SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
What does a generously-rounded figure of 100,000 people sitting quietly during the main event of WrestleMania sound like? It doesn’t sound good, especially when one-half of the main event is The Next Guy, Roman Reigns.
So, the next night on Raw, WWE tagged A.J. Styles as the next #1 contender to the WWE World Title. Reigns vs. Styles – two babyfaces with two different fanbases.
No, Reigns is not turning heel. His character might act a bit like a prick at times or brush people off or act above certain opponents, but always staying in-bounds to where his fanbase does not see him being mean or overly-rude. It’s stopping short to the point where a fired-up 35-year-old lady in the crowd can comfortably scream at the top of her lungs: “That’s right, Roman, you tell him!”
That brings us to The Opponent (c) Stan Hansen. Reigns needs strong opponents to work with – both in the ring and creating an atmosphere worthy of the main event.
Enter A.J. Styles, who can play an underdog babyface fighting from underneath against respectful, but intimidating Reigns. More importantly, the crowd will get behind Styles, creating yet another John Cena-like audience. That’s what WWE wants.
Barring WWE putting the title match on Raw before Payback and possibly incorporating former WWE champion Triple H, the match setting for Reigns vs. Styles is Payback on May 1. In Chicago. That’s not going to be a Reigns audience. But, it will be an A.J. Styles audience.
The most important thing in WWE’s eyes, after ten years of dueling crowd chants for John Cena, is making sure there is noise in the PPV main event.
“For me, I think I need to stick with what I have been doing,” Reigns told Donald Wood of Ring Rust Radio in a pre-WM32 interview. “We live in a world where everybody has an opinion and an opportunity to voice their opinions so it becomes a very critical era that we live in. For me, I know who I am, where I want to go, so I am just going to stick to my guns and keep doing what I am doing. It’s making for a loud reaction and that’s all that matters.”
“That’s all that matters.” When looking at why WWE is shifting gears to Reigns vs. Styles, likely at Payback in Chicago, WWE is focused on making sure what happens in the main event of WrestleMania does not become a regular occurrence during Roman Reigns’s run. Boo him, cheer him, make a lot of noise, just don’t sit quietly acting indifferent conveying to the home audience that you don’t care. Silence is worse than 100 percent boos in WWE’s eyes.
After Styles, there’s John Cena, Dean Ambrose, Randy Orton, Seth Rollins, and more trying to create a PPV main event atmosphere with Reigns.
WWE hopes they can win people over to Reigns’s side – either by people accepting his character over time or by submitting to the obvious that it’s his time, so keep resisting or join in. If not, keep booing. WWE just wants to make sure the ending to the Biggest WrestleMania of All-Time does not happen again.
I will never understand why they’d rather have a guy most of the audience hates as their top babyface than say, Dean Ambrose, a guy the audience genuinely likes. What sense does that make? Vince lives in his own fantasy world.
I hear you. One of those things where Vince just doesn’t see Dean as The Guy; just A Guy to shift to a main event spot or Brock Lesnar Mania match when needed. He’s the ultimate utility player main event fill-in, but not a Leading Man in Vince’s eyes. Crowd pop for Dean Tuesday night at the Smackdown taping was huge, though. He could be D-Bryan with the 8-80 appeal and respect of the vocal males. Vince is just not going to waver from seeing his pick, Reigns, go through. [JC]
The end of WM32 was not quiet, it was extremely loud booing. I think the microphones were turned down or muted to avoid that noise being heard.
They still pipe noise into smackdown, so I wouldn’t put it above the WWE to not want anybody left with an open opinion on Reigns to realize how much he is being boo’d right now and join in.
I just want to know what it will take. How much will the evidence have to build in the case against Reigns as the top guy before the higher ups get it? I mean, he hasn’t really had any overwhelming success since the SHIELD broke up. He isn’t getting any better on the mic or in the ring. The crowd still isn’t buying into him. Will it take a full scale revolt before Vince sees what everyone else sees?