Post by Clash, Never a Meter Maid on Apr 3, 2022 21:41:10 GMT -5
31: crowd rejects the push, they panic, Seth swoops into the Brock match and wins instead.
32: HHH tries to "make" him and fails horribly by doing a boring HHH slog that plays to HHH's perceived strengths (which are actually weaknesses) instead of Roman's strengths. Match is a bust.
33: beats Undertaker (slightly undermined by Brock having broken the Streak first), gets a real reaction...that they completely fail to capitalize on because they don't turn him heel, which they needed to do for two years running at this point already and even the least observant booker would have seen the money in at this point
34: gets the Brock rematch, still being rejected by the crowd but everyone has been beaten down enough to go into it thinking "OK, fine, just do it, let him win, let's get the moment out of the way"...and he LOSES. And doesn't even turn heel over it. The show just ends with him slowly walking out a loser to a confused crowd. One of the most baffling main event decisions of all time.
37: He's back, finally turned heel, finally doing things people enjoy, proving that they should have done what people had been saying since 31 all along - the downside here is that it instantly became clear this was just a stop in a new death march to a match either a year or two years away against The Rock that probably never happens anyway
38: Finally, all these years and all these main events later, they'll pull the trigger and give Roman his crowning moment while just making it a stepping stone for his new real Crowning Moment next year against The Rock...if it happens. And if it does, I honestly think he's a part timer by the end of WM40, going off to act like Rock and Cena before him, so ALL of this for a guy who's probably ready to find something better to do by the time you get that "Moment".
Imagine if the first Wrestlemania had ended with Orndorff and Piper winning with Piper pinning Mr. T, and Wrestlemania IV ended with Hogan winning the tournament but losing to a returning Piper in the finals, only for Hogan to finally beat Piper at Wrestlemania VI and then going mostly part time himself for another year or two before leaving. That's what Roman's run is going to end up feeling like, I think.
If I go just by WWE canon, there was no coronation after 32. That was it. Everything after that was padding.