Opinion: The Strange Case of Roman Reigns And…..Charlotte?

Earlier today I was watching “Survivor Series 2015” and something caught my attention. You might remember this show as the night where Roman Reigns had three matches and won the WWE World Title for the first time via a tournament, only to lose the title later in the night thanks to a Money in the Bank cash-in. The fans weren’t exactly pleased with Reigns and that has been the case for most of the year since. However, there’s another case on the same show that shows the exact problem Reigns had and would eventually show the solution.

Let’s consider Reigns for a second. Unless you have no idea what you’re talking about, there’s no way to deny that Reigns has talent. He’s big, he’s strong, he can brawl more than well enough, his finishers look good and he has a very solid look. There’s certainly talent there and any suggestion otherwise is just flat out wrong.

 

Now we get to the big problem: people don’t really like Reigns anymore. That last word is the key to this whole thing. If you look back Reigns’ earlier run, especially his time with the Shield, he was incredibly popular, which shouldn’t be a surprise. When you have that kind of talent and one of the best looking spears (certainly one of the most explosive looking), there’s no reason for Reigns to not be a huge star. Before we get to “Survivor Series 2015”, let’s go back about twenty years.

While it’s true that Reigns is a big star, it’s also true that he’s one of the most heavily booed faced in a very, very long time. The thing is, people really shouldn’t be all that surprised by this. Reigns is very similar to Diesel, who was in a very similar role back in 1994 and 1995. Diesel rolled into the 1994 Royal Rumble as an imposing big man and proceeded to have one of the best runs of all time, eliminating a record seven competitors in a row before a group of people managed to throw him out. A big DIESEL chant followed and it was clear that a star was born.

All of a sudden Diesel was hot and it was obvious that something had to be done with him. This was followed by an incredible performance at “Survivor Series 1994” where Diesel eliminated four men in less than three minutes and was only eliminated when he walked of the match due to an errant superkick. Less than a week later, Diesel won the WWF World Title in eight seconds by powerbombing Bob Backlund.

Then the fans stopped caring. The same people who were cheering for Diesel quickly grew tired of him because there wasn’t much there. Diesel was a big, powerful monster who could run people over….and that’s about it. Really, that’s the extent of his character and that’s not enough to carry him as far as the company wanted him to go.

Does this sound familiar? It certainly should, given that Reigns followed almost the exact same path. At “Survivor Series 2013”, Reigns eliminated four men from the Survivor Series match and set a new record by eliminating twelve people from the 2014 Royal Rumble. Just like Diesel, Reigns was suddenly a big deal and the face turn was imminent.

Flash forward about a year and Reigns is being pushed as the top star in the company, almost completely against the wishes of several fans. It was the same situation as Diesel: the fans liked him as the wrecking ball but weren’t so hot on the idea of him as the face of the company because his character didn’t have the staying power. This has happened for years in wrestling and that brings us to “Survivor Series 2015”.

 

Consider Charlotte, who is basically a female Roman Reigns. She’s bigger, stronger and more athletic than most of the division, has a famous wrestler for a father and isn’t the best talker in the world due to not having a ton of natural charisma. What she does have is amazing genetics, shown off by being taller than most women and looking like she was carved out of stone while being an athletic freak. Sound like a certain Samoan you might be known to get sick of in a hurry?

The fans at “Survivor Series 2015” certainly did. Charlotte wasn’t well received and while she wasn’t booed out of the building like Reigns was earlier in the night, there was almost no reaction when she came out to defend her Divas Title against Paige. The problem was very simple: Charlotte, the daughter of the legendary Ric Flair, was an athletic freak and that’s about the extent of her character. In other words, she’s better than you now cheer for her.

How is that interesting? Why should I be interested in cheering for someone who is naturally better than everyone else? Wrestling is about cheering for underdogs to overcome the odds. When the hero of any division is already above the odds almost every time they get in the ring, it’s not easy to get behind them.

So what was the solution for Charlotte? Turn her heel and then have her talk about being genetically superior. She’s bigger, stronger and faster than the rest of the division so it’s going to take an underdog to beat her. Fans get behind someone like Sasha Banks because she’s this tiny framed spitfire who won’t quit no matter what Charlotte throws at her. That’s an interesting character and something worth cheering.

Why isn’t that the case with Reigns? There’s almost no reason to care about the genetically superior son of a Hall of Famer who pushed a bride into a wedding cake and beat up Rusev at almost every chance he had. The solution should seem to be simple and there are multiple historical instances of the exact same thing, but for some reason it doesn’t seem to click with Reigns. As usual, WWE seems to not notice what was right in front of them as recently as a year ago.

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