WrestleMania 32 is right around the corner and whilst WWE has teased many alternatives, we have still ended up with the main event of Triple H and Roman Reigns for the World Heavyweight Championship. This is a match that has been building for months. This is a match that we all should be clamouring to see, but we’re not.
This is largely due to the reactions that Roman Reigns is receiving from the audience. The poor reaction he gets isn’t necessarily aimed at Joseph Anoaʻi the person, but at WWE itself. It’s frustration from fans who feel that WWE is turning Roman Reigns into the next John Cena.
For the past 10 years, the fans have witnessed Cena stay in the main event picture and largely dominate everyone he has ever faced. Fans think that this approach will be duplicated with Reigns and frankly the fans are bored of it.
Yes the fans understand that there is always someone who seemingly holds the title of ‘Face of the WWE’. In years gone past, this honour has been given to people such as Austin and Hogan. However, their reigns at the top didn’t last as long and certainly didn’t retain the same character throughout. Fans are panicking that the John Cena trend could continue in another person and this WrestleMania win for Roman could be the start of another ten years of someone being seemingly unstoppable at everyone else’s expense.
Whilst I think that WWE have adopted that model with Cena, it doesn’t mean that they will with Reigns. Cena’s time on top was largely prolonged because rightly or wrongly, WWE didn’t feel there was anyone else who could fill his spot. Austin and Hogan had a plethora of extraordinary talent to work with which always kept things interesting where it could be argued that Cena didn’t always have that option.
