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Ever since the build to WrestleMania 34, the narrative for Roman Reigns has been that “management doesn’t want him to win the title.”
Week after week for the past few months, there have been either subtle remarks along these lines, or Reigns has cut a promo specifically beating us over the head with this idea that somehow, the powers that be in WWE are actually against him being the champion.
Clearly, the story the creative team wants to try to tell is that he’s the next Daniel Bryan—someone who the fans should get behind as an underdog and really crave to see succeed, but by golly, he just keeps getting screwed out of it. Woe is us. Let’s tune in next week to see if he gets what he deserves.
It isn’t working. It hasn’t worked at all during this Brock Lesnar build, for even one week, and it isn’t going to work, no matter how many weeks WWE tries this.
Roman Reigns is not Daniel Bryan, in so many ways, and the sooner WWE realizes that, the better.
In fact, the differences are so numerous that it is astonishing this is even a story that’s being attempted, as everybody in the world can see the flaws.
Bryan was a revered wrestler on the indie scene. Reigns is very much a byproduct of the WWE machine and a homegrown talent—not that that is necessarily a bad thing, but it’s just a great starting point to illustrate how shaky this angle’s foundation is.
Bryan Danielson had developed a reputation as someone people wanted to see in WWE and wasn’t getting the right opportunities. He came into NXT and was eliminated in the first go-around for being humble, not for sucking. He then was legitimately fired from WWE for doing his job too well during the Nexus angle.
Following that, he was rehired and went through a mid-card phase and had to work his way up to the top, but he was destroyed in record time for the opening of WrestleMania 28 by a company-pushed guy, Sheamus, and had to work his way back up to the top AGAIN after that, being passed over in favor of Batista.
When he finally ascended the throne, fans had been clamoring for it for years and the trigger was finally pulled, but with Reigns, it’s the complete opposite.
Next Page: Roman Reigns Isn’t Daniel Bryan & Never Will Be (cont.)
