Quote:
Originally Posted by DAMN iNATOR
You think you might have missed just a little bit of time there, slugger? How about you start closer to where the shit hit the fan, like, let's say Royal Rumble (2015). Take us through let's say Survivor Series.
Please explain to all us plebes how forcing a guy like Reigns on the fans starting at Royal Rumble 2015 and not booking him like they have been in the past week and a half or two weeks was such ingenious booking.
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I don't think he was forced. I think Rumble 15 was an unfortunate set of circumstances and mis step in booking. Reigns was hot in The Shield, and was a logical choice to push. Unfortunately they had Daniel Bryan (injury prone star) who the fans still wanted to see win the Rumble. Credit to WWE for getting him that over. They figured okay if Reigns beats Bryan then people will accept Roman add the new up and coming top face. Crowd didn't go for that so it made Reigns the bad guy to that element of the fanbase.
You still had Rollins out there as the face of The Authority and he had MITB. So whether it was at Mania or shortly thereafter, Rollins was the long term plan as champ. Likely with Reigns chasing to get the title back.
I think they looked at where Reigns was in terms of being over as the up and coming top babyface prior to Mania and decided to pump the breaks but still protect him. So to me the Reigns push was reset post Mania. They purposely kept him out of the storylines with Rollins. They did the build to MITB, which smoothly transitioned to the long program with The Wyatt Family. That was key to make Roman look strong in the ring to set up the showdown with Rollins. I think it was successful given the reactions to the match with Bray at HIAC. Then things got kinda messed up with Rollins getting hurt. But I felt like they really turned the heat up on him by having become the focal point going into Survivor Series and TLC. I felt like they did a good job showing his progression from being Joe Cool to Serious Bad Ass when he had enough of getting screwed by HHH.
To me it was a very well executed slow burn from Mania onwards to get him where he's the most over guy on TV right now.