Is WWE playing it too safe with Roman Reigns?
Commitment is tough. Why risk being wrong when you can straddle the fence and be almost right 100% of the time? According to Eric Bischoff, this is exactly what WWE is doing with Reigns.
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On a recent episode of his podcast, Bischoff on Wrestling, the former WCW boss was critical of WWE’s booking of Reigns and the Big Dog proclaiming that he’s wrestling’s first “gray” guy. Neither heel nor face, Reigns is just Reigns — he does as he pleases. But to Bischoff, this is a cop out.
“It’s hard to say because of the way he’s being booked and the way they are writing for him. Those are different things. I would agree that he is clearly not a heel or a babyface and I think that is a flaw, quite honestly. I think it’s a mistake,” he said.
Bischoff thinks that WWE’s lack of conviction with Reigns’ character has led to inconsistent success for the Big Dog.
“I think that this kind of on again, off again success that they have been having with Roman Reigns over the past couple of years is testimony to that. It’s just not really working to the potential that Roman Reigns has or I believe he has. I believe he could and should be the top, if not one of the top, stars in WWE,” Bischoff continued.
“He has all of the tools and ingredients. What he may be lacking in certain regards like promo skills or finding that last ten percent of his character. Really connect with the audience and more importantly be able to manipulate the audience, that’s the final ten percent,” Bischoff added.
The former RAW GM believes WWE is afraid of swinging and missing with Reigns so they book him conservatively as a character that is both heel and face instead of picking a side.
“That’s not his fault if they are writing him to be neither fish nor fowl because they don’t understand how to do it. So the creative team finds comfort in keeping him in that ‘gray zone’ which really is a safe zone because you aren’t really making a commitment because you don’t want to fail,” he said.
Bischoff makes a compelling argument on this subject. While it’s easy to sit back and pick apart WWE’s decision making, Bischoff’s opinions have been validated by decades of success. To this day, Bischoff is the only guy to threaten to put WWE out of business.
The topic is still up for debate, but the idea that WWE is actually hurting Reigns by not being aggressive with his character is interesting indeed.
