Why WWE's Biggest Story In YEARS Has Already Failed

"The Island Of Relevancy" may read too much like a dumb wrestling catchphrase to carry the weight and gravitas Paul Heyman attempts to inject into it, but Reigns has gradually owned the term as much as any other thrown at him this last year.

Feuding with Roman Reigns is, without exception, entering in to the biggest scale story in the company now. There is no compromise, confusion nor doubt. The character knows it as much as the real life man presumably does - as early as November 2020, Reigns was negging Drew McIntyre for daring to only win titles on Monday Night Raw. He said this ahead of defeating him in a Champion Vs Champion match at the Survivor Series. Post-that, and the evocative Jey Uso series, his victims list reads like a who's who of the best of what's left. Kevin Owens was put to the sword early in the year, Daniel Bryan and Edge were stacked up at WrestleMania and beat definitively in follow-up singles matches. Cesaro's latest cup of coffee in the big time was little more than an espresso, and megastars John Cena and Brock Lesnar both fell - in very different circumstances - to the 'Head Of The Table'.

Big E lost to him too. 12 months on from WWE Champion McIntyre being toppled at WWE's Thanksgiving supercard, The New Day man met the same fate. Both matches were worked to relative silence, but 2021's headliner didn't take place at the peak of a global pandemic. 16 months deep into WWE's boldest creative play in years, the plan to sustain Roman as the undisputed kingpin of the company had worked too well - fans weren't with Big E whatsoever, and instead simply sat on their hands and awaited the inevitable.

With no tangible stakes, E really should have got that specific W for a rainy day. But that's not this story, has never been this story, and increasingly looks like it never will be. And that's about to become WWE's biggest problem...

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