The Roman Reigns era has officially begun. After an uncertain 2015, Roman is finally world champion and it doesn’t seem like that will change anytime soon. Meanwhile, John Cena just returned from a two-month hiatus and may have torn his rotator cuff. Whether WWE is ready or not, Roman Reigns is now their man.
Not everybody is happy about this, of course. Many see Roman Reigns as a John Cena rerun with better hair. I’m more optimistic. Yeah, Roman Reigns has always been the golden boy, but there are fundamental differences between him and Cena that should make the Reigns era far more tolerable than the past decade-plus of John Cena. Here’s six reasons why you needn’t fear Roman’s reign…
He’s Actually A Good Pro Wrestler
Before you go running to the comments section, yes, I realize John Cena has had some very good matches. He’s also had a lot of really mediocre matches. By hook or by crook, Cena has learned the recipe to having a good match, but he’s still the cook who can only produce a good dish if the cookbook is in front of them the entire time. The dude has no natural aptitude for wrestling. Nearly 15 years into Cena’s main-event run, we’re still surprised when Cena has a good match. When Cena had a series of great U.S. title defenses this summer, it was treated like a revelation. It shouldn’t have been. That fact that Cena, at this point in his career, managed not to screw up showcase matches with Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens and Cesaro is no great feat.
Roman Reigns is a whole other story. To (regretfully) steal a phrase from JBL, Roman has all the tools. He’s athletic, agile and surprisingly graceful for a giant Samoan dude. Mark my words, in another couple years, Roman Reigns is going to be crazy good in the ring. He’s got the physical credibility to punch it out with Brock Lesnar, the showmanship of The Rock, and he’s on his way to learning the formula as well as Shawn Michaels or John Cena. The future of WWE main-events looks bright.
We’ve Seen Him Fail
One of the most common criticisms of John Cena is that he never fails. Not really. Sometimes he’ll be temporarily outsmarted by some ne’er-do-well, but he always quickly exacts his revenge. Usually repeatedly. John Cena got to embarrass Kurt Angle on his first night in WWE, and he’s been winning everything ever since.
Roman Reigns has tasted legitimate failure. His WrestleMania coronation was a foregone conclusion, the plans were set in stone, and the audience turned against him so vehemently it was all taken away. It wasn’t just a storyline setback, it was real, and so was his struggle for acceptance and redemption over the remainder of 2015. Roman Reigns may have the Superman punch, but he’s no Superman. He’s flawed, he has failed, and that makes him infinitely more interesting than the John Cena types. Most of the true greats, Steve Austin, The Rock, Shawn Michaels, have fallen flat on their face or f*cked up severely at some point in their career. Roman Reigns is in good company.
He Isn’t A Product Of His Time
John Cena, the rah-rah pro-military, jorts-wearing wannabe rapper, is the most early 2000s product possible. A guy that was briefly, sorta cool back in the era of George W. Bush, Eminem and Dane Cook, but who’s been a cringeworthy reminder of a dark time since around 2006.
Meanwhile, do hunky Samoans with strong jaws and soulful eyes ever go out of style? The Rock’s even more popular now than he was in the ’90s. Nothing about Roman Reigns screams “PRODUCT OF THE MID-2010s,” and I could see him being a non-embarrassing thing to watch a decade or more from now.
He Isn’t Under The Impression He’s Funny
Okay, look, I fully realize WWE saddles Roman Reigns with some egregiously awful “funny” material at times. That’s just part of working with the company. It happens to everybody. But let’s be real, at the height of his powers, John Cena dropped sh*t infinitely more mortifying than “tater tots” or “sufferin’ succotash, son” on a weekly basis for months/years without end. Remember when Cena used to come out and do 10 minutes of ball jokes while holding up an actual bag of airline peanuts to keep things PG? Remember when he spray-painted “poopy” on JBL’s limo as an act of badass defiance? Every embarrassing Roman Reigns moment combined isn’t as bad as that one John Cena Star Wars promo.
Now, here’s the important part – Roman Reigns may have to recite bad jokes sometimes, but he obviously hates it and even WWE clearly realizes comedy is not his forté. John Cena, on the other hand, lives for his terrible comedy segments. For years, you got the sense the poopy jokes were his favorite part of the job. At some point, somebody told him he was funny, a few crowds laughed at him rapping about Carlito’s tiny balls or whatever, and he got the idea he was King Sh*t of Yuk Yuk Island. Bad Roman Reigns jokez will never fully go away, but at least you can trust Roman is probably doing whatever he can to steer clear of WWE comedy.
What You See Is What You Get
John Cena is a hard cat to figure out. He plays the all-American white bread good guy, and yet he aspires to be a foul-mouthed rapper. He grants 500 wishes for Make-a-Wish, and yet he has no kids of his own and kind of comes off as a misanthropic weirdo on Total Divas. I’m not saying John Cena is a bad guy. I honestly have no idea what kind of guy he is. The real John Cena is a cipher. I feel like WWE realizes this, and they go overboard trying to prove how wonderful he is. The Make-a-Wish stuff, the non-stop praise from the commentators, the obviously bought-and-sold compliments from celebrities. There’s an air of artificiality to a lot of it that makes it hard-to-impossible to relate to Cena.
By comparison, Roman Reigns seems like a pretty basic good dude. He’s a family man with an adorable daughter he likes to have tea parties with. He’s warm, open and self-effacing in interviews. When they let him do his own thing in backstage segments, he comes off like a solid guy you wouldn’t mind hanging out with. When all else fails, Roman Reigns is a guy who can just be himself and people will like him for it.
He Can Change
Roman Reigns isn’t Hulk Hogan, which is a good thing for more than just racist porno-related reasons. Unlike Hogan (and John Cena, who was molded in the Holy Hulkster’s image), Reigns isn’t a locked-down, pre-defined construct designed to sell colorful t-shirts. Roman’s The Man, but he’s not an all-encompassing, era-defining entity. He can change. He can grow. He might even be able to turn heel at some point. In other words, he’s a character rather than a product, and having WWE programming revolve around an actual character is what’s going to truly set the Roman Reigns era apart.
There you have it, a few reasons I’m happy about the rise of the Roman Empire. What are your thoughts on Reigns? Any Cena partisans foaming at the mouth right about now? Hit the comments and let’s rumble.
