The Problem With Roman Reigns That Nobody Wants To Talk About

Buzz is almost impossible to quantify.

Without crowds to measure anything, buzz might depend on which corner of Wrestling Twitter one sits. The deranged avi crowd are of course going to put this over as something great in rare good faith. But stans are going to stan. Combined, the two nights of WrestleMania 37 pulled 750,000 Google searches. In contrast, the Saturday leg of WrestleMania 36 generated 1,000,000 searches, and even that was a disappointing number. Roman Reigns has not increased WWE's viewership, nor has he spiked the conversation, the discourse, in any meaningful way. The last great, true WWE creation since The Shield, sadly, is just there. The ratings pattern meanwhile is dwindling, like it always does, in the shadow of WrestleMania. This is an industry-wide issue at time of writing, it should be stated. But Reigns as a character is meant to lead it.

The other problem is that WWE is constitutionally incapable of booking babyfaces. Drew McIntyre - a witty, credible warlord who still has a banger in him - has revealed himself to be an aberration. Or rather, as is always the case, creative has exposed him. He lingers around a dead RAW main event scene, booked as an entitled skidmark somehow deserving of an opportunity despite losing clean in the middle via technical submission at WrestleMania. He's there every week, demanding the shot, getting less over all the time. A slow death through subtext, this isn't quite the nuanced storytelling jaded fans have in mind.

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