I've wanted to post this in one of the 56521354658135 different "is Roman the guy lol?" threads, but I'll put it here. (For Grievous!)
I still wonder what would be different if they had pushed Roman Reigns correctly in storyline - fixing the summer of 2014 and obviously RR 2015 - if it would have worked.
Right after the Shield split, I can't help but remember exactly what happened.
Rollins hit Reigns, then Ambrose, in the back. Shield splits.
Dean Ambrose goes on his own and verbally eviscerates Seth week by week. Roman Reigns is in random tag main events with random main event babyfaces.
MITB rolls around, and with the title held "in abeyance" - lol remember that shit - The Authority sends Kane out to push the ladder over with Ambrose on it to hand-deliver Rollins the briefcase as a reward for breaking the group that they couldn't defeat up... where was Reigns? Being guy #8 in the main event ladder match, where CENA WINS LOL when he threw Orton onto Kane to conquer the Authority and cut to Triple H and Stephanie being like "oh no cena won whatever shall we do"
Battleground came around, and everyone was hotly anticipating Ambrose finally getting his hands on Rollins, just to do some bait and switch bullshit I don't remember, while Reigns was promised to be a fourth guy added to the main event title match because Triple H wanted to punish his own cronies in Orton and Kane, and while this was a fun test for main event Roman on paper, looking back this is as forced as forced can get. The story sucked because... SEPERATE RANT. THE AUTHORITY IS AN ALL-TIME TERRIBLE ANGLE AND SHOULD BE TREATED AS SUCH. Cena slammed Orton onto Kane again to retain (LOL)
Summerslam time, remember what happened at Summerslam? SUPLEX CITY, BITCH. THE GREATEST MAIN EVENT EVER back when Suplex City was fresh and awesome and fun, when Lesnar MURDERED Cena and flung that boy through the air sixteen times and squashed him to be the ULTIMATE SUPER SAYING GOD BEAST PERSON and ready to main event Wrestlemania 31 against (Crayo called it) Roman Reigns, and Dean Ambrose vs Seth Rollins was THE BEST LUMBERJACK MATCH EVER. Seriously watch this. They played to both guys' strengths superbly, they ALWAYS put Ambrose in these no-DQ brawls that made him seem a lot more organic as he would crazily roll through throws and pop up and charge right back at you, Seth was actually a well-booked character as the sellout with the amazing voice protected by the goons who'd let him slip away from any danger... Oh, and what was Roman doing? Trying his hand at in-ring promos for the first time, calling out the Authority just to get into a cold ass feud with one of the most cold characters I've ever seen, Authority Orton, in a match that was totally forgotten about on the card on top of not making any sense because Triple H hand-picked Reigns to be in the Battleground match, I do not have any memory of anything involving this lol... but here's Seth and Dean getting massively over and passionate reactions and Reigns also kinda being there
onward and upward to Night of Champions 2014 and... Looking back, most point at Royal Rumble 2015 as the moment Roman Reigns as a top guy died.. I think it was actually here he was cooked and done for (and GO WATCH SHEAMUS VS CESARO THAT WAS THE BEST DAMN MATCH NOBODY REMEMBERS). Ambrose was injured (storyline? real? I can't remember... Oh yeah! The SS match he curbstomped Dean into cinderblocks, that's right! ) for a month, and Seth gloated for an episode about how he dealt with him and destroyed your hero and Reigns came out and cut a wooden babyface scripted ass Reigns promo. They built up to a midcard match at HIAC as people buzzed/worried about the stupid rematch between Lesnar and Cena wondering if it would be as magical as the squash at Summerslam or if.. gasp, Cena would get his win back. (Spoiler alert, he may as well have, but nobody remembers this SIXTEEN SUPLEXES CENA CAN EAT IT), but the week of the event Reigns got a hernia at a live event, was taken out of action and needed surgery, and Seth gloated about his big win by forfeit as Ambrose pulled up in a taxi in a black Hanes undershirt with a crowbar wanting to BEAT HIS ASS. Ambrose was relatable, he was Jean-Claude Van Damme running around clobbering dudes and throwing Rollins around by his hair and elbow-dropping the entire Authority as Reigns was having these protected ass wooden promos...
By this point, I stopped streaming PPVs and caved in and bought the Network for Hell in a Cell. The buildup was mostly absolute shit as WWE really struggled here, Cena and Orton can go have their obvious midcard ass #1 contender's match after Cena annoyingly interjected himself in the build just to lose a damn pole match, the Bella vs Bella feud was going on and the midcard was in as much oblivion as WWE love their midcard to be (that's why "OMG NAKAMURA IS BURIED" is a thing btw) and I didn't care. Hell I remember in the review thread I talked about spending three matches trying to get a damn thing of crab meat to open up but I didn't care. Rollins. vs. Ambrose. Hell in a Cell. No J&J Security. No Authority. Lets do this. I wanna turn on that TV and watch Dean get his hands on anything and beat the hell out of this boy (and have two young talents in the main event for the first time in forever in a grudge match that DESERVED the cell, goodness gracious that was fresh) and while Rollins is my favorite wrestler, Ambrose was a white hot babyface that I could suspend my disbelief and want to BEAT THAT ASS.... and the finish was a random ass lantern in the middle of the ring and a random crevatte by Bray Wyatt before Seth hit him with the briefcase for the W. Shit, this was.
Survivor Series... hmm. The rumored actual finish to the show was there being a 3 on 1 advantage for Team Authority, with Roman being the last babyface, before Roman takes out all three and wins the match, pinning Rollins last, and eliminates The Authority. I don't know how much of the plan for this changed, but...
-Vince making this stipulation and announcing that "the only person who can bring them back is John Cena" was absolute horseshit
-Sting made his long-awaited WWE debut and a lot of fans were happy about that including that one dad at Taco Bell the next day
-The stipulation of "if Team Cena wins, the Authority is out of power!" didn't make me want to see CENA WINS LOL so hey Emma pinned Summer Rae in some Divas' tag, I'll take it and cut my losses and cut the PPV off now
-Roman cut his infamous promo midway where he said "I'm gonna cock my fist and make it rain on this bitch!" Shut up.
...so we all know what happened. The buildup is about Ryback instead (groan), he turns face and saves Team Cena being the fifth man in the go-home show (groan), then gets eliminated first (LOLWWE), then Big Show turns heel and knocks out Cena (groan), and then DOLPH ZIGGLER. Down 3-on-1 with FIVE managers for the heels. Scrapped from underneath, fought his way back with all his might and his heart and you believed every nearfall. Sneak away, superkick to Kane! Zig-zag! 1-2-3!... Outwrestles Luke Harper, 1-2-3, down to him and Seth, he gets the advantage on Rollins before Triple H tries to screw him over, STING MAKES THE SAVE, but not enough to outshine Ziggler as he fought back from 3-on-1 down and make anyone who watched this (LOLSNOWMAN) love this battle and fall in love with Ziggler and pro wrestling again.
Then, oh my. TABLES LADDERS CHAIRS AND STAIRS. One of the worst PPV's ever, following the best ever NXT Takeover: R-Evolution starring Sami Zayn's emotional title win, the first Charlotte vs Sasha match, and Roman Reigns being the worst part of the show during a wooden backstage promo. But to this show, lets get down to it with the people mentioned before. Ziggler's career defining moment IMO (and why I wish the midcard belts would go away forever) was him following up the greatest Survivor Series performance ever, go from afterthought to white hot surefire underdog challenger to Brock, to opening the show to win the IC Title from Luke Harper. Classic waste of time, and really felt like they only let Ziggler get that win since Roman wasn't there. (Could you imagine Roman fighting back against that? Maybe it would have turned out well but I can't help but barf at the thought). Cena had some petty squabble like he normally does with Rollins so they had a completely unwatchable tables match where Roman returned and helped Cena win, while the ME between Wyatt and Ambrose finished with Ambrose not knowing the TV under the ring was plugged in, so he pulled at it and it blew up in his face. Never had one night dealt so much damage to the company before the night before Royal Rumble 2015, as two white-hot babyfaces were put in the freezer...
We know the story of Royal Rumble 2015 by now, but I thought it was so fascinating looking back over this. Maybe y'all enjoyed this long ass trip down memory lane with me
