Survivor Series seriously damaged Roman Reigns

[SortaCreative]

Roman Reigns doesn't deserve the position he's in right now.

That's not to say, he should be in mid card because he isn't an indy darling I can lovingly call by an obscure name. He's been put in a position which is hurting his credibility, character and future prospects. Roman Reigns cannot talk much. Yet they insist on having him talk. He isn't liked by the majority of the fans like he once was. Yet they insist on pushing him as the #2 to John Cena.

After Sheamus cashing in on Roman Reigns, Reigns was in the ring in tears. There was very little sympathy, or any reaction, from the live fans. If they continue to insist on pushing him down people's throats they'll continue to hurt his credibility. He has a lot of talent and a great look. He has the advantage of a rich family history. He has all the tools to eventually be a long term high profile player. However if the WWE continue to push him down peoples throats, they won't take. Instead of naturally letting him find his feet and a character of his own, they've molded him into the corporate baby face and it's hurting him.

Roman Reigns in the face Shield was the perfect incarnation of him. He spoke very little and was able to showcase his smash mouth style. He shouldn't be booked in tournaments where he has to wrestle multiple times a night. That just exposes his weakness. He shouldn't have multiple promos and backstage segments. That just exposes his weakness.

His short comings are his short comings. He needs more work to find his personality and more seasoning to establish a well rounded, yet limited style. WWE are booking him into the ground and there won't be much left to salvage if they continue the way they're headed.

[Hanley!]

Everything they've done to build Roman Reigns up has taken him further and further away from main event stardom. They have no clue how to actually make someone a star anymore. With 99% of their talented younger guys, they make no effort whatsoever at doing anything with them or making them a star. But now that we've seen their efforts with Roman, we officially know that the remaining 1% are just as fucked.

A big part of it is that they're intent on making people something that they're not. It's been obvious for almost a year and a half that they wanted to push Roman Reigns to the moon. He's got the exact look that the company likes and he's doing corporate advertisements for them for Susan G. Kommen and shit like that. Trying to get that guy over as someone who's fighting against the rest of the world, and who's struggling in a war against the McMahons is impossible. He's clearly the corporate choice, so don't base his major story around why everyone in WWE wants to keep him down. Nobody could even begin to buy it.

They did similar with John Cena in the past. They'd tell us that WWE hated John Cena and wanted someone else on top of the company, but lets also plug his Make a Wish stuff and please buy his 17 new T-shirts that were just released this week. It went further than that with Cena too. They'd try to sell him as the underdog when he was bigger than most of his opponents and won almost all of his matches. They'd act like ever match was life or death to him, whereas we could see with our own two eyes that he clearly didn't give a fuck.

They're never going to get a top babyface over with the entirety of the audience if you saddle him with a gimmick that people can't believe in.

[Daz]

They've been systematically destroying all the good work they did building him up whilst he was part of the Shield since the group broke up.

He;s not a boy scout Superman like Cena, and he doesn't have the vulnerability and likeable everyman quality that made Bryan such a great underdog/sympathetic babyface.

Reigns should be a silent badass who kicks ass, takes names and makes no apologies for it. That plays to his strengths and hides his mounting list of weaknesses. You can't fit a square peg into a round hole and the sooner the WWE realizes this the better for Reigns, and the better for the viewing audience

[Str8Shooter]

You've all pretty much hit the nail on the head. It's hard to argue with any of that.

It's baffling too, I mean all of us can see what's not working and they should be trying something different, yet they don't seem willing, or capable, of trying anything else. The booking of Reigns, really since the Shield split, has quite possibly irreparably damaged his career. He might never be accepted as a top guy now.

WWE's insistence on making their top babyfaces into guys who have to fight tooth and nail as "underdogs" against The Authority trying to hold them down is ass backwards.

If you're going to do that at least pick a face who could believably be an underdog. Daniel Bryan worked because he was a smaller guy with a big beard who was a vegan and fought his way up for years. You can't throw big, strong, good looking alpha males like Cena and Roman into that role when everyone can see they're actually the prototype of what The Authority would want.

The funny thing is when they went with the fan's choice with Bryan, it worked out. They have guys like Cesaro or Ambrose who fit that mold but they don't want to take that chance.

[DBSoT]

It is weird to me that WWE fails to follow the formula set in place with in their own history. If Reigns would have been booked like corporate Rock, he would have been much better off. The reason WWE refuses to turn Reigns (also Cena) heel is because they are afraid that one of the baby faces they compete against will end up being a bigger star.

[AkydefGoldberg]

I saw a picture of Reigns crying with the line "When you realise you're back at work after a week off" that someone had created and immediately thought, "they must have fucked him up somehow".

He's clearly a guy who had potential, in the Shield and with his family background got the heritage to succeed in the company with fine tuning but as noted, they've fucked him up.

You feel for the person because sure Reigns is in his hotel room thinking he's getting shafted by booking and no real light at the end of the tunnel.