Well you and me, Jim Ross, Mark Madden, Steve Austin, Wade Keller, Court Bauer, Alex Greenfield, Konnan, Jerry Jarrett, Kevin Sullivan, and pretty much anyone who is seen as having an opinion worth listening to.
There's only two people on that list (other than the two of us) who have an opinion I consider worth listening to and one of them is still very much stuck in the past when it comes to pro wrestling (Ross).
But it's easy to see Reigns get booed and say "HE'S BEING BOOKED WRONG! RAWR!". But you and I both well know the WWE makes their decisions based on information the rest of us do not have access to and we both know they could not care less about which of their workers is successful, so long as the company is successful.
The second half of this certainly proves the first half.
Well said, but still nonsense. In fact, I'd argue the exact opposite. I'd argue that one who watches every second of the WWE every week is less likely to be able to look at the big picture. It's way to easy to get caught up with only looking at things in the moment and losing sight of the big picture. And for topics like this you HAVE to be able to see the big picture. You simply cannot look at it on a minute by minute, show by show basis.
.....to be clear, you DO NOT feel that was a bad decision, even though it basically exploded the entire next year for Reigns?
To be clear, you CAN NOT book your biggest show of the year around a fear of one crowd three months before your biggest show. Booking your promotion is such a way will lead to ruin.
So, no, I have absolutely no problem with Reigns winning. The only person the crowd was going to accept was Bryan winning, but that's clearly not the direction the WWE wanted to go. The WWE obviously wanted to promote new stars, while using existing stars in Cena and Bryan to elevate the midcard championships. Would you say their strategy there was a bad decision? After seeing what Cena did with the US title, do you have any doubt Bryan could have done something similar with the IC title? And did we not get a damn fine main-event at Wrestlemania?
You cannot book your promotion out of fear of one audience, especially when that one audience is at the show which sets up the biggest show of your year. Booking that way WOULD be a bad decision.
To be clear, are you saying the WWE should have gone against the plans they had made for months in the future, just to please one audience?
Well, no one is asking for that. You know for me, personally, I don't need anything more than "you have the title and I want it".
Well they essentially are.
Its about how the character is portrayed. Much like my example with New Day....They didn't shit on the individuals themselves, they rejected the way the gimmick was portrayed.
But Reigns is essentially the same character he was when crowds were cheering hard for him. The only thing that changed was the idea he was Vince's golden boy.
As I said before, I don't think its as much them hating Reigns personally, but rejecting how things were done from a creative standpoint, much like they rejected the New Day.
Reigns was over when he was the silent killer. The very moment he turned to corny and CLEARLY overproduced line reciting, everyone could smell the bullshit, and they rejected it .
Reigns is hardly the first or only worker to provide overproduced promos. In fact, it's the norm in the WWE. But no one seems to have a problem with Ambrose doing it.
So, again, what's the difference? The difference is Reigns has a great look, the kind of look the Internet fan recognizes as something McMahon likes. So, in order to show how "in the know they are", they boo against the chosen one.
I suppose we must have different definitions of this.
Perhaps one of these days we can start a wrestling university and more clearly define terms.
A pop is a reaction. Good, bad or otherwise, when Reigns music hits, people react. And you get a LOT of cheers, just not from a certain segment of the audience. Again, I suspect it's the same audience who still boos Cena.
You know this illustrates my point way more than it does yours? The ONE TIME they allowed his character to have an air of an edge and some authenticity to it, it was insanely over?
No, it doesn't. This goes back to what I was saying earlier in this post. You have to be able to look at the big picture when talking about booking. You cannot analyze second by second.
You are either wrong here, or they make up a much, much larger contingent of the fan base now.
I'm not wrong (I'm never wrong, you should know that by now
) but they do make up a larger percentage of the fan base than they once did, but not so overwhelmingly as you seem to be suggesting in this line.
And he's not heavily booed by a majority of people in every town.
I don't guess I get your point. Much like Cena, the level of boos he gets depends on the show and the city.
Right this second? It would have to be Ambrose.
You mean the guy who is a mediocre ring worker who has "turned to corny and CLEARLY overproduced line reciting"?
Why would he be better? You know, besides the fact he doesn't have big muscles?
A turncoat Reigns Vs Scruffy underdog Ambrose storyline would come off ten times better
It's not time for that yet. Reigns vs. Ambrose can be a huge moneymaker, but not yet. That doesn't mean the WWE won't pull the trigger early, but it does mean the money isn't there yet. I LOVE the way the WWE constantly promotes their friendship. I've thought for a long time they need to do more things like that. And, obviously, you'll break them up and have them feud. But neither man is there yet for the feud to truly make big bucks.
Post Mania, you have Aj Styles, Sami Zayn, Finn Balor
...really? You've spent posts telling me how unbelievable Reigns is because he wasn't authentic in his build toward the main event and that people don't boo Reigns because he has big muscles and your choices for the guys to carry the company in Reigns place is two guys from NXT and a man who only debuted a month ago, none of which are guys with big muscles?
You're proving my point. I have no doubt the fans who boo Reigns would happily accept any one of those three. But that only proves my point, not yours.
and the returning Seth Rollins and John Cena.
I know you said after Mania, but that doesn't help the WWE now. They don't even really have a choice, they HAVE to push Reigns.
Another thing we will have to disagree on. Except for the mic work art, which I would argue we simply don't know yet. The only way to find out and let him grow is to let him off his leash. You can do this as a heel because as a heel, having egg on your face is fine.
Reigns is a badass. Badasses don't get egg on their face. And, again, they need Reigns right now.
I am abundantly confident more fans than not do this now. This is another place were our perspectives diverge.
I'm abundantly confident if this were true, then companies like ROH and TNA would be much bigger than they are.
I disagree. Old timey logic says its easier to take the cuffs off as a heel, since if he fucks up, hey, he is a heel, fuck it.
Old timer logic says it is easier as a heel because you have more range to say things in promos. But Reigns has yet to proven he has anything uniquely interesting to say in promos.
There most definitiely is a contingent of this, I think were we disagree is how much of it is the reason for all this. I think it is quite small.
And I think if it was quite small, the level of hatred for Cena would have went away a long time ago.
Even if it was the majority of the reason, then its clear this makes up a large portion of your audience, so why continue to plow ahead right into it?
Because it's as I said earlier. You cannot book your promotion around a fickle audience. You simply cannot be successful that way.
Why not utilize your assets to their best degree? The fans are alienated by Reigns, so give them a proper reason to be. They seem to have attached to Ambrose (for reasons you and I don't particularly understand) so utilize it.
Yeah, it's almost like the biggest difference between Reigns and Ambrose is the size of the individuals.
I have to go, so I haven't proofread. Apologies if anything doesn't make sense right now.
