Memo to Roman Reigns haters

Where are the half dozen other Rollins?? There's just Ziggler on the same level to me. How is Reigns unique??? He does a drop kick on the apron, what else? Reigns has really great potential, but he hasn't figured out almost anything besides "I'm Samoan and strong, and Vince likes me." I don't hate him at all, but they're making a joke out of him to me. Someone like HBK had 92-96 to get where he needed to be a legit champion, before that it would have been a joke. Same with HHH, he needed years to figure out his equation and he did it. They're going to make another Mr Ass of him if they're not careful. Billy Gunn had potential too and that didn't go so well. Who is Reigns? He's an intense man with swat gear as far as I can tell, and we all know he found that gear in the abandoned gimmick bin, and tore out the Bull Buchanan name tag.

So I actually already support Reigns, but I don't think the company is supporting him properly, big surprise! Why is everyone acting like he's getting reactions like the Road Warriors or Goldberg? He isn't but maybe he could if they play their cards better. I don't see anyone hating really, I see people worried they're messing this up when they can't really afford to right now, and we're having fun making jokes about it in the meantime. The Lost X-Man and the 3rd Hardy Boy isn't exactly hate. 

Isn't it though? Pathetic might be a more appropriate word than hilarious though.

His promos are terrible but I'm still a fan.

I wish they would do an experiment and let him cut a 2-3 minute promo from the heart which is unscripted.

I think the issue with a lot of these guys is having to deliver these scripted lines for promos.

These guys aren't actors. Period. Although, Vince McMahon wants them to be more than anything.

Let them speak from the heart and say what is real. No acting.

His delivery on the one this week seemed about as good as could be expected, given the state of the material. On the whole, though, for TV they should have him doing really short promos and really short matches -- the one where Big Show interrupted him before he spoke, then he hit one line and a Superman punch was his best work since the return. Let him practice longer promos and longer matches on house shows.

The scripts aren't really an excuse for him, though. Roman Reigns is being groomed as a top guy, he's got enough clout to tell them "make this better" instead of just going with the flow and hurting his character. It's understandable that Fandango goes out and does what he's told. But Reigns, Cena, Rollins, Ambrose, Wyatt, Orton, Bryan etc are the guys who are safe enough to take their own risks and make their voices heard so if they're doing bad material, it's at least partly on them.


Reigns is better now than Cena was in 2004/2005. Cena didn't became great until after he won the title and had to raise his game. There's probably more chance of Reigns doing that than becoming great spending another year or two working underneath. He's never going to be able to play the workrate-heavy underdog card to claw out of the midcard, so hanging around might hurt him. Rushing him might too, but when you're doing the bad-ass gimmick, twelve months of lazy parity booking can be killer. Twelve months more experience, but also twelve months less mystique.

Reigns is not better right now than Cena was back in 04/05. Cena put on quality matches with Booker T, Kurt Angle, and Jericho. Reigns has not delivered ONE quality match since going solo.

We all have opinions on what a good match is. I respect your opinion, but his match vs Orton was not my cup of tea as it was boring as hell.

He's only had one chance to deliver on a PPV in a singles match. He's had matches with Rollins that were solid as well. Pretty hard to say he's never delivered when he hasn't really had a chance to.

Yokozuna went over the #1 face of the company for the title in his 3rd PPV appearance ever, his second singles PVV match, and his first PPV match with someone not named VIRGIL.