Operation OverPush: The Roman Reigns Story

by Joey Evans/MrShadowAcers

At Survivor Series 2012, a dominant trio of wrestlers known as The Shield made their WWE debut. One of those men is a strong 29-year old Samoan American named Roman Reigns. This is his story.

It seems that since The Shield debuted, WWE was looking to position Reigns as the alpha male of the group. In most six-man matches The Shield competed in, it was Reigns that would deliver the final blow with a devastating spear. Apparently, backstage it was no different either.  According to CM Punk in his recent podcast with Colt Cabana, The Shield (which Punk claims was his idea) was going to consist of Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, and Kassius Ohno aka Chris Hero. Management turned down Hero, and instead suggested Reigns, who was going by the name Leakee at the time. Punk begrudgingly accepted, knowing that WWE wanted “the pretty one”/”their guy” in the group. In part two of the podcast, Punk tells the story on his match with The Shield at TLC 2013, noting that an agent told him to make Roman Reigns look “really, really strong” in that match. Every two minutes after that,  person after person would remind Punk to make Roman look strong until he finally told them to shut the f---k up and let him do his job. From that story alone, we get a clear picture of how WWE wants Roman Reigns to be booked. On a side note, the next month at the Royal Rumble, Reigns broke Kane’s record of most eliminations in a rumble match when he threw out 12 men.

Now, we have a huge problem. And when I say huge, I mean HUGE. Andre the Giant huge.

In September, Reigns was sidelined with an incarcerated hernia that required emergency surgery. During that time, he would cut promos via satellite that mostly fell flat. He also won the 2014 Superstar of the Year Slammy award WHILE STILL INACTIVE.  Did I also mention his promos fall pretty flat? Seriously, watch his promo from last week’s Raw and tell me he didn't stare directly into the camera for a good five seconds at least. It looked like the camera was slowly eating away his brain. However, the icing on the cake came at last night’s Christmas Raw when Reigns faced off against Big Show. That’s right, Big Show.  The same Big Show that changes alignment like he changes underpants. Their match was so slow and plodding that the fans chanted “boring” and even chanted for Daniel Bryan at one point. The same Daniel Bryan who is also currently inactive and unsure if he will ever return or not.

What I’m saying is, things are not looking good for Mr. Reigns. Wrestling Big Show on Monday night did him absolutely no favors whatsoever. The less than favorable reaction he received kinda makes me think that WWE might want to reconsider pulling the trigger on Operation OverPush. If Reigns is pushed too much too soon before he is ready, the crowd will turn on him faster than you can say guacamole. Sound familiar? To make matters worse, this year's Royal Rumble will take place in Philadelphia, home to the Philly cheesestake, the Eagles, oh and also ECW. I guarantee you those fans will eat him alive and spit him right back out. As a longtime wrestling fan and supporter of the company, I challenge WWE to think over what they are doing with Roman Reigns. You must make sure he is ready and able to be the new "man" of the company. Or you can begin the first stage of Operation OverPush in January. If you thought last year's Royal Rumble was a disaster, you haven't seen anything yet. WWE holds the career of a promising young superstar in their hands, and I hope the Roman Reigns Story can come to a happy ending for all of us. 

...well, maybe some of us.

On a much lighter note, since Christmas is just around the corner, I thought I would share this special song that was featured in the comments section of  The Best and Worst of Raw written by a blogger named Brandon Stroud. I encourage readers of this blog to check out uproxx.com/prowrestling and follow him on Twitter @MrBrandonStroud. He's a funny and talented dude who loves pro wrestling. Anyway, here is the song, by the user Spitty with a slight modification provided by yours truly!

On the 12th day of Christmas creative gave to me…

12 Wins by DQ

11 Pins by roll up

10 Rosebuds raving

9. 99

8 total divas

7 pointless angles

6 Boring Promos

NO BRASS RINGS

4 Champions losing

3 Black guys dancing

2 minute matches

and I wish I was watching NXT

Happy Holidays from PW Manifesto!

My Perspective on Wrestling

January 27, 2001.

That was the day I can say that I fell in love with this crazy sport we call professional wrestling.

On that night, I attended the 2001 WWF (not E) Royal Rumble which took place from my hometown of New Orleans, Louisiana. There were some good to great matches which included Chris Jericho v.s. Chris Benoit (yeah I said the name so what) in a ladder match for the I.C Title, and Triple H v.s. Kurt Angle for the WWF Championship. But the undisputed match of the night was the Royal Rumble match, which I would certainly rank in my top 5 rumble matches of all time. In one of the greatest moments I have ever seen live, Stone Cold Steve Austin eliminated Kane to win and go on to the main event of Wrestlemania 17, which in my opinion, is the greatest Wrestlemania of all time. The Royal Rumble was the first really big wrestling event I ever attended. After that night, I was hooked and I never turned back.

I have been watching pro wrestling since 1997. The first promotion I watched was WCW, while the N.W.O was in full swing and the company was dominating WWE in the ratings. Later in the year I started watching WWE, during the time when Steve Austin was on the rise and Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels were embroiled in their blood feud. As the years progressed, I began to watch WWE as much as I did WCW. I also watched small amounts of ECW and own both ECW video games on the original Playstation…there’s your nostalgia fix of the day! I watched both major companies until WCW finally folded in 2001.

Following WWE’s purchase of WCW in 2001, I began watching wrestling on a more consistent basis. While WWE’s business began to wane following the end of the Attitude Era, the in-ring product improved immensely. During my teenage/high school years, my perspective on the wrestling business became more jaded as I learned more about the “dirt sheets” and other forms of wrestling news. There was a brief period where I stopped watching wrestling; that was when I was forced out of New Orleans due to Hurricane Katrina. Around that time I was introduced to TNA Wrestling and that became my other alternative to WWE. As the years progressed, I came to discover other indy wrestling promotions such as Ring of Honor and PWG.

Fast forward to my college years and it is somewhat challenging to be a wrestling fan these days. WWE is so focused on being a publicly traded entertainment company – more so now than in the past – that some of the stuff that they put on television turns off the viewers. TNA, well, do I really need to go into detail at this point? No? Yeah, I didn’t think so. However, my love for pro wrestling came full circle this past April when I attended my second big wrestling event in nearly 15 years…Wrestlemania 30 in New Orleans. It was then that I returned back to where it all started for me. I had realized why I had become a wrestling fan in the first place; moments I witnessed live such as The Undertaker’s streak ending at the hands of BROCK LESNAR to Daniel Bryan’s ultimate victory gave me memories that will last me for the rest of my life, just as it had been 15 years earlier. In a way, wrestling helped me find my passion for New Orleans again, as it had been lost since high school.  For once, it was wrestling that gave back to me.

Hey everyone! My name is Joey Evans aka MrShadowAcers. As stated in the article, I am originally from New Orleans, Louisiana, but moved to Central Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina. JP asked me if I wanted to contribute to the blog, and I accepted. I am excited and humbled to be a contributor to PW Manifesto going forward, and I thank JP for the opportunity to write about a thing I love. Be sure to comment and tell me what you think of my first piece!

PW Manifesto Episode 3 : There is No Crying in Pro Wrestling

On this episode, JR returns with Ursin, and Justin to talk about

- ROH Final Battle 2014

- The Booking of Monday Night Raw

- The "legitimacy" or lack thereof of the Slammy Awards' results

- Predictions for TLC 2014's outcomes

PW Manifesto Episode 2: The Empire Strikes

So despite the lack of JP Ursin Deroche and Justin Tassin carry the show in this episode and the cover

- The Vince Mcmahon Podcast with Austin

- The Backstage Reaction to Punk's podcast with Colt Cabana

- The Reaction to Vince Mcmahon's "apology" from Punk

- The perceived marginilization of Dolph Ziggler

- The Tables match between Rollins and Cena

- The quality of this past Raw

- The New Day gimmick

[Editorial]: 2 Year Plan to Improve WWE's Product

IMPROVING WWE

by JP

I've actually posted this on a couple forums but I feel the need to share this on here since all of the problems in WWE covered are still relevant issues that I think should be fixed within the WWE:

 YEAR ONE

Encourage Vince Mcmahon and Kevin Dunn to retire

This would be the most critical step one can make in improving WWE because those two are the biggest cancers to the product and have been for years now due to being out of touch, discriminatory and short sighted. Last thing we need is two racist old self serving a-holes ruining the chances of stars being made because their preferences aren't met by these talents. Talents such as Cesaro, Paige, and Emma in recent months/years have all been victims of being screwed over solely for being international, having accents, and not fitting Vince's mold. On top of that, it's like those two are a treasure trove of wasteful, unfunny comedy skits and convoluted scripts for the shows. It is also clear as a bell that as far as direction goes HHH would be better running this company here on out. NXT shows he can handle blending wrestling with "entertainment" in a well balanced way while keeping the storylines simple, focused and yet still interesting.


Cutting Down The Writing Team

NXT is proof that a small creative team is ideal because of there not being too many cooks in the kitchen. If you have a head writer and a writer under him then it should all be fine for the most part.

Plus every year someone from creative seems to get fired anyway. So just revert to a less micromanaged booking style and writing these shows will be easier to  do.

 
Giving More Freedom to The Wrestlers

When I say this I mean both on the mic and in the ring. For instance, instead of forcing wrestlers to follow scripted dialogue verbatim at the risk of sounding stiff, start giving them talking points but allowing them to say things in their own way. Not only that but instead of micromanaging how the wrestlers work in the ring, I'd just give them a small list of safety hazard moves and tell them "Put on the best match you guys can put on for this amount of time". Some will say "Psychology is what really matters" but with the limitations championed by the main roster they are almost limited to only the most basic form of psychology. I understand making every move count but not every wrestler needs to follow the "punch.........kick.........punch........resthold. .......stomp.........resthold.....5 moves of doom" format to put on great matches. Same thing goes for not needing a Dean Malenko like arsenal. Just strike a balance between having a somewhat diverse arsenal and maintaining good in ring storytelling. Because when in ring versatility and psychology is put together there are more possibilities for the types of stories that can be told in the ring. All that aside, the above outline may work for certain wrestlers but they usually need the right mannerisms for such a thing to work well and not everyone is Jake The Snake.

Which brings me to.....

Ring Time

*This is something that can be saving grace to ANY wrestling show regardless of how weak the storylines may be because it's essentially the meat potatoes of the business. Call it "Sports Entertainment" if you want to but ultimately what the talents do is WRESTLE and when you let them wrestle good to great matches it can become a redeeming quality for a product because fans will know that have that to look forward to even when storylines become a mess. For example, when the booking went down the drain in the Fall/Winter of 2013, WWE had a great in ring product with several MOTY candidates happening throughout each week, either involving The Tag team division or whomever Punk and Bryan were wrestling. Along with Cena even adding to his own arsenal to fit in with what was going on.

Ultimately Good wrestling can be the glue than holds a show together because interestingly enough if you get a great promo but a weak match, everything will feel anticlimactic and disappointing but if you get Mediocre promos and story but a good-great match it'll feel like it's been redeemed.

Alongside that if every match on the shows are given 15 to 25 minutes. Raw is 3 hrs, that's just the right amount of time to put on good matches and develop all the necessary feuds simultaneously*

Taking more risks with the format of the show

*One of WWE's biggest problems right now is the predictability regarding the show's structure. They often, open and close their shows the exact same way and we see the same type of segments throughout the show.

It's pretty much open the show with a lengthy promo, then have matches, backstage talking, run-ins to close the show. Rinse and repeat.

Why not begin the shows differently each week. One week a promo to open the show, next week a match opens the show, on a different week begin the show with a pre-taped "on-location" segment or a simple backstage ambush for example?

Hell....use "on location" segments more often in the show period.

Take the female wrestlers more seriously

This is one of the most aggravating aspects of the products, whether it's marginalizing the divas that can wrestle to emphasize the ones that can't, Total Divas, that retarded looking championship belt or referring to them as "Divas" in the first place instead of letting them identify as Women WRESTLERS. The solution to this would be making every "Total Diva" not named Natalya, Paige, or Summer Rae not wrestle and only be ambassadors for the division by appearing in Total Divas and promoting the product through interviews Etc. Not only that let divas like Paige, Charlotte, Natalya, AJ, Becky Lynch and the like be front and center in the divas division while having someone like Summer Rae, Sasha Bank or even Brie Bella be the stuck up girls that identify as divas and not wrestlers on occasion. But that would require referring to the division as the "Women's division" and bringing back the "women's title".

Alongside that let them be in wrestling oriented feuds and not daytime TV oriented feuds*

Long term investment in developing an undercard

Instead of depleting the tag team division and treating the US and IC title divisions like they don't matter, they should be building up and letting more guys in those divisions get promo and ring time. No more random start and stop pushes and no more breaking up tag teams with no real plan in sight. The more sources of income/star power the better. People need a reason to care about THE WHOLE SHOW not just parts of the show.

More "Grounded" interview segments

These work well in UFC, NXT, and even feuds of WWE past because it not only allows the performers to be comfortable in their own skin but it gives the viewers a more intimate view of who these guys are or atleast gives off that impression to the viewers that they are seeing the "real side" of these performers. Now not every feud should call for this especially if they involve more eccentric and fanstical characters like Bray Wyatt, Undertaker or Sting but at the very least this should be used for all the feuds revolving around the championship belts.

Make Championship belt feuds revolve around the title

The simple storyline of "who is better" or "You have this belt and I want to take it" makes the belt feel more important because it shows how much the wrestlers want those belts and how important they are to them. As opposed to the belt just being a subplot in a feud revolving around a handful of other stuff. The belt is supposed to be what separates certain stars from the pack by either showing they are the best in the ring, or the most cunning and clever with their underhanded tactics in a storyline sense and showing that they are the premier talents within their divsions. Alongside that, the wrestlers need goals to strive for and the belts give them that goal. Without those belts being there, why would the performers be wrestling and busting their ass to be noticed by the fans? The answer is, there would be no point to it all. So devaluing the importance of those belts is like telling fans that nothing in these shows really matter in the longrun.
 

YEAR TWO


Let the Midcard titles headline PPVs

*This would be a good way to use positive momentum from Year One to resurrect the importance of the non World titles. These belts were at one point able to headline live events in their respective heydays(except the Women's title) and the IC title even closed a Summerslam once.

Not to mention that with the WWE Network, there is a significant amount of leeway to take more risks with PPV buys being less of a factor. Sometimes in the company, the network is seen as an excuse to be lazy and treat PPVs like they are Raw episodes but if WWE wants more subscriptions they should use it as a platform to take risk that can ENHANCE their product

Offseason for Performers

*To be honest this is more like making wrestlers sit on the bench for a while but anyway....

This is something that WWE has actually considered from time to time but don't have the star power to do but with the ideas from Year One that should be rectified. Which would also come into play with letting the other titles headline different PPVs. It not only recharges the wrestlers and reduces injury rate but it gives other talent chances to be in the spotlight and forces WWE to have put more effort into developing stars.*

Have all Titles defended simultaneously only once a year

When I say once a year, I mean once at Summerslam and once at Mania during the new year, if this is done in this way, having all the titles defended with a new prestige will make these big PPVs feel that much more special and generate more revenue due to the fans that are into what each title has to offer all paying to see said events.