10 Times WWE Failed To Replace A Major Star
4. John Cena With Roman Reigns
Roman Reigns is the new John Cena in almost every way. He doesn’t have Cena’s corny “Never Give Up” gimmick, but everything else is intact. Since The Shield split, Reigns has become a smug, unsympathetic babyface who is booked like Superman, rarely puts anybody over clean, and is always placed at the heart of the company’s programming, no matter which belt he’s competing for.
Cena played this role for over a decade, and it’s clear that Reigns is the man WWE have pinpointed for this particular spot for the next 10+ years.
Unfortunately, the experiment has failed. Reigns is an excellent performer in his own right, but he is grossly unsuited to playing hero of the day, and while he hasn’t exactly dominated the Universal Title scene lately, WWE have rarely looked like abandoning the Reigns project.
Perhaps his inclusion here is a tad pre-emptive, but it’s hard to imagine Reigns ever succeeding in Cena’s old role. Cena was the most divisive wrestler in the world at the height of the “LOLCENAWINS” period, but Reigns regularly draws WWE’s loudest negative crowd reactions. He recently became the first babyface to ever win PWI’s “Most Hated Wrestler” award, and as with Cena, WWE have passed-up countless great opportunities to turn him heel.