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Post by Hit Girl on Feb 28, 2015 3:30:55 GMT -5
Nowhere near ready. It's all at least a year too early.
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Post by Kevin Hamilton on Feb 28, 2015 10:14:01 GMT -5
Had the injury not cost him months, it'd be interesting to see if he'd be further along; both in booking and crowd acceptance.
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Post by Hypnosis on Feb 28, 2015 10:20:37 GMT -5
Another thing that's been mentioned before: He's the only Shield member that hasn't let go of his Shield character like Ambrose and Rollins did. Reigns still does the Shield entrance, still wears the SWAT gear, and has a remixed version of the theme.
Also, his promos need to be kept short, and could use some conditioning for longer matches.
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Post by Deadman Inc on Feb 28, 2015 10:20:52 GMT -5
He looked gased and was totally carried by DB at Fastlane. He isn't near polished enough on the mic. He reminds me alot of Resthold-Randy era Orton. I think the fans are gonna crap all over this, and this title run is gonna be a big flop.
Personally, I think it would be funny to see people chant "We want Cena" just to show how displeased they are with it all.
Additionally, I think it's going to be extra stupid when Reigns wins, and people are chanting for Seth...and then he inevitably fails. So there can be 2 pushes crushed by Reigns' ascent.
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Post by cabbageboy on Feb 28, 2015 10:23:05 GMT -5
I've said this several times but the dude needs a US title run or something. Before pushing him to the main event I'd at least want to see how he handles a secondary title run. Because right now it's like he went from 1/3 of a group to somehow main eventing WM in less than a year, and has had few singles matches of any regard since. There are eerie parallels to Diesel here but even Nash got a token IC title run before they even thought of a world title push.
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Post by HMARK Center on Feb 28, 2015 11:34:49 GMT -5
It's tough to describe what counts as "ready" in pro wrestling, since circumstances vary so much between eras, companies, etc. That said, I do think WWE has a bad habit of giving guys they like kayfabe accomplishments, thinking it'll get the crowd, now thoroughly smartened up to the business (well, "smart" is a stretch of some of us lunatics, but you get the point ), to accept their chosen one. I think back to 2004 era Randy Orton; I remember thinking he was dull as hell, and didn't have that much going for him beyond his look and potential, but by mid 2004 it was clear he was their new pet project. In Orton's defense, though, he was coming off a pretty damn successful feud with Foley and run as the Legend Killer, and the crowd had begun to come around to him increasingly over 2004. Here's the thing, though; people didn't start accepting Orton just because he won the feud against Foley, they didn't get on his side just because of his IC title run, etc. Instead, Orton got over because he was put in those situations and actually managed to pull them off well; I still didn't have much use for him, but clearly a lot of other people did. He was STILL given the World Title way too early, but at least there were some reasons to say "Ok, he's our guy, he handled this feud and angle well, time to pull the trigger and see what we've got". Reigns has plenty of kayfabe accomplishments (eliminating 4 guys in a Survivor Series match, most Rumble eliminations, all that jazz), but have any of them happened in a consistently well executed way that led to prolonged positive crowd reactions? You gave him the accomplishments, but was the execution there to fully get him over? Again, Orton was pushed too early, but at least the crowd had started to come around to him by SummerSlam; like it said in Meltzer's piece in the Observer, the World Title push didn't work out that time, but it was reasonable to say "the crowd is ready for this guy, let's see how it goes". Reigns is being pushed too early, has the kayfabe accolades, but the crowd hadn't come around to him to that level at all. I wouldn't even rag on him too badly for having to be carried; it's ok to experiment with very over guys if the crowd's reacting well to them, even if they're incapable of carrying a great match on their own. But you NEED the crowd behind you, you NEED a connection that goes beyond "look at these kayfabe accomplishments, that counts for something, right?"
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Post by This Player Hating Mothman on Feb 28, 2015 11:50:18 GMT -5
I think he's more ready than I initially thought. A lot of his shortcomings have been against people who really aren't exactly great fits for him (Big Show's Show, and Kane's winding down). Against Bryan, I think he looked a lot less unprepared, and Brock's such a spectacle that I think it should probably be fine. You don't have to get too creative to do a Brock match, he's such a monster but also rather versatile. But it begs the question of, "And then what?" Even if he and Lesnar can pull off an interesting match, that leaves Reigns holding a title where his only good pay-per-view singles matches involved being carried by Bryan and the spectacle of Brock. If he won't be able to hold his own against other contenders who he'll be more exposed against, then he isn't ready.
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Woo
Hank Scorpio
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Post by Woo on Feb 28, 2015 11:52:00 GMT -5
It seems that there's a small number of wrestling fans that seem to think that most of the WWE Universe not wanting Roman Reigns to headline Wrestlemania has something to do with Bryan. Let me tell you now, it doesn't. Most WWE fans like Roman, but know that if he was pushed too fast, too soon before his wrestling and promo skills are good enough he'll be ruined. They had a chance to make Roman into an Hogan or Warrior beloved babyface, but instead they are turning him into Cena or Luger i.e. someone who will never be completely over as a babyface.
It just remains to be seen if whether they will continue to push him for years despite him not connecting to the majority of their audience, like Cena, or whether they will abort it like Luger. I think they will go all-out Cena with him, but it's a shame they weren't patient enough to wait a while and have him be fully accepted by the fans.
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Johnny Flamingo
Hank Scorpio
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Post by Johnny Flamingo on Feb 28, 2015 15:03:54 GMT -5
Yes, solid in the ring and good when he can be the silent badass like he was originally booked with short, sweat promos. Can definitely hold his own in the ring enough to main event.
just a victim of bad booking.
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Sephiroth
Wade Wilson
Surviving
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Post by Sephiroth on Feb 28, 2015 15:15:55 GMT -5
At this stage, no. He's far from horrible, but his ring ability is not up to scratch yet. He's also not had enough time to be built up as a title challenger, owing to his time out for injuries. And in too of all that, the state of the roster does not hold promise for a very good title reign; the only plausible scenario is Rollins cashing in, otherwise WWE has pretty much painted themselves into a corner by failing to build anyone else who could make a potentially good title challenger. Pretty much it looks set to be the dull monotony of Cena's Superman run all over again.
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Post by xCompackx on Feb 28, 2015 15:15:48 GMT -5
I don't really see a good answer to whether someone's "ready" to main event any show since a good main event is way more than just one wrestler's skill in the ring. I mean if you think about it, Roman Reigns nor Brock Lesnar have very much control over whether WrestleMania 31's main event turns out good or not in terms of crowd interest and creative, and you'll still have people claiming Roman wasn't ready when it's over.
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AFN: Judge Shred
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
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Post by AFN: Judge Shred on Feb 28, 2015 15:31:38 GMT -5
It isn't Cesaro, that is the real problem.
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FAR5222
El Dandy
Counted 237 Bros. SWERVE Got no cookie for it.
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Post by FAR5222 on Feb 28, 2015 15:33:58 GMT -5
No. He's never been ready in my eyes. WWE killed good will the moment Survivor Series 2013 happened. And then he was the only one to beat CM Punk from his group and then the Rumble record breaking elminations.
I think most here see through this bullshit and not even a full two years in the dude was already breaking kayfabe records like nothing.
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tms
Don Corleone
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Post by tms on Feb 28, 2015 17:03:49 GMT -5
It isn't Cesaro, that is the real problem. If he had half of Cesaro's talent and was half as over as Cesaro was at last year's Wrestlemania, it'd be fine. The fact Cesaro's in no man's land while Reigns is getting this superhuman push is what makes things ridiculous. One lost all of his momentum while the other was given the rub in every way imaginable.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2015 17:16:58 GMT -5
If you look at it from a big picture/booking standpoint, hell yeah he's ready. Since debuting in late 2012, he's been absolutely dominant. A lot of that was part of a team, but he was usually the one getting the pin or at least the killing blow, was very rarely the one eating the pin, and he's lost like 1 singles match. He's arguably the strongest booked wrestler in WWE, after Lesnar of course.
Once you start picking at his actual skills and the timing of it all, it gets muddy. But he's definitely been built up strongly enough.
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Post by Milkman Norm on Feb 28, 2015 20:35:28 GMT -5
He's not nearly over to the level I think he would need to be to really be a long term headliner. Wrestlemania sells it self and he'll get a good reaction for his celebration but beyond that I see him crashing and burning. He really should have been packaged as a heel and then turned face down the road once he'd gotten over.
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AFN: Judge Shred
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
Wanted to change his doohicky.
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Post by AFN: Judge Shred on Feb 28, 2015 20:45:45 GMT -5
He's not nearly over to the level I think he would need to be to really be a long term headliner. Wrestlemania sells it self and he'll get a good reaction for his celebration but beyond that I see him crashing and burning. He really should have been packaged as a heel and then turned face down the road once he'd gotten over. Yep, he needed that Batista Evolution moment.
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Post by TheSchattenjager on Feb 28, 2015 21:41:05 GMT -5
My only problem with Reigns is that he's such a bad talker. Lesnar has Heyman, but other than him, I want my main event players to be able to talk.
It's the same reason I don't see Cesaro and Ziggler deserving a push beyond the midcard.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2015 22:32:19 GMT -5
Roman isn't even good at headlining Raw.
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