Latest on Reigns' return to action

[Red Rain]

Best case scenario... WWE pulls their heads out of their asses (which they prolly won't) and let Ambrose or Bryan (he's not gonna be back by the Rumble, but fuck it, one can dream) and actually push more talented guys than Reigns. What are the chances of that?

Plenty, if the lunatic fringe can start a 'Brose movement (without the hand gestures, of course).
Though Triple H, Edge, Austin and Batista turned heel shortly after winning the Rumble, this can easily be avoided if Reigns isn't booked so obviously.

 

[Leo C]

IIRC, I think Bryan's talked about possible matches with Cesaro and Wyatt if he was still champion, (the interviews happened some time after his injury). He also said he'd love a match with Lesnar.

Could've put on some entertaining matches. Wyatt I'm not sure would've benefitted much in the sense that he's back in the ME so no problem there, plus maybe they had that Jericho program penciled in already or something, I don't know. Wyatt may have been busy but Cesaro does sound like a possibility. I'm sure he would've been the one to drop to Brock at SS, though.

 

[Prince Bálor]

Plenty, if the lunatic fringe can start a 'Brose movement (without the hand gestures, of course).
Though Triple H, Edge, Austin and Batista turned heel shortly after winning the Rumble, this can easily be avoided if Reigns isn't booked so obviously.

In this case, if he won the Rumble, Ambrose wouldn't be turning heel 'cause Bork would be keeping the title till Mania. This is something that I've been thinking about... Ambrose defeats Lesnar in an outstanding match, but then Rollins cashes in. I mean, they've never done that. Nobody's ever cashed in MITB at WM. Ambrose winning the Rumble and defeating Bork at Mania is prolly not happening, but hey, one can dream...

 

[Prince Bálor]

Could've put on some entertaining matches. Wyatt I'm not sure would've benefitted much in the sense that he's back in the ME so no problem there, plus maybe they had that Jericho program penciled in already or something, I don't know. Wyatt may have been busy but Cesaro does sound like a possibility. I'm sure he would've been the one to drop to Brock at SS, though.

Yeah, I was just implying that if he wasn't injured, we would've gotten some quality matches/programme with those guys.

Of course DBry would be dropping it to Lesnar at SummerSlam, not in the Cena fashion, but it'd have been a nice 5 month reign for DBry.

 

[Leo C]

Yeah, I was just implying that if he wasn't injured, we would've gotten some quality matches/programme with those guys.

Of course DBry would be dropping it to Lesnar at SummerSlam, not in the Cena fashion, but it'd have been a nice 5 month reign for DBry.

Yeah.

 

[The GOAT]

I dunno if building Cesaro for ME scene would work better than building Reigns... But I'd take Cesaro over Reigns any day.

Cesaro/Wyatt would've been in the ME if Bryan wasn't injured, imo.

IMO, Bryan's title reign wouldn't have been much different than we got if he hadn't of been injured. He was scheduled to face Kane in an Ambulance match at Payback before the injury (and before that, his scheduled opponent was Batista, but Batista refused to do the job), so there's that. The Authority will have probably booked him in a multi-man ladder match at the Money In The Bank PPV to increase the odds that he wouldn't walk out as champion, so that match would have been mostly the same. Battleground might have still been a four-way match, except with Bryan in Cena or Reigns' spot. Or maybe he would have wrestled Bray Wyatt in a singles match at Battleground given their history from earlier in the year. Would have been good for him to avenge himself with a big victory over Wyatt before falling to Lesnar.

The more interesting thing to me isn't who he would have defended the title against if he hadn't been injured, but rather who Cena would have faced at Money In The Bank, Battleground, Summerslam and Night Of Champions. He would have probably been in the ladder match for the title at MITB, maybe been in the four-way at Battleground or teaming with Reigns to face Orton and Kane if Bryan wrestled Bray, but what about Summerslam and Night Of Champions?

I wouldn't ignore the possibility of a Ryback/Goldberg type build.
Suppose Reigns comes back in December and proceeds to squash jobbers, possibly two at a time.
If he continued this on each broadcast, it would build him as an indestructible force on a mission.
He can win the Rumble, but instead of feuding with Triple H, he continues to squash jabronis.
If he defeated Triple H too soon, people would see right through that as typical WWE bullsh*t.

However, if he gets support the way Ryback/Goldberg did, he will have earned it physically, not politically. Once he defeats Lesnar then he can feud with HHH.

I agree that'd be a logical path to take. I think he'd need a big victory over someone at Fast Lane (urgh) though to still look like he isn't just beating nobodies going into his match with Lesnar. I'd suggest Mark Henry for that role. He just turned heel and if they booked him as a strong, dominant and perhaps even undefeated heel from now up until that point, Reigns beating him in February could actually mean something. We'll also probably see Reigns break his own elimination record in the Royal Rumble match, a task that shouldn't be too hard to accomplish since it's scheduled to be a 40-man Rumble again next year.

 

[Prince Bálor]

IMO, Bryan's title reign wouldn't have been much different than we got if he hadn't of been injured. He was scheduled to face Kane in an Ambulance match at Payback before the injury (and before that, his scheduled opponent was Batista, but Batista refused to do the job), so there's that. The Authority will have probably booked him in a multi-man ladder match at the Money In The Bank PPV to increase the odds that he wouldn't walk out as champion, so that match would have been mostly the same. Battleground might have still been a four-way match, except with Bryan in Cena or Reigns' spot. Or maybe he would have wrestled Bray Wyatt in a singles match at Battleground given their history from earlier in the year. Would have been good for him to avenge himself with a big victory over Wyatt before falling to Lesnar.

The more interesting thing to me isn't who he would have defended the title against if he hadn't been injured, but rather who Cena would have faced at Money In The Bank, Battleground, Summerslam and Night Of Champions. He would have probably been in the ladder match for the title at MITB, maybe been in the four-way at Battleground or teaming with Reigns to face Orton and Kane if Bryan wrestled Bray, but what about Summerslam and Night Of Champions?



I agree that'd be a logical path to take. I think he'd need a big victory over someone at Fast Lane (urgh) though to still look like he isn't just beating nobodies going into his match with Lesnar. I'd suggest Mark Henry for that role. He just turned heel and if they booked him as a strong, dominant and perhaps even undefeated heel from now up until that point, Reigns beating him in February could actually mean something. We'll also probably see Reigns break his own elimination record in the Royal Rumble match, a task that shouldn't be too hard to accomplish since it's scheduled to be a 40-man Rumble again next year.

There's always that big 'What If?' question about DBry's injury, what would've happened if he wasn't injured. But sadly, what's done is done. Hopefully everything turns out well for him.

By the way, about the Royal Rumble 2015 in Philly... I think Cole announced either this week or last week, I don't really remember that it's gonna be a 30 Man Rumble match.

- Is there any way that they won't be pushing Reigns to dethrone The Beast after all? Personally, I'd prefer anyone else but Reigns or Cena.

 

[ShaRpY HaRdY]

I'm hyped to see Roman return to action, I don't really care to see him dethrone the beast but if it is him I definitely won't be hating on it.. Roman is talented and not too shabby on the mic, plus his bloodline is no joke. Hopefully they can fit him into some good storylines that make sense and just don't make him into a complete utter invincible monster for awhile.

 

[Prince Bálor]

I'm hyped to see Roman return to action, I don't really care to see him dethrone the beast but if it is him I definitely won't be hating on it.. Roman is talented and not too shabby on the mic, plus his bloodline is no joke. Hopefully they can fit him into some good storylines that make sense and just don't make him into a complete utter invincible monster for awhile.

This guy definitely needs to improve in the ring, and more-less on the mic... All they've done to him so far is the Cena treatment, he's basically Cena 2.0 and that's something I don't like.
The guy clearly has potential to develop even more, they need to capitalise on it.

 

[The GOAT]

There's always that big 'What If?' question about DBry's injury, what would've happened if he wasn't injured. But sadly, what's done is done. Hopefully everything turns out well for him.

By the way, about the Royal Rumble 2015 in Philly... I think Cole announced either this week or last week, I don't really remember that it's gonna be a 30 Man Rumble match.

- Is there any way that they won't be pushing Reigns to dethrone The Beast after all? Personally, I'd prefer anyone else but Reigns or Cena.

They still have time to upgrade the Rumble match to 40 men before January gets here.

As for the Reigns thing, I'm afraid not. Unless Reigns gets injured again or gets caught smuggling drugs in his flak jacket or some sort of 'Brose movement takes off, it seems all their chips are behind Reigns at this point. I wouldn't even mind it so much if Reigns was more interesting on the mic and as a personality because despite his other positive assets (da look, good move-set and timing in the ring, etc.), he just doesn't carry a special enough aura to me as the silent bad-ass to get me invested in his feuds with only saying a few words. Well, actually he kinda does, but not to the point where I want to see him defeat Brock Lesnar. But who else is there? Ambrose doesn't fit their mindset of the kind of conquering warrior who takes down the indestructible beast (as much as I love Ambrose, I can see their point there), Punk is gone, Cena will lose to Brock again at the Rumble, Orton is already established, Rollins is a smarmy heel, Bryan won't be back in time, etc.

 

[ShaRpY HaRdY]

They still have time to upgrade the Rumble match to 40 men before January gets here.

I totally thought they already had it announced already as a 40 man battle royale for RR.. although I may have been dreaming that, who knows!

 

[CFCrusader]

So all of WWE's hopes are pinned on a guy coming back from injury who is pretty mediocre on the mic and in the ring and who's only redeeming qualities are that he has the look, a badass finisher and lots of time to improve to beat THE BEAST INCARNATE BRAWWWWK LESNURRRR at WrestleMania 31 despite the fact that they have tons of guys in the back right now who they can build up even as Plan B's if they realise Reigns probably isn't going to be ready to beat Lesnar come WrestleMania season. Honestly, they have one guy who sticks out like a needle and his name is Cesaro. WWE Creative and Vince are so stupid and clearly don't know what they're doing, and this actually hurts because in the past they've shown they can make great moments. RAW after WrestleMania is always great, and this year we got the rise and rise of Cesaro (and he even got endorsed by Hawk Hogan, as Wes Brisco once called him on Impact).

After winning the FIRST EVER Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, we got an epic breakup between Cesaro and Swagger/Colter and we got to see Heyman alongside Cesaro, who was seriously over. Forget about the RAW after WM crowd, they're always great. But even before that, the swing was like Cesaro's YES! chant and everyone knew he was clearly a talented guy even in what was meant to be a heel team. So then they put Heyman with him, and it turns out it's not immediately working. But hey, you got until Summerslam when Lesnar would come back to actually wrestle to fix this before Heyman would eventually leave Cesaro - or you could have Heyman work with both. After all, Cesaro has the Wrestling part down. All he needs is a mouthpiece. So what do you do? Book Cesaro and Heyman strongly going into a feud with Swagger and Colter? Nope, you shove RVD into the whole equation, give up what was a very hot feud to have Swagger job to Adam freakin' Rose (this did nothing for both of them, in fact it HURT both of them) and then Heyman leaves Cesaro. Okay, fine. Play it up to be Cesaro getting a bit pissed at Heyman, but still wanting to be his friend and going for midcard glory. So Lesnar, the new champ, is gone right now. Heyman should be back with Cesaro, going after Ziggler. Instead Cesaro and Ziggler are tearing it up in the ring but honestly, who cares about Cesaro at this point? You should have Cesaro with Heyman going after guys who have lost to Lesnar (so effectively, have Lesnar actually defend the fucking title against someone who's not named John Cena), build up momentum and BRING BACK THE CESARO SWING.

Eventually, Lesnar returns and Heyman disappears from Cesaro's side again, after telling Cesaro not to do that as it looks like he's trying to show off to Lesnar. Cesaro is angry and tells Heyman to get lost, beats Lesnar's latest victim and gets the big F5. He talks to Zeb Colter, who agrees to help him beat Lesnar once and for all. Cesaro wins the Royal Rumble, and during Cena vs Lesnar, Cesaro ends up swinging Lesnar once. Do Lesnar vs Cena vs Orton vs Reigns vs Ambrose vs Swagger at Elimination Chamber, Lesnar beats them up all while Cesaro beats Triple H. And then at WrestleMania 31, Cesaro finally defeats Lesnar while they could hopefully do Sting vs Bryan, Cody vs Goldust and Barrett (IC Champ) vs Orton to really make my day.

 

[Prince Bálor]

They still have time to upgrade the Rumble match to 40 men before January gets here.

As for the Reigns thing, I'm afraid not. Unless Reigns gets injured again or gets caught smuggling drugs in his flak jacket or some sort of 'Brose movement takes off, it seems all their chips are behind Reigns at this point. I wouldn't even mind it so much if Reigns was more interesting on the mic and as a personality because despite his other positive assets (da look, good move-set and timing in the ring, etc.), he just doesn't carry a special enough aura to me as the silent bad-ass to get me invested in his feuds with only saying a few words. Well, actually he kinda does, but not to the point where I want to see him defeat Brock Lesnar. But who else is there? Ambrose doesn't fit their mindset of the kind of conquering warrior who takes down the indestructible beast (as much as I love Ambrose, I can see their point there), Punk is gone, Cena will lose to Brock again at the Rumble, Orton is already established, Rollins is a smarmy heel, Bryan won't be back in time, etc.

Once again, you're right. So, I guess Roman Reigns dethroning The Beast at WM is indeed set in stone, eh? Oh well.

Gotta say I would love it if they let Rollins cash in on Reigns at WM, 'cause it's never been done before, but I doubt they'd ruin Reigns' big moment...

We'll see what happens, tho. There are like 5 months to go till we get there...

 

[Prince Bálor]

So all of WWE's hopes are pinned on a guy coming back from injury who is pretty mediocre on the mic and in the ring and who's only redeeming qualities are that he has the look, a badass finisher and lots of time to improve to beat THE BEAST INCARNATE BRAWWWWK LESNURRRR at WrestleMania 31 despite the fact that they have tons of guys in the back right now who they can build up even as Plan B's if they realise Reigns probably isn't going to be ready to beat Lesnar come WrestleMania season. Honestly, they have one guy who sticks out like a needle and his name is Cesaro. WWE Creative and Vince are so stupid and clearly don't know what they're doing, and this actually hurts because in the past they've shown they can make great moments. RAW after WrestleMania is always great, and this year we got the rise and rise of Cesaro (and he even got endorsed by Hawk Hogan, as Wes Brisco once called him on Impact).

After winning the FIRST EVER Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, we got an epic breakup between Cesaro and Swagger/Colter and we got to see Heyman alongside Cesaro, who was seriously over. Forget about the RAW after WM crowd, they're always great. But even before that, the swing was like Cesaro's YES! chant and everyone knew he was clearly a talented guy even in what was meant to be a heel team. So then they put Heyman with him, and it turns out it's not immediately working. But hey, you got until Summerslam when Lesnar would come back to actually wrestle to fix this before Heyman would eventually leave Cesaro - or you could have Heyman work with both. After all, Cesaro has the Wrestling part down. All he needs is a mouthpiece. So what do you do? Book Cesaro and Heyman strongly going into a feud with Swagger and Colter? Nope, you shove RVD into the whole equation, give up what was a very hot feud to have Swagger job to Adam freakin' Rose (this did nothing for both of them, in fact it HURT both of them) and then Heyman leaves Cesaro. Okay, fine. Play it up to be Cesaro getting a bit pissed at Heyman, but still wanting to be his friend and going for midcard glory. So Lesnar, the new champ, is gone right now. Heyman should be back with Cesaro, going after Ziggler. Instead Cesaro and Ziggler are tearing it up in the ring but honestly, who cares about Cesaro at this point? You should have Cesaro with Heyman going after guys who have lost to Lesnar (so effectively, have Lesnar actually defend the fucking title against someone who's not named John Cena), build up momentum and BRING BACK THE CESARO SWING.

Eventually, Lesnar returns and Heyman disappears from Cesaro's side again, after telling Cesaro not to do that as it looks like he's trying to show off to Lesnar. Cesaro is angry and tells Heyman to get lost, beats Lesnar's latest victim and gets the big F5. He talks to Zeb Colter, who agrees to help him beat Lesnar once and for all. Cesaro wins the Royal Rumble, and during Cena vs Lesnar, Cesaro ends up swinging Lesnar once. Do Lesnar vs Cena vs Orton vs Reigns vs Ambrose vs Swagger at Elimination Chamber, Lesnar beats them up all while Cesaro beats Triple H. And then at WrestleMania 31, Cesaro finally defeats Lesnar while they could hopefully do Sting vs Bryan, Cody vs Goldust and Barrett (IC Champ) vs Orton to really make my day.

I really love everything about this post. Too bad it's not gonna happen. I'd take anyone over Reigns/Cena. But WWE can't seem to get their heads out of their asses.

 

[The GOAT]

Once again, you're right. So, I guess Roman Reigns dethroning The Beast at WM is indeed set in stone, eh? Oh well.

Gotta say I would love it if they let Rollins cash in on Reigns at WM, 'cause it's never been done before, but I doubt they'd ruin Reigns' big moment...

We'll see what happens, tho. There are like 5 months to go till we get there...

I'm actually expecting Rollins to cash in at Wrestlemania, irregardless of who defeats Lesnar. It's just too perfect of a moment and makes too much sense to pass up. Of course, judging from past examples, that means I'll probably just end up disappointed when it doesn't happen, but oh well. A man can sometimes dream.