It's getting more and more clear that if the WWE want to go with Roman Reigns as their next big thing that they've made an error in breaking up the Shield in June of this year.
From their very formation and debut it was obvious that Rollins and Ambrose, the two more experienced of the group, were going to be carrying the work load in the ring and on the mic whilst Reigns became a little less green. The plan worked and the trio got as over as a stable has been since the days of DX. Ambrose looked like an unhinged star, Rollins looked like a talented star and Reigns looked like a bad ass star. At the start of the year everyone had Reigns pegged as the breakout guy from The Shield due to his look and his growing ability.
Fast forward to this summer and The Shield have broken up with Rollins and Ambrose moving in to the hottest singles feud in the company and Reigns heading off to work with Randy Orton primarily. At Summerslam we saw that the smark section of the crowd was beginning to turn on Reigns, you could hear boos at certain points of his offence and Orton, who has been boooked so poorly in the past twelve months that he has given new meaning to the term X-Pac Heat, even started getting cheers.
It's a sign of things to come. Reigns has looked good since the split but not great. He still needs a lot of work on the mic and his matches have been passable. But nothing screams that this is the guy we all should get behind. Just look at the contrast in pops between him and Ambrose, for example. Ambrose is getting over with the crowd through his talent, not because we're being led to cheer the guy. Reigns isn't getting over with the crowd organically any more and that is going to be a big problem in the near future.
If the rumoured medium term plans are true and the big picture is for Roman Reigns to win the Royal Rumble and challenge Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship at Wrestlemania next year than I predict that Reigns will get mostly booed. Brock has stepped up the entire industry's game to a level that few can match at present. His offence and his character are so realistic that seeing Reigns give Brock a Superman punch would snap us all out of the suspense that we need to have as fans of pro wrestling. If that happens then it won't go well for Reigns.
In my opinion The Shield should have been left together until Survivor Series. You could have had Rollins and Ambrose play out their feud after that and it would have achieved a few things. First is that it would have given Reigns another half year to work on his delivery on the mic and in the ring. Second, it would have given us less time to think about whether Reigns should be the next main guy. There's a clear path to follow from Survivor Series to Royal Rumble to Wrestlemania to get him in place to be an acceptable challenge to Lesnar.
As it stands I genuinely fear that the crowd will turn on him at the Rumble in the way they turned on Batista last year. If Ambrose keeps going the way he's going he could easily become this year's Daniel Bryan too.
From their very formation and debut it was obvious that Rollins and Ambrose, the two more experienced of the group, were going to be carrying the work load in the ring and on the mic whilst Reigns became a little less green. The plan worked and the trio got as over as a stable has been since the days of DX. Ambrose looked like an unhinged star, Rollins looked like a talented star and Reigns looked like a bad ass star. At the start of the year everyone had Reigns pegged as the breakout guy from The Shield due to his look and his growing ability.
Fast forward to this summer and The Shield have broken up with Rollins and Ambrose moving in to the hottest singles feud in the company and Reigns heading off to work with Randy Orton primarily. At Summerslam we saw that the smark section of the crowd was beginning to turn on Reigns, you could hear boos at certain points of his offence and Orton, who has been boooked so poorly in the past twelve months that he has given new meaning to the term X-Pac Heat, even started getting cheers.
It's a sign of things to come. Reigns has looked good since the split but not great. He still needs a lot of work on the mic and his matches have been passable. But nothing screams that this is the guy we all should get behind. Just look at the contrast in pops between him and Ambrose, for example. Ambrose is getting over with the crowd through his talent, not because we're being led to cheer the guy. Reigns isn't getting over with the crowd organically any more and that is going to be a big problem in the near future.
If the rumoured medium term plans are true and the big picture is for Roman Reigns to win the Royal Rumble and challenge Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship at Wrestlemania next year than I predict that Reigns will get mostly booed. Brock has stepped up the entire industry's game to a level that few can match at present. His offence and his character are so realistic that seeing Reigns give Brock a Superman punch would snap us all out of the suspense that we need to have as fans of pro wrestling. If that happens then it won't go well for Reigns.
In my opinion The Shield should have been left together until Survivor Series. You could have had Rollins and Ambrose play out their feud after that and it would have achieved a few things. First is that it would have given Reigns another half year to work on his delivery on the mic and in the ring. Second, it would have given us less time to think about whether Reigns should be the next main guy. There's a clear path to follow from Survivor Series to Royal Rumble to Wrestlemania to get him in place to be an acceptable challenge to Lesnar.
As it stands I genuinely fear that the crowd will turn on him at the Rumble in the way they turned on Batista last year. If Ambrose keeps going the way he's going he could easily become this year's Daniel Bryan too.
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