Will Roman Reigns' growth lower WWE's confidence in Indy Wrestlers

[ASKane]

At Survivor Series 2012 we saw the debut of the Shield Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns. Rollins and Ambrose were long term veterans of the indy scene and after signing with the WWE worked their way up to being the top 2 guys in NXT with Rollins as NXT champ. It seemed as if they would be competing for who would be the breakout star of the group however Roman Reigns a guy who had been in the business about 2.5 years and had wrestled exclusively in WWE developmental debuted as the clear number 3 talent in the group with no long term success expected but has since shown rapid growth and still shows lots of potential and has become the clear favourite to be the breakout star. If you need evidence tying the Survivor Series record and breaking the Rumble elimination records should be enough. There has even been talk of him being the number 1 guy in the company.

So what I am suggesting is will see the success and growth of Roman Reigns as an in ring talent as another to try to produce there own superstars and get them while they are new to the business and built them up only teaching them the WWE way of wrestling and try to turn the focus off indy talent.

As I like to create my own balanced argument I will add that Reigns has the benefit of being part of one of the best wrestling families and having influence and advice on how to wrestle from a young age and throughout his career. He has also got the benefit of being close friends and teammates with guys with a combined 20 years in the business and as a report I read suggests he has been like a sponge around Ambrose and Rollins and has benefited greatly from their knowledge. Therefore he may not be the best subject to for WWE to do indeed make a business decision based on his success

Conclusion - Despite Reigns have heritage and experienced partners to help him develop do you agree that WWE may look past this and just think that it is a WWE guy who is having success and be more likely to pick their own products ahead of indy guys in the future

 

[Charismatic Enigma]

I don't think Roman Reigns success or failure will have any bearing on future indy talent in WWE.

It is a well known fact that Vince likes big guys, as does HHH. In their minds the archetype main event level talent is always going to have that look. This is why in developmental you constantly see larger guys who can barely wrestle, or hear reports of a 7ft tall guy, or a body builder getting a try out at NXT. But then there's always going to be the variables…

Thanks to the success of guys like Shawn and Bret, the door has been opened for smaller guys who can work and ultimately no matter how hard you may try to hold someone down cream always rises to the top. Look at Jeff Hardy, could you have ever pictured him back in the mid-late '90s one day holding the WWE title? It happened. Look at the reactions Bryan is getting now. In short, I think the road to the top will be MUCH easier for a 7ft 300lb guy, but that is never going to remove the need to have guys who can actually work on the card, and for that reason there will always be a place for indy talents.

 

[WarroBODFan]

You're talking like the WWE are taking a giant dump on guys like Ambrose, Rollins, and hell, throw Daniel Bryan in the mix too. As the poster above said, we've known that Reigns has been and will be getting a push for quite a long time now. I wouldn't say it's taken THAT much shine away from Ambrose and Rollins.

Ambrose can't just suddenly deviate from his increasingly twisted heel persona. This is the path WWE are taking him on, and rightly so. That doesn't mean he's not going to be a main event player in the near future. Say what you want about his US title reign, but he's the US champion nevertheless.

Rollins has everything going for him. Whatever ends up happening with The Shield, Rollins can play a face or a heel in the future. I see many different possibilities for him.

I've only used these two as an example, but there are other former indy wrestlers right now who are doing well, and we have a mix of small and big jobbers in the WWE too. I think the balance is fine right now. I'm biased as I'm a Reigns fan, admittedly, but I think he has an 'it' factor that many of the big guys who have come into the E in the last few years that have not got. He's done his time in FCW though, and learned a lot from some of the mentors there. He credited Joey Mercury in particular for taking him under his arm and helping him. He deserves to be where he is right now.

 

[ASKane]

The main point of the argument is that WWE puts a faction together with the top indy guys in NXT and a lower ranked WWE guy then 15 months later the WWE guy is the clear number 1 so will this make WWE have more faith in WWE guys as they have more room for improvement than guys who have been at it for many years on the indy scene

 

[laodaron]

I hope that he does. I, for one, am sick and tired of miniature botch monkeys coming in from the indy feds or RoH. I'd rather everyone in the WWE have to go through the WWE farm system, and be a healthy superhero guy.

 

[Zycho32]

Lets be honest, any self-respecting brand wants more faith in their Developmental System than directly trying to farm the Independants, especially in this day and age where the territories are just a shadow of what they used to be. In fact, with few exceptions the WWE-endorsed territories, or better yet, any territory directly affiliated with a big wrestling brand, has typically had the greater overall talent compared to an independant group. That dynamic only changed in the 00's when WCW went down the drain and WWE's developmental territories were screwed thoroughly by John Lauranitis.

That's not to say Independants will not get signed up into developmental. The balance will just tip in favor of pure developmental talent. And as sad as it is to say, it's the right move for a Big Brand.

 

[L@RISANO]

You're talking like the WWE are taking a giant dump on guys like Ambrose, Rollins, and hell, throw Daniel Bryan in the mix too. As the poster above said, we've known that Reigns has been and will be getting a push for quite a long time now. I wouldn't say it's taken THAT much shine away from Ambrose and Rollins.

Ambrose can't just suddenly deviate from his increasingly twisted heel persona. This is the path WWE are taking him on, and rightly so. That doesn't mean he's not going to be a main event player in the near future. Say what you want about his US title reign, but he's the US champion nevertheless.

Rollins has everything going for him. Whatever ends up happening with The Shield, Rollins can play a face or a heel in the future. I see many different possibilities for him.

I've only used these two as an example, but there are other former indy wrestlers right now who are doing well, and we have a mix of small and big jobbers in the WWE too. I think the balance is fine right now. I'm biased as I'm a Reigns fan, admittedly, but I think he has an 'it' factor that many of the big guys who have come into the E in the last few years that have not got. He's done his time in FCW though, and learned a lot from some of the mentors there. He credited Joey Mercury in particular for taking him under his arm and helping him. He deserves to be where he is right now.

Roman Reigns is reported to be like a sponge for education in wrestling terms and has learned alot from his Shield teammates. It is an attribute that has helped his obvious rise and improvements.


With regards to the topic at hand;
I think WWE will continue to take Indy guys/Mexican Luchadors or whoever from outside as long as they see potential in them.

However, as someone said above, it is pretty clear any company especially one like WWE, with the NXT in full flow, will look to put their Main guys forward and to bigger things as much as they can. That isn't anything new at all,tbh. It happens everywhere in all companies whatever they do.

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