10 Exact Moments Great Wrestlers Jumped The Shark
7. Roman Reigns' "Sufferin' Succotash" Promo
While many fans pined for the ascension of Dean Ambrose, it was abundantly clear that Roman Reigns would fill WWE's 'top face' role following The Shield's dissolution. Vince McMahon will always default to the bigger, stronger wrestler in times like this, and that's exactly what he did with Reigns, who had the proverbial rocket strapped to him at the start of 2015.
His Royal Rumble victory was maddening, but Reigns' character had already jumped the shark by then. Several weeks prior, Roman met his former Shield brother Seth Rollins in the ring during an episode of SmackDown, delivering the historically bad "sufferin' succotash" promo from which he has never truly recovered.
It was an awful, cringeworthy diatribe, but the real problem was that it essentially established Reigns as John Cena Lite. He dragged his predecessor's lame sense of humour all the way to the bottom of the barrel, and unlike John, Reigns didn't have the charisma to compensate for it.
Dozens of equally contrived moments have contributed to his widespread rejection as 'The Guy' since then, but this was the moment Reigns' character went down the pan, and he has continued treading a similar path ever since.