From a business perspective, Reigns's booking makes no sense

[Urethra Franklin]

Admittedly, I don't have an MBA or anything and I don't own a business, but the booking of Roman Reigns puzzles me.

We can agree that the WWE is a bottom line-driven business. If we work with this understanding, then it's logical to presume that every decision is based on making the company as profitable as possible.

Roman Reigns has been identified as a guy the company would like to turn into a top star. Because of this, he was selected to win the Royal Rumble. The opportunity to headline WrestleMania should be something to further cement a wrestler's standing as a credible star.

The problem is, Reigns hasn't been taken to as quickly as the company intends. Whether it's that he's too green or that he can't talk or that he's overpushed, the fans have rejected Reigns.

Now, you can say that the fans have crapped on guys in the past, like Reigns's cousin, the Rock, for example, but this didn't happen when the guy in question was being positioned as the centrepiece of the company.

So all the signs were in place foretelling that Reigns would be rejected and there were a number of alternative solutions available (Bryan, Ziggler and Ambrose)that were more palatable to the consumer, yet the company chose to go ahead with the option that will seemingly hurt Reigns's long-term earning potential.

Let's forget about Reigns from a narrative perspective and look at strictly from a business one: How is this not a decision that is completely counter-intuitive to improving business?

[kidglov3s]

I like the idea that an MBA is essential for solid wrestling booking.

[Magic knows Black Lives Matter]

Because Vince is more aroused by guys with good looks than money.

[Deleted]

It makes sense from no perspective. Well, maybe if you only care about how someone looks but that's about it. Everything else Reigns doesn't have.

[Deleted]

This is a company that has done, and will continue to do, things to SPITE its core audience.

If they don't like what you like, then you're f***ed.
If you don't like what they like... well, we just have to wait and see if we get a rehash of last year's fiasco.

[Tea & Crumpets]

Because why cash in on a big asset in Daniel Bryan NOW, and then let Roman Reigns become a huge asset in a year or 2's time, when you can try force all the popularity onto Roman Reigns as soon as possible and have all your eggs in one basket, before the basket's even finished being made.

Even if he was my least favourite in the Shield I still love Reigns, but he is so far off ready, while the crowd are begging to give WWE money for Daniel Bryan. I genuinely thought last year that overlooking DB WAS intentional, was a plan to get him into the main event, was blurring kayfabe in a clever way. This has made it clear that no, it wasn't, Vince or HHH or both just really don't want Bryan to make them money, and would rather lose that money than have Bryan turn a profit ahead of Their Guys.

[Bo Rida]

The stupid thing is a match with HHH to end the authority would probably have gone down well, could have included The Rock naturally (especially given their Smackdown segment) and I'm sure it could have been done in way that hides any weaknesses that Reigns has. At the end Reigns still gets his star making moment but hopefully in a way that doesn't turn people against him.

Then do Bryan, Ziggler or Ambrose vs Brock and you have two money matches.

Plus the Undertaker's streak was sacrificed to build Brock and to a lesser degree the big moment of Cena being squashed.I think those two things are more valuable than a poorly received Roman Reigns. Maybe months of missing money from a champion drawing money while Brock was missing too.

So the prestige of WWE title, The Streak, the attraction of the rumble, Cena, various records, the rise of several other wrestlers and probably more have gone into this match, will it really be worth it?

[cabbageboy]

Roman Reigns winning the title at WM this year would be like if Andrew Luck won the Super Bowl last year with the Colts. As in the guy might be The Man in 2-3 years but clearly isn't right now (but then maybe a not ready Luck would be better than what the NFL did book, haha).

WWE has had this wild hair to push Reigns for a while now, but right now the guy is ready to be the US champ or something. Not the WWE champion. I do wonder if the Slammy Awards were fixed now, since how else can one explain Reigns winning Superstar of the Year one month and then getting completely crapped on the next? Of course in the past month we have seen him have several crappy matches and cut some of the worst promos on earth, but it does make you wonder.

[Deleted]

Jan 26, 2015 13:39:56 GMT -5 Urethra Franklin said:

Admittedly, I don't have an MBA or anything and I don't own a business, but the booking of Roman Reigns puzzles me.

We can agree that the WWE is a bottom line-driven business.

Nope, we can't. WWE isn't a company. WWE is a feudal state. Vince doesn't care about making money. He cares about stroking his ego, exploiting his subjects, making insane grabs for power (Linda and the Senate) and maintaining his authority even at his own expense.

To anyone who studies history or polisci, want a good case study of why absolute monarchies are (mostly) a thing of the past? Look no further than WWE.

[Hit Girl]

The only sense that matters to Vince right now is that tinging sensation he feels in his groin area whenever he sees Roman's arms.

[Lancers]

Vince trusts his business acumen over what people on the internet write. He can pass it off as sour grapes or bitter losers who are just jealous of his and his company's success.

It's one thing when you had message boards clamoring for Christian in 2005 to dethrone Cena (think about that....people were already turning on Cena TEN YEARS AGO), but that community was infinitesimal. They were merely drifting snow in a gust of wind. Now with Reddit, Facebook and Twitter becoming an assembly of a much larger community of wrestling fans connecting together expressing their opinions, it's turned into a f***ing avalanche that this company can't just brush off as a loud minority.

It's why embracing social media is a two-way street. It can be advantageous at times, but when things go south, it can be horrific like last night. And that negativity can spread into mainstream media outlets like it did today with a few legitimate news sites picking up on it and reporting the fan backlash.

Vince and the WWE must concede that the internet is a pivotal function of the wrestling business these days. You're not gonna please everyone obviously, but it doesn't mean you force feed them your identified talent either. They have the talent to appease their fans. They just don't value them the way their audience does.

[SAJ Forth]

Jan 26, 2015 14:20:56 GMT -5 Bo Rida said:

The stupid thing is a match with HHH to end the authority would probably have gone down well, could have included The Rock naturally (especially given their Smackdown segment) and I'm sure it could have been done in way that hides any weaknesses that Reigns has. At the end Reigns still gets his star making moment but hopefully in a way that doesn't turn people against him.

Then do Bryan, Ziggler or Ambrose vs Brock and you have two money matches.

Plus the Undertaker's streak was sacrificed to build Brock and to a lesser degree the big moment of Cena being squashed.I think those two things are more valuable than a poorly received Roman Reigns. Maybe months of missing money from a champion drawing money while Brock was missing too.

So the prestige of WWE title, The Streak, the attraction of the rumble, Cena, various records, the rise of several other wrestlers and probably more have gone into this match, will it really be worth it?

It's their strange nature. They try to cram all that together to make some sort of UnderBrockCenaChampionship out of Reigns. Thinking Undertaker's streak, Lesnar, Cena, and the WWE World Heavyweight Championship all combined instantly makes him the biggest name in wrestling, only to find it just makes him the most overrated on-air talent today.

[trollrogue]

It's very odd, at a certain point after Bryan was eliminated, I figured once Reigns hit the ring and you could tell (even though he entered through the people) that NOBODY was behind him in the arena, that they put other entrants in to 'test' for Plan B/C/etc. Rumble winners. I counted at least 3 or 4 Superstars that actually broke through the crowd's apathy and got fans cheering again in spite of losing out on the chance to see DB be hotshotted to 'Mania: Mizdow, Rusev, and Ziggler.

Mizdow came out and when he belayed The Miz's orders to give up his spot, I was hoping Mizdow's unprecedented popularity and overwhelming support in pretty much every arena he does his gimmick at (added to the fact that Sandow won the MITB contract and has always been due a shot in the Main Event, or at the very least the same opportunities that Swagger has gotten at the ME scene) would make him a darkhorse 'Plan B' winner. If Reigns gets half/or near-universal boos (the latter was true) they should have let Mizdow get a fluke victory similar to how Rusev almost won.

Speaking of Rusev, when your entire audience clearly chants for 'WE WANT RUSEV' aka 'WE WANT THE ANTI-AMERICAN EVIL DUDE!' over your handpicked 'guy' after he fake-wins the Rumble, that is the very reason why you have a Plan B (or this one is actually Plan C for my scenario).

If Rusev and Mizdow were 'too green' (and Reigns isn't?) then you could've ALWAYS given it to Ziggler. He just only came back from a very high-profile firing, has the entire WWE audience on his side (as well as Sting for some ambiguously-gay reason) and would be a great hero to oppose the Authority seeing as how he (not the injured Reigns) has been battling them for months. I guess I just don't understand the booking playbook, and when people are told to go 'off book' and call audibles in case it's clear that the audience (or a random in-ring injury) will derail the success of an event.

But it's clear that aside from a few NXT matches and the ONS PPVs I have never witnessed a WWE live event, especially a PPV, where the main event match has been completed torn apart and despised by paying fans in the audience as much as the Royal Rumble 2015 main event. They should really think about more than just giving Zack Ryder and DDP a quick payday when they have a potential 30-person pool of 'Plan Bs' to choose from in the case that their Golden Boy of the year gets an unfavorable live response (unless he's a heel).

[Reflecto]

Jan 26, 2015 14:20:47 GMT -5 Tea & Crumpets said:

Because why cash in on a big asset in Daniel Bryan NOW, and then let Roman Reigns become a huge asset in a year or 2's time, when you can try force all the popularity onto Roman Reigns as soon as possible and have all your eggs in one basket, before the basket's even finished being made.

Even if he was my least favourite in the Shield I still love Reigns, but he is so far off ready, while the crowd are begging to give WWE money for Daniel Bryan. I genuinely thought last year that overlooking DB WAS intentional, was a plan to get him into the main event, was blurring kayfabe in a clever way. This has made it clear that no, it wasn't, Vince or HHH or both just really don't want Bryan to make them money, and would rather lose that money than have Bryan turn a profit ahead of Their Guys.

Again, like I'll say a few times- this is endgame for the big business failure: Having Lesnar be The One last year.

Right now, the WWE has an asset like Daniel Bryan (who is a big asset, but more specifically, the more adversity is thrown in Bryan's way, the BIGGER an asset Bryan becomes.) They have Roman Reigns, who's an effective building block now, but has the potential to become a huge asset, and other potential Rumble winners were lesser building blocks (Ambrose, Ziggler, Rusev, Ryback.)

By contrast, the WWE only have a few things in their arsenal that can be conclusively proven to make wrestlers a bigger asset in the company right now:

-Adversity (in Daniel Bryan's case- and potentially in other smark darling's cases). The more they hold off on one, the more people NEED it.
-A feud with John Cena.
-The NXT Women's Championship (the only title, at this moment, which is guaranteed to turn its holder into more of an asset.)
-The Money in the Bank briefcase.
-Beating Brock Lesnar.

The problem with Beating Brock Lesnar was, a win over Brock Lesnar would make someone a big asset regardless. However, when Lesnar beat The Undertaker last year, they strengthened that asset to "you beat him, you're instantly a star" level- but Brock Lesnar already WAS at that point, meaning they wasted The Streak- the ONE win that, undisputedly, would make the person who did it an icon- on someone who was already a huge asset.

Now, at the endgame, you have Brock Lesnar, who's a huge asset- and who getting a win over him MAKES YOU a huge asset. Lesnar's contract expires and he's walking away after Mania, so you need to cash in right now. Of the two- Roman Reigns, Rusev, and Ryback are the only two building block-level assets where adversity plays no part in making them a bigger asset (and for a Ziggler/Ambrose/Bryan type, who thrive and become bigger stars on adversity, becoming the man that beat Brock Lesnar would mean they will cease to have adversity matter to them forever- no matter what else happens in their career after that, they will always be "The Man That Beat Brock Lesnar"- so they'd also be "How can you say WWE is burying him? HE BEAT BROCK LESNAR CLEAN AT MANIA 31! Does he have to be John Cena to make you accept he's not being buried, or does he have to become a legitimate A-Lister like The Rock to make it clear to you he's absolutely a star?")

All three of these assets are WWE main roster men, so none of them can use the NXT Women's Title to become an asset. Likewise, Seth Rollins has the MITB briefcase, which has made him a big asset.

Rusev has been given the feud with John Cena to enhance him as an asset. (This also was given to Ryback when HE was a huge asset, but it backfired terribly and destroyed his value.)

That leaves the win over Brock Lesnar, and Roman Reigns and Ryback as the only two assets that could increase in value from the win. Of the two, Reigns is a more valuable asset with more potential to be a huge asset than Ryback (as seen from how Ryback was given the Cena feud, turning him from 'huge asset' to "virtually worthless" in six months.)

Therefore, from a business perspective- even if Reigns is not 100% ready yet, the nature of the Streak being ended by Lesnar, taking away a surefire way to make a new star, made it so Reigns HAS to be tried a year too early, just to beat Lesnar.

[CATCH_US IS the Conversation]

Jan 26, 2015 13:42:25 GMT -5 Magic knows Black Lives Matter said:

Because Vince is more aroused by guys with good looks than money.

Bryan, Ziggler, and Ambrose all have good looks too.

[HMARK Center]

Nothing about the current situation makes any sense. It would be fine if they weren't clearly prepping Reigns to become the biggest name in the company; if he's gonna headline Mania and potentially dethrone Lesnar, the biggest monster in all of wrestling after the events of 2014, then it's clear that Reigns is meant to be the WWEs new standard bearer. But since that's what's happening, fans can sense it, and know that there's been nothing to justify it.

The guy isn't the most over face on the roster; he's not the best worker, and far from the best talker; he has not had more than a couple of PPV singles matches, and no particular singles feuds of note; and to make matters worse, Daniel Bryan is still around getting titanic reactions from crowds across America, the types of reactions you can use to justify making Bryan this generation's Cena.

Yet, here he is, ready to knock down the single most threatening character WWE has probably ever had, an instant megastar-making moment, with almost no buildup whatsoever. That's...odd.

Others have made this point, but imagine Vince simply saying "No, the fans don't get Austin as the main character, they'll get Rocky Maivia and LIKE it." Perhaps even more analogous, think of Verne Gagne having Hulk Hogan ready to explode into pop culture after Rocky III, but refusing to crown him "the man" in AWA. The WWE is telling its fanbase "we know you're giving Bryan the biggest reactions and want him to lead the company, but, well, too bad, here's a guy who's clearly not ready, instead." Have they ever done that before?

[Rolent Tex]

Jan 26, 2015 15:31:05 GMT -5 Lancers said:

Vince trusts his business acumen over what people on the internet write. He can pass it off as sour grapes or bitter losers who are just jealous of his and his company's success.

It's one thing when you had message boards clamoring for Christian in 2005 to dethrone Cena (think about that....people were already turning on Cena TEN YEARS AGO), but that community was infinitesimal. They were merely drifting snow in a gust of wind. Now with Reddit, Facebook and Twitter becoming an assembly of a much larger community of wrestling fans connecting together expressing their opinions, it's turned into a f***ing avalanche that this company can't just brush off as a loud minority.

It's why embracing social media is a two-way street. It can be advantageous at times, but when things go south, it can be horrific like last night. And that negativity can spread into mainstream media outlets like it did today with a few legitimate news sites picking up on it and reporting the fan backlash.

Vince and the WWE must concede that the internet is a pivotal function of the wrestling business these days. You're not gonna please everyone obviously, but it doesn't mean you force feed them your identified talent either. They have the talent to appease their fans. They just don't value them the way their audience does.

I didn't want Christian to beat Cena because I was turning on Cena. I wanted Christian to win because Captain Charisma was the shit. Tyson...give me a beat!

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

Business wise WWE has made dumb decisions for years.

Some argue and white fairly that arena crowd reaction is not a perfect measure of who moves the needle.

But even taking that out of account look at how badly they have handled things before.

They got a 750k buyrate for InVasion, based on two WCW stars and a shitload of scrubs. Imagine the numbers if they had sucked it up and bought out just ONE of the WCW guys, and actually let WCW be a threat instead of booked largely like goobers. Even if they did it after InVasion once they had the money. It would have been the hottest angle of all time and done gangbusters numbers. But nope. WWE are all too frequently petty idiots when they should be businessmen.

[Dang!]

Jan 27, 2015 2:50:38 GMT -5 CATCH_US IS the Conversation said:

Jan 26, 2015 13:42:25 GMT -5 Magic knows Black Lives Matter said:

Because Vince is more aroused by guys with good looks than money.

Bryan, Ziggler, and Ambrose all have good looks too.

Not from the mindset of whoever decided to put Reigns in the Cena spot:
-Bryan is too small and vanilla for a WWE megastar
-Ziggler is okay, maybe they think the Mr.Perfect look is outdated
-Ambrose has an okay body, but he's balding

Reigns has a unique look and someone in WWE is gay for that. Maybe that person also thinks that Reigns will grow into the role of WWE figurehead and be their next mega star. I doubt it.

[YAKMAN is ICHIBAN]

Jan 26, 2015 13:40:56 GMT -5 kidglov3s said:

I like the idea that an MBA is essential for solid wrestling booking.

What do you think the B stands for?