Roman Reigns can't be Daniel Bryan 2.0

Vince McMahon really wants Roman Reigns to be the man. I read something interesting on NoDQ.com a few days ago (Click here to read it) from a Reddit user that lists every way that the WWE has tried to get Roman over with the fans, Needless to say that they have tried every single play and still the leader of the Roman Empire can't quite get completely over with the WWE universe. In fairness recently people have started to warm to him but there are still plenty of people who don't want to see him as the next face of the company. Vince is determined though and the creative team have resorted to something that worked so well for one man recently, Daniel Bryan.

Everyone's favourite bearded wrestler won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at the Showcase of the Immortals, Wrestlemania 30 at the Superdome (Silverdome if you're Hulk Hogan) in New Orleans on April 6th 2014. It was the finish everyone wanted and it felt like the underdog had truly reached the top and the reason it felt like this is because Daniel Bryan is the definition of an Underdog. It's probably fair to say that at 5"10 Bryan doesn't exactly fit the WWE's ideal of what they want as a champion but it didn't matter. Popularity started to grow for DB after Wrestlemania 28 when he was beaten in 18 seconds for the World Heavyweight Championship by Sheamus. The night after on RAW during the dark match people were screaming "YES!" and were all over him. Fast forward about a year later after his time as a part of Team Hell No! (which I personally thought was thoroughly entertaining) and he's starting to get a singles push that culminates with him beating big match John (Cena) at Summerslam 2013 after which Triple H hit him with the pedigree and Randy Orton cashed in his Money In The Bank contract. Over the coming months he would be screwed again by The Authority, first at Night of Champions and then a month later at Hell In A Cell. What happened next was not what the brass at WWE were going for however. Batista was returning for a stint with the company and they booked him to win the Royal Rumble while Daniel Bryan was sort of shunted off to the side in a feud with the Wyatt family. This wasn't what people wanted however and the people made themselves heard, most notably at the 2013 Slammy Awards during the Ascension ceremony. The WWE Universe would not let it go and eventually they caved and everyone got the finish they wanted to see at Wrestlemania 30 as well as an excellent match against Triple H.  The problem is that the main reason Bryan became the man was because the WWE universe didn't want anyone else. They saw a part of themselves in Daniel Bryan and they had a special connection which Bryan himself said drives him and that him being injured feels like he's letting the fans down.

The WWE creative team are now trying to recreate this with Roman Reigns by having him screwed over by The Authority in a similar sense to Daniel Bryan. The problem is that the two men involved are completely different. Daniel Bryan is 5"10 and around 210 pounds. He's spent the majority of his career wrestling all over the place before he got his shot with the WWE and he's worked so hard to get to where he is. This isn't to say that Roman Reigns hasn't worked very hard because i'm sure he has. However Roman is the sort of guy that fits Vince McMahon's idea of a superstar perfectly. 6"3 and 265 pounds with a Samoan heritage (which the WWE do love to throw in your face as much as possible) Reigns is not the sort of character that people will associate with the term "underdog" which is why fans are refusing to take to him. Despite this over the past 7 months the WWE has tried to give the impression that Reigns has come so close only to have it stolen from him. First at Wrestlemania by The Undisputed Future Seth Rollins (Yes, I am a Seth Rollins guy) then by Bray Wyatt at Money In The Bank and most recently at Survivor Series by Sheamus. People just don't believe the angle that WWE are taking with him. Going forward it's going to be difficult to get Roman Reigns perfect because people don't want him to become Superhuman Cena 2.0 either.

I personally believe the way to handle Reigns is to cool off him for a while and push someone else. Keep Reigns away from the main event picture for a while and give someone like Dean Ambrose or Kevin Owens a push for the title as both guys are extremely over with the crowd. Obviously this isn't going to happen for a few reasons, the main one being that Vince McMahon has final say and he would never go for it, I mean do you really think that Vince would go for a Sheamus vs Kevin Owens Vs Dean Ambrose triple threat at the Royal Rumble? I will be fair though and say it would be difficult to find a good feud for Reigns in an upper mid-card slot with the depleted roster that WWE have at this point in time, Roman Reigns for Intercontinental Champion anybody?

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For any of you who have somehow made your way onto this blog then well done to you. I haven't started writing a blog to try and inform people about advertising or business. I simply love two things in the world, Wrestling and Video Games. However I find that I have an overflow of thoughts in my head about these things and that I find myself talking out loud to nobody in particular about them. That's why I thought to myself "Hey, why not create a blog so that you can write down everything you think and it'll be there forever?" so that is exactly what I've done.