10 Ridiculously Ambitious WWE Ideas That Failed Horribly
6. The Continued Push Of Roman Reigns: The Guy
Ambitious is the word. So too is stubborn. Wrongheaded.
As we've written, WWE needs to stop making Roman Reigns happen. It's not going to happen. What's perhaps most ambitious about the push - other than the fact that even those who rate Roman immensely are aware that he's simply miscast - is the brain-melting repetition of it all.
Like John Cena, Reigns is a comeback machine of an underdog babyface allergic to character progression, holding onto his riot gear like it's a varsity jacket reminding everybody that he used to be popular. Like Cena, the vocal adult male crowd audibly resents him. Like Cena, the commentators are instructed to wax lyrical about him with the deranged conviction of a lovelorn teenager. Like Cena, the instructions are laid on so thick as to be utterly repellent - the opposite of cool's inherent magnetism.
Unlike Cena, WWE can't really justify his continued placement on top because he isn't a measurable draw. He shifts a major amount of merch, but then, that's more indicative of the hard sell than his popularity. Only, WWE can justify his continued placement on top because everybody has paid for the Network already, and nothing WWE does on a creative level truly matters.
The idea of Roman Reigns: The Guy isn't a financial failure - but it is a destructive symbol of WWE's creative malaise. WWE could be far bigger than it is, and should be far bigger than it is - and Roman is emblematic of the need for WWE to employ its failing "super-serve" strategy.