10 Architects Behind WWE's Demise
5. Roman Reigns
There's a hesitation to include Roman Reigns here, under the Snitsky Principle, but the fact remains that his stint on top coincided with WWE haemorrhaging viewers at a pace beyond the gradual, post-Attitude Era erosion.
Listen to or read the testimony of so many of his peers, and you are left with the inescapable impression that Vince McMahon has lost it. Reigns per these accounts is witty, exudes cool, and is a genuinely top bloke. He is, in addition to being an explosive powerhouse of a wrestler at his best, every bit the excellent babyface management perceives him as.
He just doesn't connect because the Fed sucks sh*t.
He's almost inextricably linked to the Rock, and if the Rock came up when Reigns did, with Vince so spectacularly ill-equipped to market him, the Rock would be forced to parrot dreck material that has proven consistently counterproductive to the aim, keeping that chia pet hairstyle because the lines of merchandise had already been approved.
Creatively - and again, this isn't Roman's fault, particularly, since he did spectacularly well to transcend much of what he was given - Roman's run also coincided with rotten, regurgitated creative penned by a company with no motivation to change.