The guy

[FUM]

I don't think there's many who can or will disagree that Roman SHOULD be the guy. It's clear he should be.

He just isn't yet because they're failing miserably to make him it.

He has the wrestling skill, and he's proven he can do the promos as well as media work.

Roman is the choice however they need to stop pissing about and actually stick with that choice.

[Ambulance Chaser]

Imagine heel Reigns vs face Gargano. Holy fuck. Wrestlers in the right position, framed the right way and getting the desired reactions, crazy world eh.

[ColinBollocks]

They should have put the belt on Reigns when he first faced Lesnar. Fair enough, they foolishly thought they could get the crowd to cheer him by making him into some weird John Cena / Daniel Bryan hybrid, but they've diluted his aura by having him lose too much and piss about in the midcard. Thing is, Reigns can be excellent in the right role (last year v Taker), but Vince is too stubborn. Bruce Prichard has mentioned on his podcast a few times that Vince can have an issue with wanting to make something work so bad that he misses the bigger picture, and Prichard assumes that's sort of what's going on with Reigns going they way he is. Honestly, I think Cena roasting Reigns and exposing his lack of a quick wit (scripted or not) has put me right off him.

Thing is that's purely from my selfish "he's a bit dull" POV, but maybe Vince looks at all his numbers and thinks Reigns is doing a fine job. After all, Reigns' role is to make him money. I really have not a clue how WWE's business is these days - other than it's neither boom or bust.

 

[cobra_gordo]

I've had visions of Braun being the top guy since his open match challenge. He's got enough personality that I reckon as great as he'd be as a super dominant heel he could also be a great monster face if they could balance things out with an even bigger, badder heel or a faction to put him against.

A repackaged Reigns, as the head of a heel faction in the style of 1999/2000 Triple H could be great as top heel and could continue what he's done with Braun so far.

[boytoy]

Triple H is a way better comparison for Reigns than Cena, Rock, Hogan. In hindsight after Rollins got injured and had to vacate Reigns should have joined up with the Authority and become the new corporate champion, suiting it up and changing his ring gear as well. Would have had the added bonus of given Rollins something worthwhile to do after returning too.

There isn't an obvious guy on the roster yet so at the moment they will have to keep doing what they are doing. If I had to pick someone it would be Braun.

[Zaheer]

50 minutes ago, Ambulance Chaser said:

Imagine heel Reigns vs face Gargano. Holy fuck. Wrestlers in the right position, framed the right way and getting the desired reactions, crazy world eh.

What a fantastic programme that would be!

[Bukamania]

I think the Roman Reigns character is a mess. He's a talented wrestler who's had excellent matches but his whole persona and the way he has been booked just annoys me. His character is stale, he definitely needs new attire and theme music as it's like he's can't move on from his Shield days. 

I still believe Roman as a heel, can be THE GUY but as a babyface, not a fucking chance.

[Supremo]

1 hour ago, boytoy said:

There isn't an obvious guy on the roster yet so at the moment they will have to keep doing what they are doing.

Keeping doing what they’re doing is what’s going to stop them from ever finding the guy. The last twelve months is proof of that. On at least two occasions they’ve stumbled upon potential magic, only to piss it away in order to stick to the plan with Roman. Both Samoa Joe and Braun Strowman showed flashes of potential in their feuds with Brock Lesnar. In both cases you had guys genuinely connecting with the crowds, generating the type of buzz that anyone with their finger on the pulse would recognise and change plans to explore.

Of course, there’s no garauntee either guy would’ve amounted to anything as Champion, and Samoa Joe’s proneness to injury is definitely something to think about, but the last thing you’d do when someone gets hot like that is book them to lose clean. Particularly when the plan you’re sacrificing them for is so obviously doomed.

I don’t think Vince has ever been so tone deaf to what works and what doesn’t. I mean, fucking hell, imagine having Daniel Bryan on your roster, getting louder reactions that anyone in years, and thinking you should go with Batista, with his new weird face, instead. I genuinely wonder how this Roman experiment will go when Triple H is eventually in charge. Surely by that point we can drop all this nonsense and have proper faces and heels on top like Gargano and Dunne?

[BomberPat]

16 minutes ago, Supremo said:

I don’t think Vince has ever been so tone deaf to what works and what doesn’t. I mean, fucking hell, imagine having Daniel Bryan on your roster, getting louder reactions that anyone in years, and thinking you should go with Batista, with his new weird face, instead. I genuinely wonder how this Roman experiment will go when Triple H is eventually in charge. Surely by that point we can drop all this nonsense and have proper faces and heels on top like Gargano and Dunne?

By the same token, a month after Wrestlemania Daniel Bryan had to take six months off because of a neck injury, and was functionally retired a year later. If they had even the slightest inkling that Bryan was as banged up as he was, can you blame them for being reluctant to pull the trigger on him when, on the other hand, you had a returning star, with built-in history with your top heels, who was a featured part of an upcoming blockbuster movie?

[tiger_rick]

3 hours ago, BomberPat said:

I think there needs to be more than one "guy". Rather than playing this weird halfway house game with Roman Reigns, they need to come up with a way to present Roman Reigns as the flagship talent for the "casual" fanbase, and someone else - probably AJ Styles - as "the guy" for the "smark" crowd.

Agree with this and I think this is another reason why Reigns should be a heel in the meantime. In the short term, you have him smashing through people while you allow AJ Styles, Nakamura, Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens, Braun, etc to shine. Then when you bring them together, I really think you've got magic with a heel Reigns against that lot.

[Supremo]

22 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

By the same token, a month after Wrestlemania Daniel Bryan had to take six months off because of a neck injury, and was functionally retired a year later. If they had even the slightest inkling that Bryan was as banged up as he was, can you blame them for being reluctant to pull the trigger on him when, on the other hand, you had a returning star, with built-in history with your top heels, who was a featured part of an upcoming blockbuster movie?

The injury thing is a fair point. I can understand not wanting to go with someone who’s on their last legs. Had Samoa Joe or Braun Strowman had injuries before his match with Brock Lesnar? If they hadn’t then I can’t understand why their momentum leading into those matches wasn’t capitalised on.

[BomberPat]

3 minutes ago, Supremo said:

The injury thing is a fair point. I can understand not wanting to go with someone who’s on their last legs. Had Samoa Joe or Braun Strowman had injuries before his match with Brock Lesnar? If they hadn’t then I can’t understand why their momentum leading into those matches wasn’t capitalised on.

The wider point is that we don't really know a lot of what goes into whether someone gets pushed. There might be injury concerns, skeletons in the closet, or someone might just be a nightmare to work with. In Strowman's case, given that he got lamped by Brock Lesnar at the Rumble while Brock yelled "SLOW DOWN", and apparently on RAW Cena was shouting at him to slow down too, it may be that he's not necessarily experienced or consistent enough to perform at the level needed to be The Guy.

It's not a very interesting answer, but there's so much going into this decision making that we're not seeing. That said, even in the short-term I think they've been mad not to capitalise on Braun Strowman by now, and the longer he goes without winning the title, the less it'll mean if they ever do pull the trigger on him.

[ColinBollocks]

Aye. Braun probably sneezed 2 year ago in Gorilla Position, and Vince still can't bring himself to put his belt on a known sneezer. If he farted/sharted I'm sure he'd be neck-and-neck with Triple H title reigns by now.

[Pinc]

This version of Ambrose - when both he and his barnet were still motivated and his ring attire made him appear more muscular than he actually was - was clearly The Guy. I think they initially saw it too, given that he was originally positioned as the leader of The Shield before they transitioned to Roman at the end of their run.

He was probably still salvageable as The Guy right up to the Lesnar match at Mania 32. If he had won any of his marquee matches in Q1 of that year - the Royal Rumble, the triple threat with Reigns and Lesnar, the title match with Triple H at Roadblock and the Lesnar match - he'd have been a made man. But he failed again and again, his motivation sapping from him as he went until he ended up all scatter brained and weirdly grey on Austin's podcast. They missed an open goal with Ambrose.

[BomberPat]

As much as "turn him heel" gets thrown around as the go-to solution for any top WWE babyface, Dean Ambrose is a guy who would really benefit from a decent heel run, so long as the company is invested in him. It's baffling that they've mostly positioned him as a goofy babyface, when his best work pre-WWE came as a deranged, quite genuinely terrifying heel.

Though the way he was on that Austin podcast, and on a few other interviews and bits and pieces, it may well be that he's not someone they want representing the company at that level.