Re-booking Roman Reigns.

[mrbananagrabber]

So let's flashback in time. The Shield are still the hottest thing in wrestling. Dean, Seth and Roman are in the ring staring down HHH. He mentions having a "Plan B", and suddenly Seth attacks Roman and Dean with a steel chair. The Shield are no more.

And that's where we are now. In this actual timeline I think Roman Reigns will go down as one of the most recognised busts in the companies history. They desperately want him to be a top star, but he's got instant "aw, f*** this guy" vibes no matter what he's doing.

So we're back to that night, though, and Dean and Seth lying in the ring as Seth walks off with Hunter.

What do we do with Roman?

[The Yes Man]

I'd start with the promo he and Ambrose cut the next week. Ambrose would cut the same awesome promo he did, Roman wouldn't say a word. And he would continue saying nothing for a long time. Not a word. Eventually when the time comes, he will speak, and it'll be short, sweet and effective.

Have the announcers play it like he has a hit list, but since he doesn't talk to anybody but Ambrose nobody really has any idea who he's after next. He just targets members of The Authority. Start with Kane, then Orton. Have Triple H hire somebody to take Reigns on before he can get to him, he beats him, then beats HHH. Then he focuses on Seth. This would be around the time he finally begins go speak a little bit.

[Reflecto]

First off, I'd say the big benefit here would be that the bigger crossroads that sank Roman weren't even at the Plan B moment. It's forgotten about beforehand, but right after the heel turn- Rollins/Ambrose was the premiere feud for the belt, and Roman wasn't exactly hated going after the title right afterwards. Maybe you put him in a feud for the IC or US Title at the time instead, but that's just a personal preference.

The bigger things that hurt Roman, in retrospect, was likely less "the flashback there" and more pointed to two specific crossroads that hurt him, so I'd focus on killing those two:

CROSSROADS 1: Roman having his freak hernia at the worst possible time. If THAT can be changed, that'd do a lot to salvage Roman as a star. Meltzer came right out and said after FastLane "If Roman Reigns wasn't out with his hernia, then Reigns would have been in the spot at Survivor Series '14 that they gave to Dolph Ziggler". Considering that the Survivor Series '14 spot alone where Ziggler came back from 3 on 1 nearly turned an momentumless, non-World Title prospect in Ziggler into a possible main eventer alone when Ziggler did that Survivor Series run? Reigns would have been MADE if he was in that position in the match.

CROSSROADS 2: FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, Do NOT put Daniel Bryan in the 2015 Royal Rumble!!!!!!!!! People didn't think Bryan would be back for the 2015 Rumble anyways going into the match, so no one would be entirely disappointed if Bryan wasn't in the match if they don't know he's been cleared or is even close to being cleared. Since people heard "neck surgery" and "Bryan needed Tommy John surgery", people were assuming Bryan would be out for 1-2 years with these injuries, so you could keep Bryan off TV until after Wrestlemania 31 and give him more time to recuperate, try to rework his style, and get a little more time out of Bryan as a result.

In addition to giving Bryan more time to get to 100%, you also have the other benefit that you have the road clear for Roman Reigns to win the 2015 Rumble. Maybe some people are carrying a torch for Dean Ambrose, Ryback, or (if you didn't do the first one) Dolph Ziggler to win, but Reigns would have had as big a case as any of them to win it and it wouldn't leave the fans DEVASTATED that Daniel Bryan didn't win like it did- and that, more than anything, turned Reigns from a bust because of the non-zero "You wouldn't give us Daniel Bryan, so we will get revenge on you by MAKING Roman Reigns fail!"

[häšhtå.gdālėÿ]

Roman Reigns explodes like R-Truth and McGuyver. All that remains after Seth whacks him is a pair of smoking Shield boots.

Roman Reigns is never seen again, and the WWE is an infinitely better place.

[Rican]

Honestly, the part where it became an unsalvageable mess was when he won the Rumble after getting back from his injury. After being gone so long and not having accomplished much up to that point, to have been thrust into the main event of the biggest show of the year is what pissed people off beyond repair.

He should have been the one to beat Rusev for the US title at WM31, and the main event is the Brock/Bryan match everyone wanted. This gives the fans what they want and keeps their goodwill. Hell, they could have booked literally the same ending with Seth cashing in, making Seth a mega heel. Also in my fantasy timeline Cesaro has been the intercontinental champion for almost a year and has a kick-ass match with Cena at Mania, AND STING WINS. Sorry, got off topic.

Reigns is the one to finally beat Rusev, spends the year in the midcard being a silent badass who just wrecks shit, and wins the Rumble and beats Brock at Wrestlemania 32.

Also, no "suffering succotash"

[TWERKIN' MAGGLE]

Everything the same except he either doesn't win the Rumble in favor of Bryan, or Bryan isn't in the Rumble and comes back the next night. Do not have him face Bryan at Fastlane. He doesn't even look at Bryan until after Mania.

Also no cartoon references.

[Hanzo]

I say just swap him and Daniel Bryan. Have him eliminate Batista and win the 2014 Royal Rumble and win the title at Wrestlemania 30 by beating Orton. Then Bryan has his big title win at Wrestlemania 31 by beating Brock. That's really all I can think of. *shrugs*

[kingoftheindies]

Honestly, as Reflecto mentioned, the injury killed a lot of Reigns momentum. Here's what I would have done after the injury.

1.Romans returns at TLC as the silent badass he had been that was insanely over before injury, but have him confront Rusev after he locks the Accolades on Swagger post match. Have a staredown where neither backs down but Lana convinces Rusev to walk away.

2.Have Rusev be the loan man in the ring at the Rumble, and have Reigns enter and do the staredown. This is the first physical encounter between the 2 (have multple non physical confrontations leading to the Rumble) Have Roman eliminate Rusev, and then Rusev screws him over for Roman to be eliminated.

3.Have a Hart/Austin ending at FastLane to have Rusev go over. Keeps Rusev a monster and makes Reigns look strong. Hard hitting match. Have people looking for a rematch at Mania.

4. Have Roman win the US title at Mania. Have it be another hard hitting match where both are barely able to stand.

5.Rubber match between Rusev and Reigns at Extreme Rules. Let's have it be a true feud ending match... say a last man standing match (instead of the one he had with Big Show).

6.Keep Roman has the 4th man in the fatal 4 way. No need to change that.

7. Have a US title defense against someone like Sheamus at Elimination Chamber.

8. Do the same Money in the Bank angle where Bray Wyatt screws Roman from getting the Briefcase

9.Bray Wyatt wins the US title from Roman w/ help from Luke Harper.

10. Have the same Ambrose/Reigns vs Wyatts tag. At Summerslam.

11. Have Roman challenge Bray for the US title at Night of Champions, but have a now debuting Braun Strowman screw him out of the title.

12.Now you have Bray vs Roman in the Cell, but somehow have Harper/Strowman and a returning Erik Rowan screw Reigns over.

13.Classic Survivor Series Match between Roman/Ambrose/Usos vs Wyatts where Roman is sole survivor. With Rollins injured let's say the final ends up being Ziggler vs Owens and Sheamus cashing in on Ziggler instead of Reigns.

14.TLC have Roman finally get a title shot at Sheamus with the caveat this is his only shot no matter what. Have Brock return and just lay waste to both. Brock now challenges Sheamus at the Rumble, and Roman now has motivation to win the Rumble as part of the contract for his title show is he doesn't get another shot.

15.Brock destroys Sheamus to win the title at the Rumble while Roman wins the Rumble itself.

16.Fastlane- Just have an in ring confrontation but no match for either Brock or Roman.

17.Roman dethrones Brock at Mania.

Takes over a year for Roman to get the title, but based how things went, I think that's a better option than what they did and probably feels more organic as well. Gives you a 5 month feud with Rusev with only 3 of them being matches, a 6 month feud with Wyatt where again you can build sympathy for Roman and give him monsters to destroy, and then 4 months to build to Roman/Brock. Not perfect by any means but I think it'd work

[EoE: Well There's Your Problem]

Oct 26, 2016 21:44:58 GMT -5 Hanzo said:

I say just swap him and Daniel Bryan. Have him eliminate Batista and win the 2014 Royal Rumble and win the title at Wrestlemania 30 by beating Orton. Then Bryan has his big title win at Wrestlemania 31 by beating Brock. That's really all I can think of. *shrugs*

I wouldn't recommend it. Reigns was over in that finish not necessarily for being Reigns, but for being "not Batista". Jinder Mahal would have gotten chants in that scenario.

As it pertains to post-Shield breakup, do it as they actually did it until he's scheduled to return from the hernia. Hold that off until the Rumble, which means he avoids doing those two massively-hampering "beanstalk" and "succotash" promos that really set back his goodwill. Weekly vignettes only. At the same time, hold off BRYAN'S return until the Rumble, but as a complete surprise.

Rumble goes on, as it does, until Reigns enters late 20s. Dudes remaining include Rusev, Big Show, Kane, Ziggler and Wyatt (Ambrose is the odd man out, unfortunately). Reigns eliminates Big Show and Kane pretty much straight away, and then he eliminates Rusev. Reigns stares down Wyatt as the last heel standing at the time, but Rusev ambushes him and throws him over to eliminate him from the match. Brawl to the back to build heat for a US Championship match.

Wyatt and Ziggler brawl for a bit, exchange finishers and such until Wyatt eliminates him. He's the only one in the match, but he hasn't won yet, because #30 hasn't entered yet... Bryan. I think you might know where I'm headed with this.

So Bryan wins and gets the world title shot at WM31 against Lesnar. Reigns goes against Rusev and wins the US belt there. From there, Triple H/Sting, Undertaker/Cena, etc. form the foundation of the WM card. Might end up with a ton more goodwill in the preparation for a run at the world belt at WM32.

[carp (SPC, Itoh Respect Army)]

I honestly don't think there's a way to do it. The seeds for a Reigns backlash were planted long before the Shield split up. WWE fans are very familiar with situations where a big guy with The Look is pushed over vanilla midgets, and I think it would have happened no matter what.

[Deleted]

Go through the Reigns push as is but turn him heel the night after WM31. Say the fans hated on him and he's sick of it. Just let him loose and you're good.

[Deleted]

Take a page out of the Bill Goldberg playbook, and have him just lay people out week after week in his pursuit of the authority. No babygirl, no Sufferin Succatash... just one pissed off man out for revenge on those who wronged him. It's a character trope older than dirt, yet they still can't see it. The people cheering for Roman didn't want his comedy, they wanted him tearing through the WWE like the Terminator to kick the heels' asses.

[Rolent Tex]

Oct 27, 2016 1:06:28 GMT -5 @hedm2005 said:

Take a page out of the Bill Goldberg playbook, and have him just lay people out week after week in his pursuit of the authority. No babygirl, no Sufferin Succatash... just one pissed off man out for revenge on those who wronged him. It's a character trope older than dirt, yet they still can't see it. The people cheering for Roman didn't want his comedy, they wanted him tearing through the WWE like the Terminator to kick the heels' asses.

This. Ambrose makes Rollin's life a living hell while Reignd makes it his mission to annihilate the Authority from the face of the Earth. First thing he does is to punch Trips in his giant schnozz.

[Deleted]

Try some other places and see if that helps, perhaps lesser used ones like Yemenese, Micronese, or Azerbaijan Reigns.

[King Devitt]

Keep him as the silent badass, as others have stated. How do you mess that up? And the dude was pulling it off perfectly. But no, Vince only knows how to book a top face to be like other top faces, and not play to their strengths.

I'd slow build him. Don't put him in the title match months after The Shield broke up. Give him a win streak, but let him get experience with a veteran or two.

Then roll around to WM time, and have him be the one to dethrone Rusev as U.S. Champion, and end his undefeated streak. Cena didn't need it. It was the epitome of CENAWINSLOL.
Have Roman hold on to the title for a long time, he can even do the U.S. Open Challenge angle, which would build him as a badass that will fight anyone.

How you mess up Roman Reigns is beyond me. He could have been a legit main eventer the fans cheered unanimously if you keep him in beast mode.
The dudes will want to cheer a badass guy, the women and kids would still like him, and hell keep him look strong (and with a natural build) and in a couple years the showdown with Lesnar would be insane. He'd be seen as a legit threat to conquer the conqueror.

So much lost potential.
He can be salvaged, but not until someone not named Vince McMahon books him.
Hell Hunter wanted to turn him heel ages ago, by y'know...this weird thing called listening to the fans.