Re: The Official WWE Thread - Part 34

[Great Leader Sprucenuce]

Completely disagree.

Also his feud with Cena was trash, it was a one time thing put together on a B PPV with like a 2 week build with one good promo.

His Feud with Owens and Edge/Bryan were 1000 times better than anything he did as a babyface.

[Great Leader Sprucenuce]

His feud with Strowman was arguably the highlight of his babyface run which kinda says it all really lol.

[M99]

His new theme starts great then it is a generic boing loop.

Def Rebel fucking sucks. Last good theme in WWE was made five years ago ffs.

[Great Leader Sprucenuce]

His new theme starts great then it is a generic boing loop.

Def Rebel fucking sucks. Last good theme in WWE was made five years ago ffs.

Has it been that long since the CFO days? They did good work imo.

It's obviously sucked since they left tho.

[M99]

His new theme starts great then it is a generic boing loop.

Def Rebel fucking sucks. Last good theme in WWE was made five years ago ffs.

Has it been that long since the CFO days? They did good work imo.

It's obviously sucked since they left tho.

Not sure when they left. Was thinking about Undisputed Era theme which was made four years ago.

Now that theme is gone and both Cole and KOR have some trash forgettable theme.

[Onyx]

Daym Roman has really become, far and away, the top guy in the WWE. Everything about him screams champion.

He makes the entire show better too, not a coincidence that the guys below him feel more important as a result of him.

Which is great as that's the mark of someone who really is the top dog but it feels like Roman has not had any classic feuds ever since the shield days or Cena. The quality of his rivals really isn't that great sadly.

Reigns is a 100x better as a heel, but he's not an elite generational level talent like Cena, Austin, or Rock imo. He's not the number 1 guy / main eventer because of amazing talent, which is why he's hardly had any memorable feuds. Pretty much anyone could be in his spot if they had the same mega push.

[Great Leader Sprucenuce]

Absolute nonsense, he hasn't had memorable feuds because until he turned heel he was miscast as Cena 2.0.

The idea that anyone could do what he's doing right now is just laughable.

[Casciavit]

He makes the entire show better too, not a coincidence that the guys below him feel more important as a result of him.

Which is great as that's the mark of someone who really is the top dog but it feels like Roman has not had any classic feuds ever since the shield days or Cena. The quality of his rivals really isn't that great sadly.

Reigns is a 100x better as a heel, but he's not an elite generational level talent like Cena, Austin, or Rock imo. He's not the number 1 guy / main eventer because of amazing talent, which is why he's hardly had any memorable feuds. Pretty much anyone could be in his spot if they had the same mega push.

People are overrating what he's doing now because of how much criticism he got in the past. He's not an elite talent like the names you mentioned above, and his mega push helped him a lot. At the same time though, his look, background, and physical charisma helps sell what he does. I don't think Drew with a Roman push would have the same impact if he did what Roman's doing right now.

[Casciavit]

I think what holds Roman back the most is his lack of personality on the mic. Even with the gimmick change his promos still sound robotic. If he actually had larger than life verbal charisma he'd be a mega star. He has the look and his ring work is good.

I mean Heyman is obviously there for that regard, but there's a ceiling to how big of a star you can be with a manager doing your talking.

I also wish they went more into his gimmick aspect. Add more goons to his stable. Make him dress the part. If they could do it with that Mexican stable in NXT, there's no reason they can't with him.

[Great Leader Sprucenuce]

I question how much you watch because Heyman barely talks for him. (Most of Heyman's promos actually come on Talking Smack which i doubt anybody here watches)

He has some instances, like last week in the backstage promo outside of Romans "locker room"

But mostly he stands there and lets Roman talk.

Also i completely disagree with him sounding robotic, dunno how you can watch his promos before Mania and come away with that conclusion.

[Onyx]

Reigns' superman status and credibility built up over the years still carries over to his new heel character, so we're rating him based on a 7 year mega push too, not just a 7 month heel run imo. I don't think he'd be the 'top dog' and his heel work wouldn't be rated as highly if all we saw of him was the last 7 months in a midcard role.

[Great Leader Sprucenuce]

Are we? I'm certainly not.

I've seperated the two completely, sure his push has allowed him to be a known commodity. But that's really it, everything he's doing right now is absolutely worthy of praise and has very little to do with being pushed hard.

[Onyx]

It just depends on how and what we're rating him. A good heel who's on form and one of the best on the current roster? Sure. There's been plenty like him before without the booking.

Irreplaceable larger than life amazingly talented megastar who the world is talking about? Definitely not.

[Great Leader Sprucenuce]

Even if he was you wouldn't know anyway because the product overall is horrendous.

Nobody is gonna care until we see good television consistently, you don't turn around the opinions over night.

It would take like a year of good and entertaining television for that sort of thing to happen.

[Casciavit]

I question how much you watch because Heyman barely talks for him. (Most of Heyman's promos actually come on Talking Smack which i doubt anybody here watches)

He has some instances, like last week in the backstage promo outside of Romans "locker room"

But mostly he stands there and lets Roman talk.

Also i completely disagree with him sounding robotic, dunno how you can watch his promos before Mania and come away with that conclusion.

I don't watch RAW, and SD I only really watch his and Sasha Banks' segments on Youtube. I've seen enough of his promos to make that judgment IMO.

Roman's best promos have always involved him showing more intensity and getting angry on the mic. He's trying to speak as a brooding heel, but it makes him come off as monotone and robotic. Yes, he cuts more promos than you'd expect given Heyman is on his side, but Heyman is still there to help with the talking too. I've seen enough of his promos as a heel to know that he still comes off as lacking personality and energy on the mic. There's just a lack of verbal charisma when he speaks. That's why him doing those 15 min Triple H-esque monologues at the start of the show are such a drag to sit through.

I watched the segments with Edge and Bryan, and I think they both cut better promos than he did. Now I'm not saying he cut bad promos, but their's were better. Right now, I just finished catching up on AEW's shows in the last 2-3 weeks. Now AEW has a whole host of issues I won't get into, but just compare his promos to Eddie, Mox, Jericho, MJF, and Cody. You'll see exactly what I'm talking about. He just isn't captivating on the mic. I mean those guys aren't scripted and are elite on the mic, so not everyone is going to sound like them which is okay. However, that's what holds him back from being on Cena's level, let alone Rock and Austin. The fact that no one watches these days also contributes to him not becoming a megastar even though he's been given a superman push for 7 years.

I mean, sure the content of his promos now is way better than when he was a face, but some of his lines still sound so fucking dumb at times. Though I put that on the script than him, but it still hurts his believability. They've also given him some of the worst forced catchphrases. "Show up and win" and "head of the table". Only the "tribal chief" moniker sounds okay, and that was clearly just a throwaway phrase in his first heel promo that Heyman cut which to this day still doesn't make any sense as to why he turned heel.

Roman was an awful promo in his younger days, and pre-heel turn he was meh with a few good moments here and there. The heel turn has given him better content and him having Heyman and Jey as his stooges helped with his presentation, but the same problems I had with his promos in 2016 are still there now. You either have it on the mic or you don't, and I still haven't seen that from him. I don't think he's a 3/10 on the mic, but I don't think he's higher than a 6/10 either. I mean compared to Richochet I guess that makes him the second coming of Ric Flair.

[Casciavit]

Reigns' superman status and credibility built up over the years still carries over to his new heel character, so we're rating him based on a 7 year mega push too, not just a 7 month heel run imo. I don't think he'd be the 'top dog' and his heel work wouldn't be rated as highly if all we saw of him was the last 7 months in a midcard role.

If he turned heel 7 years ago he would have been just been another corporate top heel.

This character wouldn't have even worked if he turned in 2015 after the Rumble. Roman calling himself the top dog makes sense when you know they've been trying to push him as the next Cena since Survivor Series 2013.

Him beating Triple H, Lesnar, Undertaker, and Cena in the previous years and main eventing every Wrestlemania helps sell his shtick as the guy that runs the place. It wouldn't have the same impact if he did this same character back then. Reigns vs Jey was the feud of the year IMO, and that was the feud that sold Reigns' new character. If he didn't have the superman push that he got would Jey fighting for the top spot in the family be as believable? I don't think so. So yeah, I agree with you on that aspect tbh.

[Casciavit]

Also for some reason, I can see Reigns holding the title for another two years. I'm not kidding. Vince probably wants him to enter Wrestlemania as a 1000-day champ against The Rock. Of course Roman would then go over. This will be a reign of terror when it's all said and done.

The thing is if they are trying to give him a +2 year-long title reign they need to lean in more to the gimmick. Why does he dress like he's going to run on a treadmill? Jey Uso being his only stooge is going to get boring, there should probably be an expansion to his stable. Even if they did all of that, I still can't see how it would be entertaining to watch him as a champion for that long. Usually, when there's a long-reigning heel champion it is to give a new top face his coronation, but with Roman, I don't see an end in sight unless he gets injured.

The problem is that he's so far ahead of the other wrestlers right now that I don't think anyone should beat him either. Some smarks suggest Big E which makes me roll my eyes. Drew is boring. Vince seems to have lost faith in Seth as a top guy after the fans turned on him. Roman never loses to legends. So who's it going to be? Lesnar? Vince's wet dream is to have Reigns beat Lesnar with fans cheering for Reigns. He's tried it 4 times and it has never worked. The Rock is too busy with his movie schedule to be champion, so even if they do face-off, you just know Reigns is going over. I just don't see any other option now or in the near future.

[Onyx]

[Casciavit]

Pat Mcafee is so good on commentary.

[Onyx]

Braun and Lana released.

[S]

They hyped up Aleister Black's return only to fire him a week later

AEW should be all in on Braun and Black.

[Pedram]

WTF Braun released? that guy literally looked like Brock Lesnar on steriod

[RealGunner]

Unfortunately the only thing he had was physique. Guy was awful other than that.

[Great Leader Sprucenuce]

They hyped up Aleister Black's return only to fire him a week later

AEW should be all in on Braun and Black.

So dumb lol, they did a load of Vignettes, have him attack Big E and then fire him.

The company is a complete trash fire.

[M99]

Braun is a shocker. He won Universal Championship in Wrestlemania last year. Was in a marquee one on one match this Wrestlemania. Was in the WWE Championship match last PPV.

[Pedram]

Rumor is that Vince is looking to sell the company, would be crazy if true.

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