When Brock Lesnar first burst onto the scene he was dubbed The Next Big Thing - 12 years later, that title is an apt way to describe Roman Reigns. It seems that Roman is being positioned as the one who will go forth and dethrone the King of the WWE Jungle at WrestleMania, but, if that is the case, there are some problems with that scenario. Ever since his amazing performance at Survivor Series last year, the WWE have been banking big money on Roman - and understandably so. He's got the look, a quiet charisma and impressive athleticism - but he's yet to bring all of that together into a solid package. During his run with The Shield, Roman looked fantastic thanks to his trademark Spear, Superman Punch and jumping big boot - but now that the former Hound of Justice is flying solo, his matches aren't as tight or exciting as one would hope. At 16 minutes and 17 seconds, Roman's SummerSlam match with Randy was the longest of the night (11 seconds longer than the main event), but a strong case could be made that it was also the worst, and a large part of that was Roman's bland offense - which largely consisted of punches and headbutts. A large, vocal segment of WWE's fanbase has a problem with Superman booking, as evident in the jeers that stars like Sheamus and especially John Cena get. Roman could have a problem getting over as big as the company hopes if his solo matches don't get better. The WWE needs to get the perfect opponent to beat Brock, and Roman appears primed to be that guy - but if he flounders as a singles competitor, who will take his place? Even if Brock is the perfect heel, that means nothing if he hasn't got the perfect babyface to battle. Follow me on Twitter @dvanboom
Journalism graduate from the University of Technology, Sydney.
As a child, when I wasn't doing typical Australian things like fending off dingoes while riding in the pouches of kangaroos, I was watching wrestling.
