Acknowledge It - WWE's HUGE Problem With Roman Reigns
Some of this isn't even brand new information, sadly. Many have drawn a line between the current incarnation of the gimmick and older variants of the Roman Reigns persona, even if a point in doing that might have been missed along the way.
Reigns' appearances on the post-WrestleMania Raws from both 2017 and 2022 were placed side-by-side by various people on Twitter as if to highlight growth and maturity by both the man and the machine. This, with all of five seconds of actual critical thinking, was and is total horsesh*t.
Following a minging match with The Undertaker five years ago, the top babyface was mercilessly booed. Half a decade and a record-smashing dominant heel run later, and the fans have given up making noise in place of the aforementioned index finger salute. The only connection between the images is the obvious disconnection that still exists between company and consumer.
Kids In The Hall's Bruce McCulloch famously commented that maturity was tragically rooted in watching your friends grow up and grow beards to cover their compromising faces. Then goateed and still believing the ring could be "His Yard", Reigns was a failed project in 2017, but the potential for a rebuild existed behind the eyes. In 2022, it's peaked, and that full beard is hiding the compromise that now exists behind the weekly beg to acknowhim as the star he has to pretend to be.
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