Will The WWE Universe Allow Roman Reigns To Be "The Guy"?
- Admin
- Apr 7, 2017
- 8 min read
Bruno Sammortino. Hulk Hogan. John Cena. These are the only men in WWE history to truly be considered “the face of the company”.
Now before you get your Stone Cold Steve Austin boxer briefs all in a bunch, take a deep breath and remember that almost every aspect of professional wrestling is completely objective. Go ahead and start yelling out names like The Rock, The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels, that’s totally fair. With each one of those superstars I’m sure you have a valid argument as to why you think they were the face of the company at one point, and to each one of those valid arguments I will completely and whole heartedly disagree with you. I’m not talking about GOATs here, and this is obviously not a discussion of in-ring talent. To be considered the “face of the company” or the “face of a generation”, you need to reach a tier that a lot of wrestlers come close to but unfortunately did not or will not ever reach. There is a long list of boxes that need checked in order to even be considered on this level, with the first (or last) box simply titled "McMahon approved". In this writers humble opinion the three men listed in the opening sentence of this article are the only wrestlers to have met all of the necessary criteria.
Through most of the 1960’s and 1970’s, there was no other wrestler that even came remotely close to being the superstar that Bruno Sammartino was in the WWE (WWWF). Seeing that I was approximately negative 22 years old when Bruno won his first World Heavyweight Championship, I obviously don’t have any personal experience to base this off of. However, across two WWWF World Heavyweight Championship reigns, he held the title for a combined 11 YEARS. That is 4,040 days. If that alone isn’t enough to convince you he was the face of the company for basically two decades, just know that it is widely acknowledged and basically goes unsaid in the wrestling community. There is a reason he has been dubbed the “living legend”.
With absolutely no disrespect to Bruno, those were different times. Much simpler times where you could reach legendary status on solely being an incredible wrestler, with very little charisma or outside ring abilities. It wasn’t until the 1980’s that Vince McMahon, via Hulk Hogan, created the modern formula to be the face of the WWE. The same formula that helped boost Hogan as the face of the company through the 80’s and into the 90’s, and also solidified John Cena as the current face of the company back in the mid 2000’s. This formula (or checklist as I referred to earlier) consists of things such as:
- Super hero/Godly physique
- “Say your prayers and take your vitamins” mentality
- Always do the right thing
- Always support the good old U.S. of A.
- Excellent orator/mic skills
- Likable to all demographics, especially kids
- Moms consider a hunk
- PG rated
- Fantastic wrestler with exceptional selling
- Ability to wrestle anyone (from Rey Mysterio to Big Show)
- Sell merchandise. A lot of it.
- Be a work horse
- Complete dedication and loyalty to WWE
- Never give up
- McMahon approval
These are just a few of the main (unofficial) qualities that a wrestler absolutely must possess to even be considered as the true (baby) face of the WWE. In so many words you have to be as close to the total balanced package as can be. Love it or hate it, it’s true. Hogan and Cena both have/had the supernatural ability of identifying with an entire spectrum of wrestling fans, bridging multiple generational gaps and making themselves easily the most likeable and sellable personas of all time.
Let’s look at Cena specifically for a brief moment. He is the Lebron James of the WWE. He is the chosen one. Kids worship him not only because he is a winner but because he is a positive role model, which in return is exactly why their parents like him too. Despite his limited in-ring move set, or as some like to call the "5 moves of doom", he demands respect from everyone in the industry because of his unmatched work ethic and dedication to the business. Unlike other WWE superstars that left for greener pastures, or openly expressed displease to McMahon over booked losses and storylines, Cena always stuck with the company and embraced opportunities to help "put over" up-and-coming superstars such as Daniel Bryan or Seth Rolling by sacrificing his own in-ring success. This type of dedication to his craft is not only noticed by Vince McMahon, but also by all of the “smarks” of the professional wrestling world. He has gained the respect of even the most critical and elitist wrestling fan simply by always being there. By matching their commitment to the industry these fans are able to see past all of the 5 knuckle shuffles and acknowledge what Cena has done for the WWE and professional wrestling in general. In addition to all of this, just like Lebron, Cena’s track record is crystal clear. No drug issues or documented public blowups. No booking disagreements that turned into punishment or suspension. And not to mention he just got engaged to one of the most well known WWE Divas of the past decade. In other words, he has done nothing to ever piss Vince off. Cena has literally kept an almost perfect resume his entire time with the WWE.
But with Cena being on the “back nine” of his career and consistently taking more time off than he has in years past, it is well known to the wrestling world that Vince has chosen Roman Reigns as the next apparent face of the company. And why wouldn't he choose him? Reigns seems to fit the mold and has the potential to eventually check every box on the list, right? Kids are completely embracing him and he seems to be holding his own with anyone they put him in the ring with. But there is a variable that didn’t exist in years past when Hogan and even Cena came to be the landmarks that they are today, and that variable is of course social media. Twitter to be more specific. Information that wasn’t accessible at all in the 80’s and 90’s is now literally at our fingertips at all times. When Twitter was created in 2006 Cena had already won his first world championship and was already hitting his stride as a top ranked superstar. By the time Cena had solidified himself as the sole face of the company, Twitter had just reached 100 million users worldwide. Today, Twitter has approximately 350 million users that average roughly 500 million tweets a day. With the WWE being a well-known advocate of Twitter and social media use throughout their company, the WWE universe is the most educated and in-tune with the business of professional wrestling than it ever has been before. They are so educated that it is affecting WWE live events in the form of crowd reactions, chants, and even signs in the audience. When the Universe caught wind of Roman's quick McMahon-induced entitlement shortly after The Shield's breakup, they were expressing their disagreement before the story line even had a chance to come to life. And now after almost 3 years of resistance from their fans, McMahon and WWE creative continue to still push Reigns hard. So hard, that he was the one chosen to pin The Undertaker clean in what would be Taker’s supposed last match ever at WrestleMania 33 this past Sunday. What was intended to be a “passing of the torch” from Taker to Reigns ended up resembling more of a slap in the face to the WWE universe, and they made their resentment known the next night on Raw when we witnessed literally ten straight minutes of “Undertaker chants” and “booing” as Reign’s opened up the show. Antagonizing the crowd even more, the only thing that Reign’s said on Monday was “this is my yard now” before leaving the ring, showing that WWE (McMahon) are not afraid to embrace the negativity.
The entire thing seems like a game right now. A proverbial tug-o-war between McMahon and the WWE universe for control over the final product. With the landscape of wrestling constantly changing due to social media and the internet, it is completely new territory for Vince. And at 71 years old, I can’t help but think that McMahon is incapable of adapting to the current climate change and is both selfishly and relentlessly cramming Reign’s down our throats as one last final conquest, reminding the fans where the power ultimately lies.
But what if the WWE universe simply never accepts Roman Reigns as “the guy”?
I mean seriously think about this. What if majority of them never stop rejecting Reigns? The ultimate goal of the WWE and McMahon is ratings (which translates to dollars), and the ultimate goal of McMahon’s ego at this point is to get Reigns “over” as the babyface of the company. Make him the Hogan. The Cena.
This simply can’t happen if the majority of WWE fans are continually rejecting every Roman Reigns angle that is presented to them. The WWE can keep putting him into title contention, and keep pairing him in matches with top talent, but at this rate it’s not going to make any difference. To truly be accepted as the “face of the company” you have to eventually find a way to somehow be accepted or respected by the hardcore wrestling fans. The “smarkiest” of smarks, and all of their friends too. This may just be an impossible task seeing that since day one, everyone has known that he is Vince’s “chosen one”, even with his extremely limited and unproven resume. What makes it even harder to accept Reigns is the fact that WWE has turned into a talent vacuum as of late, sucking up some of the best professional wrestlers in the world. With names like A.J. Styles, Finn Balor, Seth Rollins, Shinsuke Nakamura, Kevin Owens and Samoa Joe on the main roster, why would wrestling fans chose to side with Reigns?
I honestly believe that the WWE universe has control over the legacy of Roman Reigns. For the first time in his career, Vince McMahon has no control over what is going to happen to “his guy”. He made the mistake of basically announcing that he was choosing Reigns, as an almost challenge to the WWE universe to stop him from doing so. Well the universe has accepted that challenge, and it does not look like they are backing down anytime soon. And with a drug suspension, Twitter beef with Cena, and an unforgettable botched reverse tombstone against Taker at WM33, Reigns isn’t helping the cause at all.
I’m not saying it can’t happen. Roman Reigns could very well become a true babyface and be “the guy” for WWE. But as it stands, the WWE universe seems to have the advantage on whether or not this can actually happen. With a true heel turn he could possibly gain the affection of certain fans, but would then lose the draw he has with kids. (And to all of you that think he turned heel this past Monday, please educate yourself on what a true heel is. Getting “booed” does not qualify you as a heel.) Maybe after a decade or so of pushing and pulling from the WWE and the Universe, he will have finally paid his dues enough to where he just “goes over” with fans? Or maybe Reigns never becomes “that guy” and for the first time in his life, Vince has to admit to being out of touch with the wrestling world that he created? Any of these things could happen. Only time will tell, and we as the WWE Universe seem to be the ones in control, for the moment.
Comments