That's the only change that needs to be made to The
Shield entrance music to make it suitable for Reigns as a solo act. It’s a
change worth making because it feels right for his character to keep the music,
the through-the-audience entrance and the ring gear of the group. It just doesn’t
make sense to have The Shield name acknowledged when he enters.
 |
| Ambrose smells something unpleasant. |
The reason I bring up the concept of Roman Reigns as a
singles act is that it was given a trial run on RAW. His association with Dean
Ambrose hasn't been brought to an end and it probably won't be for a while yet
but the two did not appear together on the show. Ambrose ran in on a Seth
Rollins match wearing jeans and a vest and then wrestled a match against Bad
News Barrett, losing by count out after Rollins reappeared to taunt him. It's
possible that he had new music too, but it wasn't played when he entered and
was so nondescript that it could just have been Rollins’s.
Meanwhile Reigns appeared in a series of backstage skits
in which he spiked Stephanie McMahon's drink with something that made her throw
up so she'd get sent to hospital. He then manipulated Vickie Guerrero into
adding him to a battle royal, the winner of which would be added to the
upcoming WWE championship ladder match at Money in the Bank. Reigns won that in
impressive fashion, tossing out several disposable names before last
eliminating the undefeated Rusev. The final exchange was well laid out and it
was heartening to hear the audience react so passionately to the stare off
between Reigns and 'The Super Athlete'.
Both Shield members came across well during the trial.
People responded to Ambrose's fervent promise that he would be getting his
hands on Seth Rollins and the look he sported was a good one, similar enough to
the riot gear look people expect without being an isolating radical departure.
It's unlikely he'll get to keep it over a more generic look though: WWE seems
to dislike casual gear on their grapplers. Besides, it's almost certainly too
similar to the preferred look of scruff bag extraordinaire Luke Harper.
 |
| Reigns and the world title. The future? |
Reigns knows how to work the cameras during an entrance
(easier now he's alone), has a number of moves that are over, and has a star
aura to him. It’s easy to accept him as a main event act. That’s the result of
the good booking he’s received over the last year and a half, particularly his
memorable, status-enhancing showings at Survivor Series and Royal Rumble.
The only negative regarding Reigns was the decision to
put him in backstage skits. He handled them well enough and the audience
reaction indicated that most people seemed to enjoy them but I don’t think it’s
a good approach for a man like Reigns. His demeanour, stature and look make him
the sort of man people want to see fighting his way to the top, not sneaking
there in backstage segments. It’s part of WWE’s distressing habit of feeling
they need to humanise their main event stars with comedy. It would have been
more fitting for the Reigns character to simply storm to the ring and
manipulate Triple H into adding him into the match himself rather than messing
around with Vickie Guerrero. It’s a minor thing now, but if they stick with
that approach it’ll become far more problematic.
Overall Ambrose and Reigns both looked good on RAW. While
I hope their partnership continues for a while yet we now know that they’ll be
accepted in singles roles. And that thoughts been given to how to present them
as such. Which, considering generally poor approach to creating new stars, is
nice.
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