Why WWE's Biggest Story In YEARS Has Already Failed

For years, Vince McMahon wanted Roman Reigns to be the definitive destroyer who toppled an indestructible Brock Lensar. Now, 'The Tribal Chief' himself has become that killer pillar.

As of writing, Royal Rumble and WrestleMania season are approaching with 'The Beast' almost certainly despatched, and no obvious 'Show Of Shows' challenger on the horizon. And whomever steps into the breach will likely face the same problem every other challenger has - they're not on Reigns' level. And not by a long way.

Both fantasy and reality booking seems to be positioning The Rock as a likely opponent at some point, but the entire idea of that would be for Reigns to go over. Stature-enhancing, not as if he really needs it. People adore The Shield and any reference to it, but Seth Rollins has been tried on top multiple times with only reasonable results. Uso in-fighting is finished, if it even ever felt main event-worthy in the first place. WWE have no Forbidden Door, just the revolving one at the front of the Performance Center. There are no "dream" matches left, and this is all becoming a nightmare.

WWE persevered for so long to get this bit right that Reigns is now ruling over an empty and barren kingdom. Any heel of this standard is only as good as the babyface he or she eventually puts over and it's never been more apparent how far one is from being ready.

The joy of a journey this long and wide-ranging is supposed to be when one catches brief glimpse of the destination, but it's nowhere to be found because its nowhere in sight. Dusty Rhodes famously used to pontificate on the importance of emotion, but that feeling is long, long gone. Reigns, the angle and SmackDown itself has become a husk of the intriguing prospect it was many months ago - and being forced to watch it play out in real time has revealed that there's still a lot more to come.