1. Because WWE Needs To Re-Learn How To Promote Fresh Talent...
The John Cena Show has carried on, ad nauseum, for over a decade now. In many ways, Cena was the last guy that WWE truly got behind and pushed to major stardom. Sure, other guys have gotten the nod from creative in that time. Sheamus was pushed to the moon for a little while, but his push wasnt sustained. Edge was bounced from brief championship run to brief championship run (with the odd injury break). Daniel Bryan got injured, Eddie Guerrero was jobbed out to JBL, The Miz was...Im sorry, The Miz was just sh!t. The one non Cena success story (in terms of flawless promotion, anyway) has been Randy Orton and even The Viper has now lost much of his bite due to overexposure and go nowhere storylines. Then there are the others, the rest of the roster who had the rug pulled out from under them at the first step, time and time again, Kofi Kingston, Ryback, Cody Rhodes and many, many more. Most of these men are also being massively underutilized. WWE has its new generation of heroes and they are here now; it has Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, Cesaro, Bray Wyatt, Dolph Ziggler and Daniel Bryan as well as fresh upstart talents like Kevin Owens, Adrian Neville, Sami Zayn and Tyson Kidd all waiting in the wings. In October of 2013, this writer called for the WWE to base itself around Daniel Bryan, whilst also maintaining that Roman Reigns would definitely be The Shields breakout star. Now, in February of 2015, WWE creative seems to have decided that Roman Reigns could work even better. Whether he can or not is immaterial, instead it is the fact that WWE appears to finally be 100% behind the creation of a new star that is significant. So, now youve finished all 10 points you probably still hate Roman Reigns. Thats cool. Its up to you. Thanks for reading either way. However, before you go, ask yourself one question: when you first got into wrestling, when the WWE product really captured your imagination, who was on top? Was it a finely tuned technical standout with indie cred and a moveset that reads like a scientific journal, or was it the red and yellow of Hulk Hogan, the simple morality of Hitman Hart, the bullet-headed badassery of Steve Austin, or was it the showbiz and sizzle of Romans cousin, The Rock? Whatever your answer, imagine watching Roman Reigns when you were the same age as PG WWEs target audience. Goddammit, if you wouldnt have loved the cr@p out of him, bought all his merchandise and tried out all his coolest moves on your little brother which is exactly what the kids are going to do in the reign of Reigns (as it will almost certainly be called - and dont think Cliché Cole isnt already polishing up that particular gem in time for WrestleMania...) - then you were probably a really boring kid. So, maybe you arent ready for Roman Reigns yet, but your kids are gonna love him.
I am a professional author and lifelong comic books/pro wrestling fan. I also work as a journalist as well as writing comic books (I also draw), screenplays, stage plays, songs and prose fiction.
I don't generally read or reply to comments here on What Culture (too many trolls!), but if you follow my Twitter (@heyquicksilver), I'll talk to you all day long!
If you are interested in reading more of my stuff, you can find it on http://quicksilverstories.weebly.com/ (my personal site, which has other wrestling/comics/pop culture stuff on it).
I also write for FLiCK http://www.flickonline.co.uk/flicktion, which is the best place to read my fiction work.
Oh yeah - I'm about to become a Dad for the first time, so if my stuff seems more sentimental than usual - blame it on that!
Finally, I sincerely appreciate every single read I get. So if you're reading this, thank you, you've made me feel like Shakespeare for a day! (see what I mean?)
Latcho Drom,
- CQ
