The WWE spent some time grooming him. You can say negative fan reactions led to his push being stalled. It took him a while to finally win the WWE Championship. Even then, it only lasted a few minutes. His next reign, coming after fans were a little more on his side, only lasted a few weeks. And then his third reign only lasted a few months. He has not regained a top title since that third reign. All he has had is a run with the United States Championship. Not only has he not held a top title since last year, he has not even won a PPV match since Wrestlemania. I ask you, is this how you push a centerpiece?
You can bring up John Cena taking time away from the title and having losing streaks. Thing is, a lot of that has come in recent years, when Cena has now become a part-timer and is no longer the centerpiece. He is not even the centerpiece of Smackdown. And even if you go back to when Cena had these dry periods years ago, it came after Cena had already gotten a number of title reigns and some lengthy title reigns that really defined him. What has been the defining title reign for Roman Reigns? He hasn't had it. And I don't need to say too much about Triple H and Austin during their respective runs at the top. They were certainly pushed better than Reigns.
The WWE can have Roman Reigns go out there and give these promos where he still talks like he's the guy. Commentators can even make it sound like he is the guy. In Vince McMahon's mind, Roman Reigns may even still be the guy. I don't read minds. I read actions. I read how these workers are pushed in relation to each other and over time. And the WWE might be fooling themselves. They have not put the work into Roman Reigns recently. There are some fans that will eat up hype very easily and buy into Roman Reigns just because the WWE tells them to. But there are a lot of fans out there that are going to see that this guy has not been a top Champion in over a year and has not won a big match in months. To make matters worse, he has not really been the star of any great storylines. John Cena was a major focus in many storylines over the years, like the Nexus angle. Roman Reigns and his off-and-on feud with Braun Strowman is not really a creative storyline. Even his Wrestlemania feud with The Undertaker was pretty pathetic. It was so pathetic, I cannot believe that is how The Undertaker's career will end. They are just really failing to present Roman Reigns as a proper centerpiece.
You can say part of the reason for having Roman Reigns not hold the title and lose so much in the last few months is to appease his haters. They don't seem appeased. I see fans talking about this guy like he is overpushed. He hasn't held a top title in over a year. He hasn't won a PPV match in months. He is not even a part of a storyline where he is shoved down your throat. The WWE should not be wasting time trying to please these fans.
If not Roman Reigns, then who? Who is the centerpiece of Raw? Who is being pushed like the centerpiece should? Not Brock Lesnar. He is not around enough to be considered the centerpiece. None of the full-time guys look like the centerpiece. Seth Rollins had a big win against Triple H at Wrestlemania, but he has fizzled out rather easily. No one man looks like the top guy. It is just a juggling act.
Let me bring up Smackdown. Who is the centerpiece there? Once again, I would say no one. John Cena is a part-timer. Randy Orton had a big Wrestlemania win and has been losing at every PPV since. Certainly not Nakamura or Jinder Mahal. No, I have not forgotten AJ Styles. He has gotten a decent push since coming to Smackdown, but if he was the centerpiece, he would not be out of the WWE Championship picture so easily. You can talk about elevating the United States title all you want, but I doubt AJ Styles vs. Kevin Owens stands a good chance to close Summerslam. Granted, no Smackdown match seems to stand a chance to close Summerslam. Smackdown does not have a centerpiece.
During the diva era, you would have these dark ages, usually when you had no centerpiece around. Without one person the WWE was interested to build around, they just made do with what they had and went all over the place. In a way, stars were born during dark ages. Lita and Trish were created during the first dark age. AJ Lee was a product of the second dark age.
You can say that the entire company is in a dark age now that they have not had in decades. They have no overall centerpiece. They have no centerpiece on either brand. Why does having a centerpiece matter? Because it makes it easier to be efficient. Once you have one guy you know is your top star, you can just build around him. Ideally, everything else would just fall into place. When you do not have that, then you might just go all over the place and do stupid things. I would say that is exactly what is going on. You have terrible feud development on both brands. Some good workers are just being pushed too fast. A lot of workers feel like they are underachieving. Ratings are obviously poor. Fan reactions are often mediocre or worse. The WWE needs to be more efficient. They need to once again show that they know what they want and know how to go about trying to get it. The WWE is just doing dumb things I never would have expected them to do.
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