The 8 Ball: Top 8 Reasons Why Roman Reigns Should Win the Royal Rumble

Last week the 8-Ball made the case for why Roman Reigns should not win the Royal Rumble. This week it undertakes what may be a less popular task, making the case for why Reigns should win the Rumble and go on to challenge for the WWE title at WrestleMania 31. Quick note, I’m not saying which one the WWE should do in this case. Yes, I’ve got my opinion on it, but the purpose of these two columns is to present both sides of the argument and then let 411 readers vote on the matter. There’s a poll at the end for you to vote in. Whichever side gets more votes, that’s the right answer.

Now let me put on my powdered wig and get to it.

While it may be less than a year since the Shield split up, many fans no doubt feel a tinge of wistfulness for the days when the Shield dominated the WWE landscape. That faction was one of the best things the WWE has done this century and, if anything, corporate pulled the plug too early. We’ll surely get a Shield reunion down the road, but in the meantime Reign, Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose will be squaring off on a semi-regular basis. We got Rollins vs. Ambrose in the immediate aftermath of the Shield’s demise and Reigns and Rollins have fought some minor skirmishes, but Roman has yet to definitively prove himself the alpha hound of justice. Only way to do that is in the ring, ideally with all three men involved. If that’s not a built-for-WrestleMania match I don’t know what is. On top of that, they could sweeten the stakes by having Rollins win the belt in the Rumble three-way match or cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase in the near future. Rollins with the belt, Reigns wins at the Rumble, Ambrose maybe punches his ticket at the new Fast Lane PPV in February. That would leave fans with the dream Shield match. I think even the biggest Reigns detractors would have to admit they’d like to see that bout.

The photographic evidence certainly seemed to confirm that a Slammy vote for Daniel Bryan as Superstar of the Year also constituted a vote for Roman Reigns. If so, mostly what we know is the Bryan/Reigns tandem got more votes than everyone else including the Ambrose/John Cena tandem. However, what if there’s some silent markjority out there that loves Roman Reigns and pays no attention to wrestling in the online universe other than to vote on the WWE App? They don’t seem to be buying tickets to WWE event in large numbers, at least gauging by the modest crowd reactions Reigns has been getting since his return. However, during the summer Reigns was getting fairly huge pops and certainly seemed to be riding a wave of crowd enthusiasm. Maybe those people think Reigns looks like the man and they’ll start making some more noise when he gets a chance to be the man. Maybe Reigns is the guy who could amp up the casual fans. Mind you, I’m skeptical of how many casual fans actually follow the WWE. For instance, the folks chanting “Let’s go Cena!” pretty clearly are trolling the “Cena sucks!” contingent, and that alone makes you more than a casual fan. If you’ve got the App and you watch Raw/Smackdown on a semi-regular basis and you buy tickets to WWE events and you follow the WWE or various WWE performers on Twitter/Facebook, then you have more than a casual relationship with the WWE. Anyway, point here is that maybe Reigns has a stronger fanbase than we realize. Maybe people were into his initial pre-hernia push and will get on board with seeing it go all the way to a title match at WrestleMania.

Honestly, is there anyone who stands out as an obvious Rumble winner? Daniel Bryan is the champ who never lost his belt. Then again, so is Randy Orton. While Bryan vs. Lesnar seems like the optimal draw for WrestleMania 31, those two have had zero interaction to date. They haven’t exactly been on a collision course. Dolph Ziggler is the new Underdog King, especially now that he’s been “fired.” He’d provide a feel-good moment if he won the Rumble and you know he’d deliver a hell of a match at WrestleMania. Yet it’s not like the Rumble crowd in Philly is going to be all “Ziggler wins or we riot.” You could make a case for all sorts of guys winning the Rumble (Bray Wyatt, Dean Ambrose, Cesaro, Bad News Barrett, Sheamus, etc.). If the WWE books them right afterward and puts together a compelling storyline, then should we really complain? In Reigns’ case, the WWE has invested a lot of time and energy getting him to the cusp of being the champion. I think having him win the belt briefly during the summer would have stamped him as a true contender, or they could have given him a solid run with a secondary belt. Obviously neither of those things happened, but the WWE seemingly believes in this guy and why pull the plug before he even gets his big shot? The Rumble winner this year is going to be a bit of an arbitrary pick whose storyline evolves after the event. Maybe the plan all along has been for Reigns to get that big win and then cut loose.

I used this as an argument against Reigns last week. This week I’m turning it on its head. Sure, maybe the crowd makes Reigns the focal point of its frustration with the WWE (because if you’re not frustrated, you’re not paying attention). Maybe Reigns takes the Rumble, perhaps eliminating Daniel Bryan for the victory, and then Philly rips him a new one. I’m talking all the spite and derision the City of Brotherly Love can muster. That would be a bad thing for your supposed new babyface hero … unless you’re not really planning on making him your new babyface hero. You’ll recall that the best thing that ever happened to Reigns’ quasi-cousin, the Rock, is the crowd turned on him. That freed Rock up to say and do whatever he wanted. Maybe the WWE is playing us like a fiddle and the plan for Reigns isn’t Cena 2.0, but Rock 2.0 with Roman Reigns as your new corporate champion. The heel turn would allow Reigns to show/develop more personality and give him potential mouthpieces in HHH, Steph and Paul Heyman. Alternatively he could join Bray Wyatt’s wing of the darkside. It certainly would wipe away that sense that we’re being force-fed wrestlespam (canned and industrially processed). We might even like the taste of a glowering and nasty Roman Reigns.

The fact that the WWE is willing to get behind someone who isn’t John Cena has to count for something, especially to those who’ve been in the “anyone but Cena” camp. Reigns may not be a perfect vessel. He may trip over his promos and he may still be figuring out how to work long matches. Maybe he ideally should establish himself as a top singles wrestler before they slingshot the WWE title around his waist. Maybe he wouldn’t be your top pick for this gig. Even with all of that, he’s another face not named John Cena that they’re potentially willing to put in the main event of WrestleMania. That’s progress. That’s even life after Cena beginning to take shape. Last year they elevated indie darling Daniel Bryan. This year maybe they want to strap a rocket on a more traditional WWE big guy like Reigns. Plus, Reigns could evolve into more of a badass antihero. Variety makes for a better roster. We saw last summer what happens when the WWE finds itself in need of a face to step into the main event scene. It reaches for the Cena. If Reigns gets this push, then perhaps it means less reliance on Cena in the future.

Vince McMahon’s brass ring comment was many things: ridiculous, obtuse, wrong. It also might have been a work. Even if it wasn’t a work, it needs to become one. If the next 15 months for the WWE aren’t filled with guys reaching for the brass ring, then the company has dropped the ball. In fact, this probably should become known as the Brass Ring Generation. Reigns, for better or worse, is going to be part of that crew. He’s going to get at least one turn as the WWE’s show pony. This is a time for taking chances. The chance they take on Reigns hopefully pays off at least as well as the chance they took on Batista in 2005.

I mentioned this above, and I suggested it at the time, but the crowd was hot for Reigns back in June. It was right on the heels of the Shield split. Fans would have gone nuts for a Reigns win at MITB. That’s what the WWE will be hoping to recapture if it puts Reigns over in the Rumble. It knows it can amp up the audience for Reigns and it probably doesn’t want to face up to the possibility that it missed its window. How bad would that suck if you’re in a business that makes its money by minting new stars? All that work in making the Shield the baddest faction to come along in forever with Reigns serving as the group’s hammer and you failed to strike when the iron was hot. To a degree the WWE can’t allow itself to think it needs to rebuild Reigns. Whatever it takes to prop him up and get him back to next big thing status, you do it. Maybe Reigns crashes and burns, but you take that risk because you believe there’s money in this guy if you get it right again.

One of the biggest pops of 2014 was at the end of Night of Champions when Seth Rollins had his abortive cash-in attempt. Fans love it when they’re live at the cash-in. The MITB cash-in is just about the surest mark-out moment in the WWE arsenal … and it’s never happened at WrestleMania. Reigns getting the rub of the mammoth win over Brock Lesnar only to have Seth Rollins vulture the title at the end of WrestleMania? That’s damn-near poetry. In one fell swoop you mint two guys as the future of the WWE and you create a powder keg rivalry that’s been waiting to kick off since the Shield split. At the start of last week’s column I mentioned that Daniel Bryan’s victory at WM30 is the new bar the WWE needs to clear. Well, Rollins cashing in on Reigns after Reigns beats the seemingly invincible Brock Lesnar would do the trick. They need to move the pieces into place for that epic finish. Main thing is it’s there to be done. How far Rollins and Reigns can take that bounce, we’d have to wait and see. Yet it would pull the trigger on a new phase for the WWE.

And the defense rests. I’m done arguing both sides of this coin. Now you vote to determine whether Reigns should get the Rumble push.