Roman Reigns (the best heel in WWE) and the making of Cesaro.

Who loves Roman Reigns? People who think he really wins a lot because he's the bestest.
Who loves Cesaro? The classic 18-45 catagory. People that respect his work because they know what a good wrestler he is, in pure wrestling terms. Unfortunately respect doesn't get you mega pops. Sorry Cesaro, you tried everything and stayed mid card. And Reigns, man those haters are vocal, that sucks for your long term future as a traditional babyface

But what if WWE Book Roman to win the US title. What happens? people go ape shit, boo him out the arena. The fans that boo him (a lot of fans boo him) will now do what? Get the fuck behind whoever is facing Reigns. I.E top Heel work (even though it was never intended at first) perhaps a classic babyface is infact the best possible modern heel. Hell I would hate it if Roman kept winning titles, and that is the whole point of a heel, create hate, drive it home then make way for the guy who people like. Because this is how money is made and always has been.

so, what happens when WWE want to make a top face, but they struggle to get a real reaction on their own? Stick them against the top heel, have the heel sneak some wins and then at the big PPV, end the rivalry with that big pay off win for the babyface.

But wait, usually that is the problem. the fans boo that babyface pay off win because they 'suck'. Oh nooo. But if the heel is so good the fans don't care how boring the face is. They are just glad as shit it isn't the heel. And then if the guy is actually universally respected anyway, the internet will sy bravo, the right guy got it.

Enter Cesaro, the boring as fuck babyface, book him like a tweener, or a heel vs the super hated Reigns (got to keep the kids in Roman's empire) and by the time boring Cesaro gets his pay off win everyone apart from Reigns fans will be sick to death of Roman, leading to the crowd, internet and Europeans exploding with joy, buying up as much Crsaro merch as possible, cementing Cesaro as the man who grabbed Vince's brass ring.



Opposite land booking, for an era a defined by it's complete resent for the last 15 years, and all of WWE's traditional methods, since people 'got smart'. Tricking people into falling for the exact same trick anyway

If you think about it, it's a good warm up vs 'the poor man's Reigns' Sheamus. No one really like him, but the hate isn't at Roman's level.

Cesaro can win the best of 7, get a title match (only the US title? After all that work? Well that's enough to make a man snap) Eventually crossing the path of Reigns.

I don't know if they will do this, but they sure could do it and it would work out good for everyone.

Better than it would just shoving Cesaro straight into the Universal title, even though the chemistry with the other Indy guys would work in ring, the level of people giving a shit would be way down on if he faced Reigns.

Sexton Hardcastle wrote:

Who loves Roman Reigns? People who think he really wins a lot because he's the bestest.
the fans boo that babyface pay off win because they 'suck'. Oh nooo. But if the heel is so good the fans don't care how boring the face is. They are just glad as shit it isn't the heel. And then if the guy is actually universally respected anyway, the internet will sy bravo, the right guy got it.

I disagree with this. If you have a good heel, the chances are they will end up being cheered, regardless - see: New Day, Kevin Owens, The Miz a few years ago, Carlito, Jericho... if people can't relate to a face, they'll cheer whomever is facing him. Otherwise Shelton Benjamin and indeed Cesaro would be among the two most over guys on the roster.

Cesaro kinda sucks anyway. I know Vince got slated for it, but he was bang on the money on Austin's podcast when he said Cesaro doesn't connect enough to get the monster push. He doesn't. He's a damned good wrestler, and does some cool stuff, I just don't care about him in the way I did Daniel Bryan.

As for Reigns, WWE need to do three things with him. Stop him talking and make him a silent, bad-ass type. Stop him spamming the same moves - how many times does he hit a Superman punch in a match, compared to how many times Cena's does the 5 Knuckle Shuffle or something? Less is more and all that. Finally, get him out of the title picture entirely for a good 6-8 months, including the US title. Take some exposure off him, give others a chance and then see how he does when he's not the focus of the show. Give him a chance to earn the spotlight, rather than just being given it.

I don't deny that a character based heel will get cheered eventually. But Reigns booked as a babyface would not be a character based heel, he'd just be hate fodder, thus the best heel around. While still keeping his fan base strong with less vocal types. Maybe I should have said if the heel is so hated, not so good.

Think Edge when he banged Lita, and the Miz right now. Legit hate that makes fans love the opponent more, by default.

Rusev is getting mini pops by being near Reigns, but he needs to be kept away from that, Cesaro however, needs a hand with live crowds. Sheamus and the best of 7 is getting some stronger reaction, but a programme with Reigns will take that up a few notches so people legitimately care about him getting the result.

It doesnt matter who is supposed to look like the face, as long as reactions for both are strong. It could also be the rebirth of the US title. Like Cena vs Del Rio intensity, but without the lingering fact that Del Rio wasn't committed in the long term without his precious world title opportunity. The WWE was clearly trying to make the US title feel legit again, as strong as a world title, even.

Sexton Hardcastle wrote:

Think Edge when he banged Lita, and the Miz right now. Legit hate that makes fans love the opponent more, by default.

If that were true, Apollo Crews would be a huge face coming off their match at Summerslam...

I genuinely think that WWE does not have a genuine face in the company; someone who the crowd actually cares about and wants to win. There's been no-one since Daniel Bryan - Zack Ryder tried, until WWE smashed him back down to NXT. No-one likes Reigns, Ambrose got turned on as soon as he won the title, Rolllins isn't particularly likeable, Orton's a natural heel, Cena's Cena and will never be liked, Ziggler is a jock who the 'normal' wrestling fan would never cheer for (if he's going to steal my girlfriend, why would I cheer him?)... in honesty, Sami Zayn is the only guy off the top of my head who I think could be a company leading face.

They weren't booked in a proper rivalry, and it was before Miz went nuts and became relevant again.
this is why you throw tradition out the window, fans have changed, the talent has changed.

WWE booked Reigns as superman, they got the feedback "NO". Time to do it again, but with the purpose of furthering the rest of your talent.

I said in another thread Raw is dead in the water right now anyway. SD has booked the hell out of their talent. This weeks episode everyone advanced their feuds and their characters one more step.

Use what you have for a reason and to benefit the product. Reigns gets heat, build that heat the same way you got it, use it to help others Cesaro won't be an A+ star, I referred to him as boring as shit a few times in the article, but he would get a much improved live reaction, in a proper programme with RR, which is a start.

One of the words I hate in relation to wrestling is 'organic', but it's the best way of describing what WWE needs. The problem with booking a guy that not many people care about against the guy that everyone hates is that once they stop working with each other, the next guy who works with Reigns gets the reactions, and the first guy gets sod all from working with a non-entity like Sheamus. It's a short-term solution - just look at the likes of Miz, Rusev, Wyatt, all of whom worked decent programmes with Cena when we all hated him, and it killed them in terms of reactions.

Daniel Bryan become an uber-face, and it was pretty much organic in the way he got the whole crowd behind him. He shouldn't have, the night everything turned he lost to Wyatt and then a returning megastar won the Rumble. WWE has absolutely no-one on the roster at the moment who can get the whole crowd behind him.

If WWE have an large roster of guys, all of whom need to face the two or three guys who are the ones who get the 'desired' reaction, WWE is done for.

At the risk of being philosophical, we need a hero - every movie, book, TV or whatever has someone you end up rooting for. Wrestling's no different. It needs a good guy, because people need a good guy. Problem is, there just isn't one around to do the job.

No one has a character in depth enough for it. A hero can't just be a guy who wins a lot anymore. If that top guy exists (if you need just one top guy, I'm split on whether you need one, or just legit competition where everyone likes at least two or three more than the rest) they wil come from SD.

AJ has a solid character, an interesting attitude towards being the best. At some point something could cause him to realise that to truly beat John Cena, he will have to become like the out of ring John Cena, the one who helps the company in any way he can and gives kids hope.

Bray Wyatt. Can weave any kind of promo at any time. It wouldn't take much to make his past, perhaps an abuse by society, or his own family to have been why he was so bad. A redemption story lies in wait, and he can talk like Cena if that is what is needed.

Dean Ambrose. At any minute if WWE let's him do something special would shock the fans into being interested in him again. He has the teen girls locked down. People respect guys who are just themselves, and people dig a sleazy guy who cashes in on that. I always thought he should have been the one booked like Edge. Not Rollins. Rollins gets heat through his over long fan bashing promos. Ambrose can get better cheap, sleazy action heat because he can sell it with his body language and the close up's of his expressions. Rollins has one expression. A grin.

Give Jason Jordan a good few years of interesting tag feuds and they have something there. theyAlready gave him more character than most on Raw have when he was torn about tagging Gable. The girls will have loved that moment.

SD also has talking smack and Renne Young, queen of setting up really smart questions that people can answer to further their character.

So yeah, A Raw solution would definitely be short term, if Cesaro couldn't build on the momentum of a 3 month program with RR, having some genuine .momentum before the other RR, Royal Rumble, then too bad for him, SD is doing the long tern thing well enough that it won't matter for WWE as a whole.

I totally agree the hero doesn't need to win all the time, otherwise Reigns would be the new Hogan.

The guy I genuinely think could be the huge face is Sami Zayn. He's great in-ring, is seen as having earned his spot, his entrance theme gives him an inbuilt chant for the crowd - but the problem is, why is he wrestling? He doesn't like Kevin Owens, but what else is there to him?

WWE's main character development goes on the heels. Even guys like Orton are faces, and I'm not entirely sure he's doing any differently from when he was a heel, except Triple H doesn't hang round with him any more.

I dunno, it's hard to see who the next company leading guy is going to be. Jordan's a cracking shout though.