Roman Reigns as the ace post-Wrestlemania

[Boss Rock]

Maybe if the WWE found a sitter they could bring back Monty Brown to be their Guy.

 

Monty Brown is always the correct answer!

[KawadaSmile]

Monty Brown would be incredible. Shame he never got a meaningful push.

 

As for Lashley being a top guy, I actually would like that. He is in unbelievable shape, is leaps and bounds better than what he was early on (and he was actually good when he left), and has that sweatband which albeit goofy, gives him a distinct look, which he also needed.

 

If they could make a Lashley/Braun program while giving Roman time to get his shit back together, it would be a good top tier, considering they also have Joe with some great promos and Ronda as female Austin.

[BBscout]

Rumor going around that Lesnar was hot and threw the belt at Vince backstage because he wanted to just take the L at Mania and not have to go to Saudi Arabia.

 

I wonder if their argument with Reigns losing twice is that Rock lost to Austin the first two and they "made him" by winning the last of a trilogy.

[Johnny Sorrow]

BRAUN is also young and just getting started. He has a path that shouldnt be ruined by a quick push to being the main guy.

[El Boricua]

BRAUN is also young and just getting started. He has a path that shouldnt be ruined by a quick push to being the main guy.

I'd say this is exactly what they should have done with Reigns and because they didn't it's been what it's been for him these past few years. I think they went in too hard a year early for Reigns and it's been biting them ever since in getting him the reaction he should get.

[KawadaSmile]

And to be honest, they had two HUGE opportunities to make him a huge star, and not dwelve into this torment that was his booking post-WM31. As follows:

 

• Royal Rumble 2014: crowd is ALL IN for Roman winning. He has a star-making performance at the Rumble, but in the end, the win goes to Batista, as he's booed out of the building. Batista's run was actually really fucking good, as he put over every new talent possible, but they could've done Roman a part of the main event of WM30, as he was red hot at that point. He could've even taken the fall in that match, but he would still be elevated.
• Wrestlemania 31: this one is more obvious. Roman beating Brock at that point would've been a huge fucking deal, as they actually managed to get the crowd in favor of Roman despite the Rumble '15 fiasco. You could still have Rollins cash-in later that year.

Bottom line: he could've been way bigger of a star FOUR YEARS AGO, and they wouldn't even have the need to give him a huge title reign. Much of the problems he's faced would at least be eased if they pulled the trigger at one of those two moments.

 

I'm actually really sad about all of this, since he is one of my all time faves.

[NintendoLogic]

Braun is actually older than Roman.

[Robert S]

 

 

Yeah there's been zero evidence he's ever refused to job to someone, he just makes them look like shit if he doesn't think they're at his level.

In the physical condition he currently he is in he will make everyone, including himself, look like shit. It's funny looking at him that there is talk of him fighting in UFC again. If he does it's really just a cash-grab because at this point he is in worse shape than 50 year-old PCO. I am sure that from a pure skill-level there are some heavyweights in UFC that Brock can hold on the mat for 15 minutes, but at this point any top 20 heavyweight will anihilate him.

 

 

Come on, worse shape than a 50 year old PCO?

 

PCO is in great condition for his age but Brock is still in good shape and acting like the UFC heavyweight division is a field of adonis marathon men is absurd. Look at a hot prospect like N'Gannou who gassed out in 1 round and guys like Derek Lewis and Mark Hunt and you can see Heavyweight has and always will be a thin division as it hard to find great fighters who can go hard for 3 to 5 rounds weighing 240+.

 

Brock could easily go through a training camp and provided he doesn't suffer any serious injury beat majority of the currently ranked top 10 of todays UFC HW division. Most of the top 10 are as old as him and in the same or even worse physical shape.

 

I'm all for expressing dislikes about Brock but saying stuff like this is really reaching, Brock at near 41 is still a better athlete than most guys half his age at his size.

 

Brock was spent after 2 minutes of a worked match, so much that he could not get up Roman for a worked suplex (might be Roman's fault too, obviously). In the last half year Brock looked to be close to a heart attack in all of his matches (except the Kane one at MSG). I am not saying that he could not get in decent shape, but I am not sure if he has the will to train anymore.

And obviously my initial posting was hyperbole.

[Slasher]

Braun is actually older than Roman.

In WWE years Braun is younger, but not by much.

[shodate]

BRAUN is also young and just getting started. He has a path that shouldnt be ruined by a quick push to being the main guy.

hes not young at all for someone who has been active for under four years most people his age or younger had more than double is active time I use Naito as example just based on age and what not Naito is a year older but has 4 times the experience being active for nigh on 12 years at this time to Braun's under 4 not ot mention that Naito had to go through harder training being trained at Takada dojo but lets not get in to that.

[Johnny Sorrow]

I meant young in the business.

[Grimmas]

I meant young in the business.

That was obvious and really what matters. More so young to the WWE.

[NintendoLogic]

Braun's biological age is relevant because big guys tend to hit the wall and hit it hard in their mid to late 30s.

[FMKK]

Big Show, Mark Henry and Undertaker say otherwise

[Boss Rock]

Braun also has the character stuff nailed down. Dude is super versatile as he can do comedy, serious, heel, or face.

[Matt D]

Big Show, Mark Henry and Undertaker say otherwise

 

It takes a long time for people to learn how to work their size effectively, apparently.

[NintendoLogic]

Cherry-picking a handful of counterexamples does not disprove the overall point.

[Mad Dog]

Undertaker is a bad example as he became a part timer. Really easy to be passable when you only work a handful of times a year.

[SomethingSavage]

Braun also has the character stuff nailed down. Dude is super versatile as he can do comedy, serious, heel, or face.

Yeah, he's versatile. But I feel like we're already beginning to see that work to his detriment. Brock can do comedy, too. But you won't catch them scripting him to kiss Kurt Angle or challenge someone to a milk-drinking contest or whateverthefuck anymore. Because it's silly.

 

It's like - once they figure out a guy can be funny - they put him in these piss poor segments, filled to the brim with their bad comedy, and try to have him be "entertaining." It's uncomfortable to even watch at times, like these guys are put on stage at some improv comedy show.

 

I don't know that Braun should be out there trying to channel The Rock or whatever every week. As a one-off? Yeah. It's fine. But when it's being done week after week, it becomes troublesome. But it is what it is now. They've discovered be can do comedy, so they're going to pile on a bunch of bad jokes and shitty dialogue until they run out of ideas.

[Al]

Andre the Giant, Vader, Undertaker, Kane, Henry, all those guys were effective at least til they turned 40. Not prime effective, but certainly in a way that didn't hurt their drawing power. Strowman's 34, if he has six years left do you worry much about his age?

 

If there's a size bias, it's that super-heavyweights tend to make it to the top faster than average sized workers, and the mileage on their bodies may hasten their demise.

[Boss Rock]

I think with Braun they've found a good balance, at least for now. Like the concert segment with Elias. The bass bit was hilarious, but then he immediately beat the crap out of him. I also think Braun has the charisma a lot of folks don't when doing these types of segments and understands his character better than most.

 

Now if they put him in a New Year Baby diaper like Big Show then yeah, they'll have gone too far. But right now they've done a great job reinforcing that he's a monster even when he's having fun.

[FMKK]

Cherry-picking a handful of counterexamples does not disprove the overall point.

 

What are the actual example examples?

[shodate]

 

Cherry-picking a handful of counterexamples does not disprove the overall point.

 

What are the actual example examples?

 

an out of left example is Fujiwara i know its not wwe but he's night on 70 and hes works as well as he did when he was 40

and i know hes not a big man but style wise people say Japanese style is more dangerous so there is that

 

but id say vader is the best but he came from football braun from powerlifting what is more athletic as rule ir engenders better cardio conditioning?

[cowboy hats]

I was rolling my eyes a bit at all the talk of Lashley being big enough to main event Summerslam. His return doesn’t feel anything like Lesnar in 2012. But I was on the company’s youtube page last night and his return segment dwarfs everything else in views (like, 5.4 million to next highest in the low 2 millions). So...hmmm.

[FMKK]

I find the YouTube number stuff quite fascinating in terms of how we can read into it for who fans are most interested in and what demographic it reaches. The Lesnar vs Reigns feud dwarfed everything else in the Mania build-up but the match itself was shit on.

 

Does that tell us that casuals watch YouTube and they want to see those two but the hardcores who are in the building don't? Or is that too simplistic?