eventers to get suspended for wellness violations. Edge was suspended. Jeff Hardy has his history with drug use. But the centerpiece of the company has never been in this situation. John Cena has not been suspended during his centerpiece run. Same with Triple H. Same with Steve Austin. The WWE just started pushing Roman Reigns as the new centerpiece less than a year ago. And he's now suspended.
I have questioned before whether it makes sense to push Roman Reigns as the centerpiece of this era the WWE is entering. They are starting to be a little more friendly to wrestling. They have not completely changed their ways, but they have made some decisions to please wrestling fans and a lot of the things they do seem to be directed to those vocal fans. A guy like Roman Reigns is just not a good representative for this new direction.
This recent suspension just makes me further believe that this guy should not be the centerpiece. It is only his first suspension, but this is a very PR-friendly era for the WWE, in addition to embracing wrestling a little more. They got rid of Hulk Hogan for racist comments he made in private years ago. Jerry Lawler is suspended for a recent domestic violence incident. The WWE did the right thing by suspending Reigns, and it is probably unlikely he does it again, but he really is not a great representative for the company. He gets a terrible reaction a lot of the time. There are arguments made that he is not a draw. And now this. You can blame the WWE for some of his issues connecting with smarks and drawing, but the recent suspension is on him. The WWE just cannot keep going in the same direction with this guy.
I am not saying he should be fired. That would be overreacting. I am also not saying he should be depushed to jobbing to Zack Ryder on Superstars. They can keep him in their main-event rotation. Instead of pushing him as an A+ player, just push him as an A player. I think a lot of the people that dislike him so much actually cooled a little last year when he was depushed out of the title picture for a while. It might be for the best.
The WWE is expecting him back in time for the Battleground main event. There is a lot of speculation about when the WWE found out that he failed the drug test. I am not going to speculate. I will say, however, if the WWE knew before Raw this week that he had failed it, they did not handle things very well. They made a main event for their PPV next month and then one of the guys in that match is just not going to show up for a month? Reading Smackdown spoilers, nothing was done to address why Reigns would not be around. It is just awkward. They should have run an injury angle. Are they going to just say that Reigns is suspended for doing drugs? That is terrible from a creative standpoint. Moreover, they are just going to make Roman Reigns look absolutely terrible. There have been main-eventers more popular than Reigns to get suspended and the WWE did not do that to them. The WWE is more realistic these days, but they can't admit the real reason Reigns isn't around. The WWE is in a terrible position. Roman Reigns deserves most of the blame for violating the wellness policy, but the WWE's handling of things may not have made it smoother.
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