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Another Attempt at a MARCH Wrestling Thread


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No one on the roster is better suited for the role of company avatar at the moment. We should probably just be happy that Roman is as good in the ring as he is. So far ahead of where Cena was in the ring at the same point.

Does anyone really think the company is missing out on that much money by not having anyone else in that role?

AJ was pushed super hard on Smackdown and the houses were nothing without Cena. 

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The next face that runs the place isn't Reigns. We are all in agreement with that topic. 

But, AJ Styles isn't that 15-20 year guy eother. He's great as a 3-5 year guy due to his age... but really, every talent should be looked at in that kind of window. Project the next 3-5 years and see where they are and tske it from there.

I look at a guy like Big Cass and see a bigger upside in him being a better draw than Reigns... but I'm never big on having a guy that big be your top babyface as it makes it hard for heels to look like a real threat.

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8 minutes ago, Charlie M. said:

Does anyone really think the company is missing out on that much money by not having anyone else in that role?

AJ was pushed super hard on Smackdown and the houses were nothing without Cena. 

Well I can tell you Reigns is not a draw without Cena. 

Strowman is the guy and at the very least deserves a chance. How many turns does Baby Roman deserve?

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Just now, Victator said:

Well I can tell you Reigns is not a draw without Cena. 

Strowman is the guy and at the very least deserves a chance. How many turns does Baby Roman deserve?

One, a heel turn. People want it not because they want him to be a heel forever but because persistence didn't work to get Rocky (or Bryan for that matter or Cena) over as the biggest face in the industry but something else did.

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5 minutes ago, Charlie M. said:

No one on the roster is better suited for the role of company avatar at the moment. We should probably just be happy that Roman is as good in the ring as he is. So far ahead of where Cena was in the ring at the same point.

Not sure about that. That point would hold up 2 years ago, but by his 5th year in WWE Cena was starting some of his best work (vs. RVD at One Night Stand, the TLC with Edge). By the end of his 5th year, he had the Umaga LMS, the Mania/long Raw matches with Shawn, and the Khali carries.

Also, Roman's problem isn't that he can't wrestle. It's that nobody views him as legitimate. He's the unironic version of Seth Rollins' heel character.

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I know it's only one person (so far), but are we seriously suggesting Braun Strowman is the guy that could be the "face of the company". I've liked Strowman's work this year, but nothing about him indicates to me that he would be the one appearing on The Today Show and hosting awards shows and appearing on SNL representing the company. Neither does Big Cass, for that matter.

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I, for one, would love to see Braun on the Today Show, discussing the "Places I've Pooped" app on his phone with Kathie Lee and Hoda. (Did I spell their names correctly? Does it matter?)

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Man send him anyway. You could say that about the Undertaker or Steve Austin. This company worries more about starfucking than drawing money. 

Which lets be honest they are still living off the boom money and the wall street con. If they had to draw on their own merit they would be 2008 TNA. 

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14 minutes ago, Victator said:

Well I can tell you Reigns is not a draw without Cena. 

Strowman is the guy and at the very least deserves a chance. How many turns does Baby Roman deserve?

RAW house shows have held up much better than SD without Cena and Roman does very well in merchandise. 

He's not Cena but Cena wasn't The Rock either and he pushed through. Are we forgetting all of their weekly schemes to get people to cheer Cena? Like when Bret would endorse him in Canada? 

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Being at the top of the card and being the face of the company are two different things. Can I see the former? Yeah, absolutely. The latter? Uh, no.

Yes, let's compare Braun fucking Strowman to The Undertaker and Steve Austin.

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10 minutes ago, Craig H said:

I still say the person with the best chance of being the guy and doing all of this publicity work and so on is Finn Balor. The dude has got "it."

Finn Balor can't cut a better promo than Roman Reigns and that's not a good thing. I think others could be just as much of a non-draw as Roman, get other people over (something he can't do and isn't booked to do) and still be a babyface that isn't booed. But, they've hitched themselves to this Roman shit so much so that nobody else can get over because he gets all the big babyface wins and everybody else is seen as an also-ran. Sami Zayn can cut promos, sell better than anybody else on the roster, has great babyface fire, and can deliver the killer matches. I'd like to see him in a role beyond JTTS. The one issue he has is injuries but Roman's health hasn't been perfect over the past few years either. 

In terms of the merchandise, you're telling me there's something more innately appealing with Roman and it's not more a result of how strongly he's been booked and kids attaching themselves to the successful guy? I disagree strongly with the idea that somebody couldn't fill the void of Roman and not get booed out of the building every single taped appearance without house show numbers and TV ratings falling off a cliff. Am I misremembering or weren't house shows with Roman tanking last year?

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7 minutes ago, Charlie M. said:

RAW house shows have held up much better than SD without Cena and Roman does very well in merchandise. 

He's not Cena but Cena wasn't The Rock either and he pushed through. Are we forgetting all of their weekly schemes to get people to cheer Cena? Like when Bret would endorse him in Canada? 

The bigger question is why waste their energy on him. This is his third Mania and he has made no progress, it is time for a change. 

This is like still pushing Diesel as the top face in 1998. 

And maybe things would be different if he had out right beaten Brock, things would be different. Or after he beat up HHH at Survivor Series and stayed on that path.

But whether by booking or his own flaws. he is not the guy.

 

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7 hours ago, Playa Shunna Ver 3.0 said:

Wow.  That might....just.....work!!!  They can at least try it.  What if the hat talks and manages Roman?  Mania 34 main event...Brock versus Roman w/Hat.

If they could just get the crowd to come up with some kind of chant to help it get over.

But wHat could it be?

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10 minutes ago, Victator said:

The bigger question is why waste their energy on him. This is his third Mania and he has made no progress, it is time for a change. 

This is like still pushing Diesel as the top face in 1998. 

And maybe things would be different if he had out right beaten Brock, things would be different. Or after he beat up HHH at Survivor Series and stayed on that path.

But whether by booking or his own flaws. he is not the guy.

 

But he is their guy and will be as long as he doesn't actually tank business and stink up the joint like Diesel did.

Having someone who can work and doesn't cut long promos be the hand picked guy isn't the worst thing.

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Another question is if the WWE stays the course with Roman, doesn't do a heel turn or change his gimmick or anything, how would that help get him over? He's already pinned pretty much everyone (and after Mania it could actually be everyone) so winning all the time isn't working. Or is the idea just to have "mixed" reactions for the rest of his career? What, in short, is the fucking plan here?

(Also, if all this somehow works and Roman is a mega-face this time next year, who do I send a fruit basket to?)

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WWE has a ton of people who can weather the storm and appeal to different groups but are not the draw that John Cena is which is what is making this period better than the Diesel era of the mid 90s. The biggest problem is the only people outside of John Cena who are getting noticed from the non-WWE world are Baron Corbin, Mojo Rawley, Xavier Woods, The Miz, Big Show, and everyone on Total Divas/Bellas. While I think Corbin is the one most likely to draw out of the bunch, he'll never be the guy. The thing with Roman is, he's getting all the praise that people gave the Rock when he first started. The big difference is Roman has yet to get that big heel turn that the Rock had and he really doesn't have a big foil that Austin was to the Rock. Cena had a rotating cast of big villians (Orton/Edge/Hunter), Hogan had Bobby Heenan and Randy Savage to be his foil for the 80s but there's no one on the level of Roman that isn't named John Cena.

 

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Roman isn't The Rock now nor will he be The Rock if he were to turn heel. He's robotic on the stick and doesn't have a star presence that The Rock had at this point of Rocky's career. You can channel the boos by turning him heel and I'm sure he'd love to open up on the fans with a promo but I just don't see him, even as a heel being anything more than Randy Orton, which is a great spot. Roman is a better in-ring worker than The Rock though, I'll give him that.

I can't believe I hadn't seen the Randy Orton comparisons until now. He's nowhere near as smooth or mechanically perfect like Orton is but they're so similar in their look is right down Vince's alley, they're dry as hell on the mic, and are very good in the ring.

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21 minutes ago, Charlie M. said:

But he is their guy and will be as long as he doesn't actually tank business and stink up the joint like Diesel did.

Having someone who can work and doesn't cut long promos be the hand picked guy isn't the worst thing.

He is not the fans guy. But as we recently learned, you can be opposed by the majority and still get picked. So maybe Roman is a reflection of society.

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58 minutes ago, Charlie M. said:

RAW house shows have held up much better than SD without Cena and Roman does very well in merchandise. 

He's not Cena but Cena wasn't The Rock either and he pushed through. Are we forgetting all of their weekly schemes to get people to cheer Cena? Like when Bret would endorse him in Canada? 

AJ is right there in merch and has had less than half the push Roman has received. If AJ had Roman's push he'd be ahead of him.

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