If you’ve been following former/possibly-current-again-soon WWE Superstar Chris Jericho on social media for the past few years, this won’t come as a surprise. Jericho’s become known for his (understandable) pro-WWE point of view, to the point of becoming the Yin to former tag team partner Lance Storm’s Yang.
Regardless, Jericho is a wrestling legend and a respected voice in the community, so read his thoughts on the Roman Reigns WrestleMania build and push and see how it hits you. Here’s an excerpt from IGN. It’s the second interview this week about Roman that ends with, “Roman Reigns is fine, shut up.” Is that a thing?
“Look, like I’ve said before, if you’re going to give someone a shot, give them a shot. There’ve been tons of guys who when they’ve been put in the main event at WrestleMania might not have been quote unquote ready. Who’s to say who’s ready and who’s not? Let’s see how the crowd reacts when they get there. But all I know is that Roman Reigns was everybody’s favorite guy until the Royal Rumble. And then everyone turned on Roman Reigns. It’s so funny how two days before, and the year before, everybody loved Roman Reigns. Everybody. All the fans did. And don’t tell me that you didn’t because they were all saying ‘Roman Reigns, Roman Reigns, Roman Reigns …what? Daniel Bryan didn’t win the Royal Rumble? We hate Roman Reigns! Boo!’ And meanwhile, ever since then – I mean, we did house shows in Calgary and Edmonton and it was like Beatlemania. They were going nuts for him. And that was a week after the Royal Rumble. So I think that he is ready, as much as anyone can be ready in this day and age. So let’s see how it goes. I mean the match he had with Daniel Bryan at Fastlane was incredible. And you can’t tell me that it was all because of Daniel Bryan. Really? Because I always heard in the business that it takes two. And I think I’ve proven myself to be a fairly decent worker, so if I’m telling you it takes two, I think every fan should shut the hell up and listen to what I’m saying. He did a great job of living up to his end of the bargain and he’ll do the same thing at WrestleMania. They will leave no stone unturned to make that a great match. They will get all the benefits. All the bells and whistles. And as long as they can hold it together, I think it’s going to be great.”
Our thoughts:
Positivity or negativity aside, the most stressful thing about this WrestleMania season is the bad conversation it causes between wrestling fans. It’s become an observational war. If you like Roman Reigns and think everything they’ve done is fine, you’re a butt-kissing idiot. If you don’t like Roman and think the build’s been bad or forced, you’re a circle-jerking asshole who’s just trying to be cool and pile on. Revisionist history already says we loved Roman until the Royal Rumble and hate him because Daniel Bryan didn’t win, which ignores basically everything that happened after Seth Rollins hit him in the back with a chair in June. It’s just a bad conversation.
From either point of view, Jericho’s right about some things. WWE is going all-out on the Roman vs. Lesnar match and giving it everything they’ve got, including a bunch of interviews that get us riled up about hypotheticals and bloodthirsty to watch before it even happens.
