What is the actual rationale behind not turning Reigns heel?
Apr 17, 2018 6:02:38 GMT -5
segaz and Nosnorb like this
Post by rocnsoc88 on Apr 17, 2018 6:02:38 GMT -5
I know this gets brought up a lot, but what the hell is the reasoning at all at this point, besides pure stubbornness?
-It can’t be merch sales, because he’s supposedly neck-and-neck with AJ for second to Cena. And I’d argue that might actually be something of an indictment of Reigns since he’s been pushed so strongly as “the guy” for three years now, whereas AJ has been at the top of the “B-show” and Cena has barely been on TV at all.
-And the reasoning can’t possibly be “well, any reaction is a good reaction”. That reasoning is already idiotic as it is, but that has gone out the window recently. The Wrestlemania main event got the worst kind of reaction that one can realistically get. There’s an eternal debate about what is the worst kind of reaction to get from a crowd: complete apathy and silence or just constant heckling of the entire match. The Wrestlemania main event got the worst of both worlds where the audience just sat on their hands for all of the nearfalls, and whenever they were actually engaged they were chanting “this is awful”, “boring”, “we want Nicholas” and so on. For all the flawed reasoning behind keeping Cena babyface all these years, at least the rationale made some kind of twisted logical sense in that the crowd was always engaged by him whether they’re cheering or booing. And Raw went to Hartford, Connecticut tonight and there was almost constant go-away heat during his entire promo in a way that has never been the case for Cena.
-Both rosters have an abundance of babyfaces and a dearth of credible main event heels. On Raw, there’s Samoa Joe and Lesnar, and Reigns is feuding with them already so he will obviously be done with them in a month or two. Owens has been done to death, and then you’ve got the likes of Elias, Corbin, or Zayn who arguably don’t really have the credibility right now to be in a main event program. I can’t see Reigns going to Smackdown, but even there there’s pretty much just Nakamura, Miz (also done to death) and whatever Shelton is doing.
-Even the idea that he “looks and feels” like a credible main eventer with a great “IT factor” is starting to get worn out in my opinion. He's begun to look less in shape and more soft and puffy lately (funny how that happens after a wellness violation) and his promos have not been getting better lately. I’d argue that they've been outright terrible the last couple of weeks.
-Finally, the guy is not even remotely likeable. Tonight, for example, he gave one of the most tone-deaf promos I’ve ever seen when he called Samoa Joe “fat and lazy”. Seriously? Right when WWE is running an anti-bullying storyline where Alexa has called Nia these same things in a way to successfully get heel heat, Reigns goes that low and fat shames a dude when he’s supposed to be a babyface.
Any logic has just run out for me at this point for why he’s still a babyface. I don’t get it. Am I missing a bigger reasoning here? And I want to hear from Reigns fans who actually like him: why is him as a babyface appealing to you?
-It can’t be merch sales, because he’s supposedly neck-and-neck with AJ for second to Cena. And I’d argue that might actually be something of an indictment of Reigns since he’s been pushed so strongly as “the guy” for three years now, whereas AJ has been at the top of the “B-show” and Cena has barely been on TV at all.
-And the reasoning can’t possibly be “well, any reaction is a good reaction”. That reasoning is already idiotic as it is, but that has gone out the window recently. The Wrestlemania main event got the worst kind of reaction that one can realistically get. There’s an eternal debate about what is the worst kind of reaction to get from a crowd: complete apathy and silence or just constant heckling of the entire match. The Wrestlemania main event got the worst of both worlds where the audience just sat on their hands for all of the nearfalls, and whenever they were actually engaged they were chanting “this is awful”, “boring”, “we want Nicholas” and so on. For all the flawed reasoning behind keeping Cena babyface all these years, at least the rationale made some kind of twisted logical sense in that the crowd was always engaged by him whether they’re cheering or booing. And Raw went to Hartford, Connecticut tonight and there was almost constant go-away heat during his entire promo in a way that has never been the case for Cena.
-Both rosters have an abundance of babyfaces and a dearth of credible main event heels. On Raw, there’s Samoa Joe and Lesnar, and Reigns is feuding with them already so he will obviously be done with them in a month or two. Owens has been done to death, and then you’ve got the likes of Elias, Corbin, or Zayn who arguably don’t really have the credibility right now to be in a main event program. I can’t see Reigns going to Smackdown, but even there there’s pretty much just Nakamura, Miz (also done to death) and whatever Shelton is doing.
-Even the idea that he “looks and feels” like a credible main eventer with a great “IT factor” is starting to get worn out in my opinion. He's begun to look less in shape and more soft and puffy lately (funny how that happens after a wellness violation) and his promos have not been getting better lately. I’d argue that they've been outright terrible the last couple of weeks.
-Finally, the guy is not even remotely likeable. Tonight, for example, he gave one of the most tone-deaf promos I’ve ever seen when he called Samoa Joe “fat and lazy”. Seriously? Right when WWE is running an anti-bullying storyline where Alexa has called Nia these same things in a way to successfully get heel heat, Reigns goes that low and fat shames a dude when he’s supposed to be a babyface.
Any logic has just run out for me at this point for why he’s still a babyface. I don’t get it. Am I missing a bigger reasoning here? And I want to hear from Reigns fans who actually like him: why is him as a babyface appealing to you?
