5 Most Insane Things Happening In Wrestling Right Now (June 22)
2. It Is Happening Again
Vince McMahon is terminally stuck in the 1980s. He briefly joined everybody in the 1990s seven years after that decade began, but only when confronted with serious competition. Beyond that, he remains frozen in time, expecting his babyface pet projects to get over by enduring chinlocks for minutes on end. The strategy used for Roman Reigns, at Backlash, speaks to both his detached pulse and the antipathy towards his paying public.
He thinks we are morons.
He thinks we'll get behind Roman Reigns by booking A Heel to punish him with a basic, elongated rest hold. He thinks we'll sympathise with Roman's plight. It worked for Hulk Hogan. He must, because, at Money In The Bank, Jinder Mahal did the exact same thing. Your writer timed these chinlocks, just to see if they felt longer than they were. Jinder applied the hold four times.
1) 24 seconds.
2) 19 seconds.
3) 57 seconds (!).
4) 46 seconds.
That's roughly two and a half minutes of a 16 minute match. Roman Reigns spent about 15% of the match in a rest hold. As the seconds dragged, the fans, bereft of any entertainment, created their own by calling Roman an "a**hole".
It's outrageous, it really is. This Roman Reigns push is either the dumbest or most hostile - or both - ever in wrestling. It is also the longest to have never succeeded it. When will it end? When will Vince McMahon finally relent and realise that it simply isn't going to work? Why are these words being typed three and a half years after Royal Rumble 2015?