WWE
WWE was right: Nobody saw that anyone really came.
Roman Reigns made a shocking comeback Sunday night when SummerSlam went off the air. And from the jump it felt different – draping in a tight-fitting “Wreck Everyone & Leave” shirt and fully bearded, he brutalized both Braun Strowman and Bray Wyatt’s The Fiend.
The Big Dog was lively, spittingly crazy and throwing out things like, “You’re not a monster unless I’m running” and “I made you”, while making a victim of two Superstars who really put his life on the line. most heels have made the most of his time in WWE.
And fans jumped right in to the natural question: Is this the hook? Is Reigns a bad boy now?
Answer? Probably.
WWE could always run it backwards and play him a bit more of a tweener role, where he plays with the line, but it never completely crosses.
But right after two people behind a prolonged absence, who have not wronged him lately and hurt no one near Reigns and hit them with a steel chair? Strowman attacks to the point that he can not move and interrupt De Fiend’s big win at the end of the show? That’s all pretty whole.
And to add to the above, there were no foolish fist-corners or oh-rahs, just a remarkably larger government dominating his “yard.” No vests or smiles, just … ruin and leave everyone (sorry).
Call it an appropriate turn of events, indeed. WWE fans have not seen Reigns in a long time, and with audiences still limited in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, it was easy to imagine that fans really would not see him for the entire 2020s.
However, he accidentally came back on what was probably the best show of the year.
SummerSlam did not look exactly pre-loaded and to make matters worse for the second-biggest show of the year, WWE had recently positioned another pay-per-view, Payback, just a week later.
But the card was instantly stellar. There were no silly finishes as strange things that hurt other marquee shows. The women put on dominant performances in all facets, Seth Rollins helped dominate Dominik Mysterio, and Drew McIntyre continued his consistently refreshing title race (he is not a five-of-a-kind champion) with a win Randy Orton in a match where no one is suffering and they are looking forward to a rematch. And Keith Lee is on the road, too.
That’s just painting with broad strokes across the show, too. Asuka is a champion again. There’s some intrigue with Bayley and Sasha Banks. Even Strowman and Wyatt went a safe route that, if Reigns did not return, would have remained interesting.
But the thing Reigns just sorts towers over everything, and rightly so. It’s an important occasion and the early hints are that he’s finally embraced the character that fans have wanted for a long time – the badass with an average streak that doesn’t get too involved in the do-it-yourself baby face stuff until the audience shuts down. he does not care what he does.
It’s the character that Reigns deserves a long time. Fans have seen flashes of it in the past, this kind of no-one without prisoners not saying much but scaring opponents. If Sunday night’s hints are equal, there will be no more “Sufferin ‘succotash” moments. Maybe he’s finally past The Shield, and the vest and entrance music are closing as well.
Simply put, WWE and The Big Dog had no other choice, right? When he hit the ring for his big return Sunday in a vest, he did the hoo-rah thing and smiled as the show went off the air … ratings will not be very bulky. And he’s endlessly bored with Strowman and Wyatt, so the same old Reigns who come back to fight them again would be at least worthy.
But this? This is new. This is the type of Reigns that could create some palpable fear of a monster like Strowman. It’s the type of Reigns that can easily chat with a supernatural Enemy. It’s the roster topping, potentially transcendent to the broader media genre of headline championing with tremendous potential.
Perhaps most importantly, perhaps, it just seems like a potential turning point for WWE. Ratings have gone down, the pandemic odor for presence and pre-taping has hurt the product and kept things in patterns.
Getting reigns back and being very clear about flirting with heels is a good sign. That it happened on the best non-WrestleMania show of the year so far is even better. WWE has always wanted The Big Dog as the face of the company and the Superstar leading the charge, but floated several times by shoving him in the throat of fans to the point of exhaustion.
But Sunday night, WWE seemed to give fans what they want with Reigns, which in turn would easily mean the company gets what it wants out of it.
And considering the quality of SummerSlam, it could not have happened at a better time.
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