WrestleMania 32 brought out a new side of Roman Reigns. As soon as he won the WWE World Heavyweight championship, Reigns came out with the title and said that he wasn’t a good guy or bad guy, but the guy.
Much to the dismay of WWE fans all around the world, he continues to say it week-after-week.
Alongside Reigns’ new attitude came even more hatred from the WWE Universe. It was the first time since The Miz’s WWE title win at WrestleMania 27. Not even the Rock could save that match.
A lot consider Reigns’ push from the WWE to be a failure. One controversial figure agrees with that logic, as former-WWE employee Vince Russo says, “It’s all Vince McMahon,” while on the Pro Wrestling Illustrated Podcast.
“It’s Vince. In Vince’s mind, it’s Bruno. It’s Backlund. Look at his history. He’s done it over and over and over again . . . Kevin Nash was this killer who beat Bob Backlund in like 8 seconds in Madison Square Garden. I was the editor at the WWF Magazine at the time. Diesel wins the belt. The next thing I know, Vince wants a picture of him on the cover of the WWF Magazine smiling like a Cheshire cat. And I remember arguing with Vince at the time, saying ‘What are you doing? This is not the character.’ And Vince wanted the white bread babyface. From there, it was Shawn Michaels’ turn. I remember Vince had me write every single promo for Shawn when they did the house show promos. Vince wanted every single promo being that white bread babyface promo. And I sat there with Shawn for hours. And it was so difficult and hard for Shawn to do, because he wasn’t that guy. After that it was the Rock. I’ll never forget. I was sitting in the office—me, The Rock and Vince— the day after The Rock won the title with that corporate swerve. And Vince is sitting there wanting him to go out and cut this white bread, babyface promo. And Rock kept looking at me like, ‘Is this guy serious?’ . . . Here we are with Roman Reigns 25, 30 years later. He’s doing the exact same thing, because Vince, at 70 years old, really believes that the 1970s philosophy is going to work today. . . It’s all he knows. He’s repeating it over and over again. And there’s nobody there with the balls to say, ‘Vince, this does not work in 2016.’”
That may be the most-accurate representation of Roman Reigns’ booking to date. Russo makes great points about the “white bread babyface” in the WWE. Until a few weeks up to WrestleMania, Reigns was making himself look foolish on the microphone.
He never had to pick up the mic to get over, but McMahon wanted it to happen.
Will Reigns’ style of booking change at WWE Payback? There are a lot of theories floating around that Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows will join Reigns. They are only theories, but something like that would give Roman Reigns a new dynamic that could work long-term.
