The Reigns Factor - Why can't fans connect?

[Midnight Zeus]

I haven't watched much WWE in a long time, but occasionally I catch the odd Raw, Monday being one of those days. Seeing Reigns run down the ramp way towards the ring and then launch himself into a flying Superman punch to take out Anderson looked magnificent and had me on side straight away. I can completely understand why they want to push him - given the right material and attitude he looks the part 100%. I'm sure the likes of Styles and Owens can 'wrestle' really well, but they don't look anything special, and when Styles and Reigns were in the back I wanted Reigns to beat the crap out of Styles. If they can get him in the character that fits who he is then I think he's got every chance of making it big - wrestling fans are very fickle, especially the mainstream audiences. There's always second, third, fourth chances for them succeed.

[boytoy]

I think for me the look is definately a big thing, same with Ambrose. He needs to bin off the Shield gear (and cut his hair given that pic posted earlier). Kind of a shame he didn't team up with the authority at Survivor Series. I just can't buy a top singles guy wearing kevlar.

 

Overall though he needs to work on ways of stopping other people dominating his screen time. That his is achilles heel. That might come in time though.

 

On the subject of Rollins - I think taking the curb stomp away from him right at the start of his reign hurt him hugely. His best moment as a heel was threatening to use it on Edge. That move was massively over and he has never found a suitable replacement. A face run and top rope finisher would benefit him hugely when he comes back, he never really fully adjusted his move set to that of a bad guy and is far better suited to the Jeff Hardy role.

[d-d-d-dAz]

I don't think a professional shot of David Gandy looking suave on a plane is necessarily definitive proof that Roman Reigns needs his hair cut.

 

They may have a passing resemblance, but if Roman has even a hint of 'wrestlers hairline', he's fucked.

[Briefcase]

One good thing I will say about Roman and this is from me who can't stand him as champion is that when I met him at Axxess he was actually a really nice bloke and you can see why the WWE want him as the main guy as he had that aura that made him come across super nice to everyone he met, its hard to explain but having also met Ambrose he was awful with people so Roman was way ahead in that respect, on a superstar level. Seth was somewhere in the middle. 

 

Back to the topic, they fucked Roman's booking, he should never have become a two time champion before Mania, at best they should have had Sheamus take the title from Roman, have Roman go close in the rumble and then have Triple H come out last to cost him again if needs be, but Roman winning the belt on Raw killed it for me, a three time champ in like 6 or so months is bad booking when he is doing the whole 'victim of authority/chase' thing. Part of the whole chase was Roman finally winning the big one, but its no chase at all if he's already won it twice. 

[PunkStep]

They may have a passing resemblance, but if Roman has even a hint of 'wrestlers hairline', he's fucked.

I don't think he does though Daz, you can tell straight away if he does. Look at Baron Corbin! I would be worried that he might have dumbo ears, though. Would ruin that suave look straight away.

[DeanoTheGame]

Am I the only one that thinks Roman might be better than Seth?

 

Nope. I'm sure Rollins will have a great babyface run in the future but his Championship reign really exposed his limitations. I could happily go a lifetime without hearing another Rollins whiny heel promo.

[CavemanLynn]

When he's making his way to the ring, standing in promo photos, or doing run-ins like the Anderson punch, he looks boss. But when the bell rings, EVERYWHERE is telegraphed and formulaic. There's no surprise or natural flow. Just when he gets into a solid brawling groove, he'll switch into a preplanned sequence and he doesn't have the presence or talent yet to mask that changeover. Yes, he's a product of the system and doing what he's been taught and told, but he needs to have the confidence to be himself and go with the flow more.

[Great Bear Promotions]

He's just dull, have absolutely no connection with him. Can never forget him crying in the ring. No matter how much of a super bad arse he is I'll always come back to the 'yeah but I remember him crying like a girl.'

[Guest]

The fact that the heel champion injured himself attempting to do a super babyface move top rope sunset flip powerbomb through a table on a bloody house show shows he's not the smartest worker.

there was no table involved, but yeah, when Rollins was without his cronies there was practically nothing about him that said heel to me. if Rollins v HHH was the original Mania plan, it may have been on purpose though

 

what an awful dynamic heel Rollins and face Kane was, fuck sake. And it was one of the most coherent and long-lasting feuds of the year.

[Pinc]

Reigns shits all over Rollins, who is an appalling wrestler.

[The Gaffer]

who is an appalling wrestler.

That's just objectively false though, isn't it.

 

Also why can't a heel do flippy shit? I never saw the big deal with it with Rollins. Didn't all the kids hate him anyway? The crowds used to have no problem getting all over his shit during promos and matches, if I recall. Nobody that wasn't a smart mark anyway suddenly dropped their box of popcorn and went "corkscrew? let's give this guy another shot!".

 

He was a chickenshit who was also proclaiming to be the best performer on the planet. Flippy shit was part of his performance. Fine. Couldn't give a fuck. There was far more glaring problems with how he was handled and how the greater context of what was going on around him was handled.

[LaGoosh]

 

 

who is an appalling wrestler.

That's just objectively false though, isn't it.

 

Also why can't a heel do flippy shit?

Because flippy shit always gets a babyface reaction. Heels shouldn't get babyface reactions ever.

[Guest]

Jericho, Angle or whoever can bust out a moonsault or something and I'm fine with it. Rollins was so quick paced though, and so flashy, it all fell apart for me when J&J left the picture, there was no pause-4-heat moments or anything like that, just workrate matches.

Like I say though, it's not unlikely that he would've been face by now had he not been injured

[Michael_3165]

This isn't a knock on Styles by any means but they have put him in there with a guy that physically makes him look like a toddler. 

 

The floppy floppy shit CAN be done by a heel but it has to be in the context of being a heel. Hitting a high spot and looking smug with a shit-eating grin can work as a heel but I agree you want people to hate you not want to see you hit the spots. 

[UK Kat Von D]

My favourite moment of Rollins being a heel was when Brock tried to German Suplex him and he landed on his feet from out of a backflip, flippy kicked him in the head then just legged it through the crowd. Perfect display of being a true athlete who is scared of someone harder than himself