Some good ole JR logic

[BillAlfonsos_Whistle]

I was randomly watching one of the Round Table discussion episodes they have on the WWE Network. I truly forget which episode it was but it was taped years ago. Mean Gene, Slaughter, JR, JJ Dillon, and DiBiase.


I think it was some episode about underachievers and overachievers. Well anyways a segment came up where they discussed The Rock and JR mentioned how they thought they had him all primed for a super push as Rocky Maivia that night at MSG when he debuted and even though his performance was good they booed the living shit out of him. Remind you of anyone?

The thing is JR went on to explain how the Rock handled it and how it helped him modify his persona and gimmick to something he knew would work. He used the fury and anger of the not-so-welcome reaction to fuel "The Rock" character basically.

Balls in your court Roman.
Monday was a good start. Let's see what ya got kid.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

I was randomly watching one of the Round Table discussion episodes they have on the WWE Network. I truly forget which episode it was but it was taped years ago. Mean Gene, Slaughter, JR, JJ Dillon, and DiBiase.


I think it was some episode about underachievers and overachievers. Well anyways a segment came up where they discussed The Rock and JR mentioned how they thought they had him all primed for a super push as Rocky Maivia that night at MSG when he debuted and even though his performance was good they booed the living shit out of him. Remind you of anyone?

The thing is JR went on to explain how the Rock handled it and how it helped him modify his persona and gimmick to something he knew would work. He used the fury and anger of the not-so-welcome reaction to fuel "The Rock" character basically.

Balls in your court Roman.
Monday was a good start. Let's see what ya got kid.

Jim Ross basically agreed with Vince's "brass ring" comment that he made during the podcast, at least some aspects of it. Jim Ross obviously has more inside knowledge of the goings on & workings than any of us do and there are probably some wrestlers on the roster who're content, at least overall, to stay where they are. Realistically, everybody can't be and won't be a main event level guy. That's how it's always been, how it always will be and I find it difficult to believe that there aren't wrestlers on the WWE roster that don't look at it from a realistic perspective. This is just a pure guess on my part, just 100% speculation, but I have a feeling that guys like Kofi, the Usos, Adam Rose, Tyson Kidd and others realize and may have even accepted that they've probably risen as high as they're going to get.

However, one thing about wrestlers making adjustments to their persona is that wrestlers themselves don't have nearly the same level of personal creative freedom they once did. When The Rock was making his move, the Monday Night War was in full swing and Vince didn't feel the need to micromanage every aspect of his company. He didn't insist on scripted promos, he trusted wrestlers to do their jobs, he trusted writers to do their jobs and actually allowed them to do it. He reportedly encouraged talent to come to him with concerns or ideas, but he doesn't really do that now. Only a very specific few on the WWE roster can really do that these days without having to worry about some degree of reprisal.

 

[Fire Marshall Bill]

Yeah scripted promos make things like this much more difficult. It's maybe my biggest gripe about WWE today. I'm sure wrestlers who have proven themselves on the mic get a little more leeway, but I highly doubt anyone as new as Reigns does.

 

[TWJC: The Beginning]

By all accounts (Punk mostly), they aren't that restricted. Guys just don't come up with their own ideas often enough.

Reigns simply isn't that talented. If they want to save this, Reigns should get frustrated with the crowd, frustrated with the idea that he is only there because of his family, and turn on the Rock. Talk less too.

 

[BuriedByCena]

The ironic thing, if Reigns turned heel, stopped talking as much and learned a couple more moves, I would eventually start to like him. Faces and Heels back in the day were allowed to talk and I cheered both.

In today's WWE, only Heels are allowed to talk while the Faces smile and "do it for the fans".... which is boring.

Anyway, I agree with you. Lesnar is LOVED and is a face no matter what. Going into WrestleMania Reigns will be boo'ed anyway, so why not turn him heel? Let him own it and he MIGHT actually get fans like me on his side.

Right now, he is more laid back than RVD after smoking a joint. He is so soft spoken, humble and quiet that it makes it hard to believe the guy that he could kick anyones butt. He doesn't look like he cares at all and doesn't even want to be there. I would like to see some anger, some edge, some ruthless aggression in his promo's AND in the ring. In the ring he looks like a lost puppy. Just own it and start stiff hitting everyone.

Roman Reigns should get training from Hardcore Holly and JBL on bullying 101. Those guys can teach him how to be a jerk in promo's and in the ring.

 

[Wald]

I'm not buying any comparison between the Rock and Roman Reigns at this present moment tbh, they were two completely different situations.

The Rock debuted at Survivor Series 1996 as a white meat babyface and got slaughtered for it. This was the time of the nWo and at the exact same event the WWF Champion Shawn Michaels was booed out of the building for being a white meat babyface. Bret Hart also returned at this event but had enough kudos built up with the audience to be safe for that type of a reaction. Still though, within months he had sense to go along with a heel turn for his babyface character. But back to the Rock, he was booed and was rejected as the next babyface champion and so he was given a heel turn and left in the midcard for another year and a half. He was never tried as a babyface again until 1999 when he was massively over with the crowd due to his popularity as a heel. Everything about the Rock becoming the Rock happened organically, it wasn't Vince telling us what to do.

Roman Reigns then has already been a heel that has gotten over as a babyface so what's changed for him? Well, to be honest, creative have failed him. His promos, as in what he's instructed to say, have been terrible. He has been put up against Randy Orton at a time when people were starting to like Orton again and he has been put in a feud with Big Show, who the crowd just wants to see go away. The timing of the Orton feud was unfortunate but the Big Show feud was a terrible choice for Reigns at this stage of his career. He needed a winning feud with a strong midcard heel, a Rusev or a Wyatt, something that would really catch the imagination of the audience. Now the audience have rejected him as a white meat babyface, and they will continue to reject him, and honestly he's probably going to have to turn heel and start again in the midcard at some stage of 2015.

 

[MC_Live]

Roman just needs to be himself. WWE doesn't let him do that. His scripted promos are never going to get him over. He needs to learn what his character is, and WWE needs to let him take control. I have a feeling that if WWE let him do that, he'd figure it out. He needs to be a badass. He needs to keeps his talking to a minimum, and his ass kicking to a maximum. He said that he learns by being thrown in the deep end. Well, he's in the deep end right now. But he has a life vest called Vince McMahon holding him up. Have Roman learn to do it for himself, and it could work.

While there are a few similarities to what the Rock did, there are some big differences too. First of all, in 97 the WWE didn't necessarily see The Rock as "The guy". They had others, like Bret, Shawn, and Stone Cold. Rock was able to turn heel because they didn't need him to be a face. If Roman turned heel, then that would do wonders for his character. But the WWE feels that he needs to be the face. They want him to be "the guy" and they want it now. There's no way they'll turn him heel now, because they don't see anybody else that could step in to that spot, even though everyone else can think of a few examples.