Roman Reigns predictably retained the WWE Undisputed Universal Championship, defeating Randy Orton, LA Knight and AJ Styles in a Fatal 4-Way. Reigns won with a Spear on Styles and a pin in the middle of the ring. Cinema, right?
More like cinema at an independent film festival if the movie went on for over 3 years.
In a weird way, due to the limited number of believable challengers (Cody Rhodes, The Rock) in a world title match against Roman Reigns, Reigns is a lame-duck champion. Anybody other than Rhodes or The Rock who challenges Roman Reigns will inevitably lose, no matter how hot they get and no matter how much sense it may make to switch the titles. Yes, Randy Orton recently returned. But so did AJ Styles.
Unfortunately, they can get it, too.
Michael Cole criticized all these people (myself included) complaining about Reigns barely defending his world title. Cole’s response: Beat him. My response: Book him.
WWE’s Bloodline storyline was cinema from 2021 to present day, but the storyline peaked with the Bloodline Tribal Court on SmackDown in July 2023. From that point on, The Bloodline—similar to Roman Reigns’ historic title reign—coasted on name value only.
Roman Reigns, The Bloodline, Overstaying Its Welcome
Styles, Orton and LA Knight did everything they could to convince fans that each had a chance. And while Knight and Orton remain popular babyfaces, nobody believed for a second that either would walk out of St. Petersburg, Fla. with the WWE Undisputed Universal Championship. Last year, following SummerSlam, when it seemed that WWE had no believable challengers outside of Cody Rhodes, Paul Heyman was asked where WWE is in the Bloodline storyline.
“Bottom of the third. We are just figuring this stuff out. We haven’t even hit our stride yet,” Heyman lied. “If you want to take the arrogant approach, I’m sure Paul Levesque will tell you all the box office records that have been smashed. Every Friday night when we show up at SmackDown, we’re always told, ‘This is the largest gate of this and the largest gate of that.’ ‘This is the largest premium live event.’ ‘This is the largest WrestleMania.’ Okay, we can sit there and point to what clearly drove all this, and it’s the Bloodline, and when I say the Bloodline, I mean the Tribal Chief Roman Reigns.”
Fast forward to January 2024, and it’s fair to argue that the Bloodline just might be in extra innings as part of a game everybody wants to end. The Bloodline has almost become a parody of itself. The biggest example of this sad reality is the Jimmy Uso character basically becoming a comedy character.
Roman Reigns’ marathon WWE Championship reign is part-in-parcel connected to Cody Rhodes finishing his story. Most expect Rhodes’ story to end when he dethrones Reigns for the world title he’s held for almost 1,300 days. But until that reign ends, Rhodes won’t be able to finish his story.
There still remains a lot of juice in a Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes program, but the longer WWE waits to pull that trigger, the less each win and loss will mean in the grand scheme of things.
"course" - Google News
January 28, 2024 at 10:05AM
https://ift.tt/3j2gB1L
WWE Royal Rumble 2024 Results: Of Course Roman Reigns Won Again - Forbes
"course" - Google News
https://ift.tt/1w9sDk3
https://ift.tt/4lKfmci
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "WWE Royal Rumble 2024 Results: Of Course Roman Reigns Won Again - Forbes"
Post a Comment