Thank You Roman

At WrestleMania 40 we saw the end of the longest title reign in WWE since Hulk Hogan’s first tile reign that ran from January 23, 1984 until February 5, 1988 when Cody Rhodes defeated Roman Reigns at the biggest show of the year. I had the bittersweet experience of being there to see it live; sweet because it’s going to go down as an all time great WrestleMania and WWE moment but bitter because I am an unabashed Roman Reigns fan and it is never fun to see one of your favorites lose. Yes, even after almost 4 years on top. Look guys, nobody says that their favorite team or individual athlete can stop winning now, we’re good, let somebody else get some. One of Michael Jordan’s biggest career notes is that he denied so many Hall of Famers – Patrick Ewing, Charles Barkley, Reggie Miller, John Stockton and Karl Malone – from getting even one ring because he beat them all. Nobody rooting for Serena Williams or Tiger Woods wanted them to bow out so somebody else could win something for once when they were in their prime. When you’re on that ride you never want it to end, because once it’s over it may never come back again. And a hell of a ride this was.

Goign back to 2020, we weren’t even sure if we’d ever see Roman in a ring again. COVID had struck, the WWE was operating at the PC in a bizarre attempt at keeping the show going amidst all the doom and despair that was going on. Most of the available talent was soldiering on, but Roman bowed out once a few people showed themselves to not be as strict as necessary at adhering to necessary precautions. And given that we had no idea at the time when things would change Roman and Brock Lesnar both were operating under the assumption that they wouldn’t in any amount of time to get back in action. Roman said himself in his A&E documentary that he’d considered himself retired at the time (ok, that’s likely a bit of a work but at the moment it probably was as real as one could get). And us Roman fans were looking at a career that while full of achievements was perpetually frustrating.

There were (at the time) 4 WrestleMania main events, 3 World Title reigns, a Universal title reign, wins over multiple Hall of Famers (Randy Orton, Daniel Bryan, HHH, Undertaker, John Cena, Brock Lesnar), and a run in one of the greatest factions in WWE history in the Shield. There were as Sheamus would call them banger after banger after banger – from 2016 through 2020 a Roman Reigns TV match was almost guaranteed to be a crowd pleaser. Unfortunately that would often be dampened by Lucy with the football nature of how he was booked. Moved up and down the card from 2015 through 2017 in an unsuccessful attempt to pacify an angry mob that was upset at his card placement, the inexplicable WrestleMania 34 loss to Lesnar followed by a Spring and Summer where he was bizarrely kept in the main event spot even though he didn’t win the title. The use as a decoy in the Royal Rumble on three different times so that the winner would get the desired reaction.

Now about that angry mob – there was a vocal section of the fanbase that had a hard time accepting an age old pro wrestling practice – the booker choosing who they wanted to put on top – who refused to react like normal people and just stop watching but instead chose to make everyone else’s life miserable by sticking around and complaining. There were rumors stoked by podcasts and dirtsheets and eaten up by those same ‘fans’ of a looming steroid arrest (that turned out to be Luther Reigns) and idiotic speculation that he faked leukemia in order to get sympathy. The constant demands of these folks to put anyone but Roman at the top, that were never met with the same level of support when they were given just that, while Roman outsold all of them despite being ‘rejected’, were a constant source of irritation. So was the notion that he should be turned heel because was too confident and good looking to be a babyface. As someone who grew up watching the likes of Magnum TA and Kerry Von Erich that felt like unabashed loser talk more than anything else. Until 2020 it looked we were doomed to an endless loop of fighting with these folks who called themselves smart but behaved in the dumbest, most childish way imaginable in reaction to a TV show.

In light of all that the last four years have a been a vindication, a proud accomplishment and a big middle finger to all the haters wrapped up into one for us Roman fans. Although it took leverage gained via a pandemic, we got to see our favorite wrestler finally be given the ball without getting the rug pulled out from under him and given a chance to show what he could do if he was allowed to. And while that did come with the heel turn a lot of people were clamoring for it was a heel turn done his way, that enabled him to maximize his strengths and not just be some guy to put over everyone else the way some people were imagining. We warned you guys that if Roman ever did turn it wouldn’t go the way the naysayers wanted it to go, and it felt good to be right. But it felt outstanding to finally get the kind of run that we felt he was capable of putting together.

And while this was going on, the entire trajectory of the company was reversed. In 2020 things couldn’t have been flatter from a business standpoint for the company. We’re talking two years of decline from 2017 to 2019, then whatever momentum that may have been building in 2020 getting killed off by COVID. While they were in no danger of being caught by AEW, the upstart company had captured the approval of the IWC and all wrestling media and was winning the PR game, while the WWE didn’t have anything going that was hitting the front pages and changing the conversation. Within a year of Reigns return at Summerslam 2020 the downward trends would all be reversed and heading in the other direction, with the Bloodline story as the clear driver behind the wheel. In the Road to WrestleMania 2022, the new gains and trends were solidified and put on a relatively permanent upward track.  Roman would be the first current WWE Superstar and the first one since John Cena to get regularly invited on the Tonight Show, and the first time in years pro wrestling to get some traction outside of the wrestling bubble.  The company that Cody returned to, and the HHH took over creative for, in 2022 was in a far better state than it had been two years prior and continued along that trajectory thanks to the groundwork that the Bloodline Saga had laid. To be blunt we’re looking at a much different, much less successful company today had the Bloodline never happened. We’re talking about the difference between existing off of TV money with a much smaller roster vs. selling out arenas week after week while taking Smackdown from under 2 million viewers a week to as high 2.6 million depending on was on the show. Check the record if you think I’m talking crazy to you here.

For moments in the company’s business history the Bloodline’s run from 2020 through WrestleMania 40 is right there with Hulk Hogan returning and leading the nationwide takeover under Vince McMahon and Steve Austin’s rise in 1997. And like there is no WrestleMania 3 with HulkaMania and no Attitude Era without Austin vs McMahon we’re not sitting here basking in the glow of WrestleMania 40 without the Bloodline. But the Bloodline didn’t just turn around the fortunes of the company or give Reigns a personal career high that 99 percent of the people who’ve ever taken one bump in a ring would die for, it also elevated a bunch of other wrestlers along the way. At Backlash 2021 he defended against Cesaro, who’d never been in a pay per view World Title match or a pay per view main event that wasn’t a Royal Rumble or some type of wacky ensemble of a match. He got guys who hadn’t seen a main event in a years like Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, both of whom had last been in one in 2018, back in them. Matt Riddle got his first two main events vs Reigns, including Roman’s last title defense on TV. And then of course are Jimmy and Jey Uso and Solo Sikoa. Jimmy and Jey got their first main event matches ever, after over a decade in WWE, because of Reigns and the Bloodline story. Solo got elevated in the most literal sense of the word as he got called up from NXT to join the gang and would main event two pay per views within his first year on the main roster. LA Knight got a PPV main event, Logan Paul got one, Finn Balor got his first one in over two years, Big E got one too.

Now just having matches with guys isn’t enough; top guys and gals have matches with people in a different spot on the card than them all the time. True elevation is when these opponents get so much out of working with you that they can continue to eat off of it when you’ve both moved on. Just look at the list of Roman’s opponents and what many of them did since their work with Reigns finished up. Zayn just ended Gunther’s record breaking I-C title reign. Jey has become a legit singles star and is on any given night gets the biggest reaction of anyone. Paul is the U.S. champion after showing he could work in the biggest match on the card with Reigns. Owens is a mainstay near the top of whatever show he’s on once again. Riddle went from working with Reigns to main eventing a PPV against Seth Rollins a few months later. Brock Lesnar launched a whole new phase of his career – as a babyface, for crying out loud – off of working with Roman. And there isn’t a single burial in the group of the people he faced, not one guy who can say with a straight face that losing to Roman hindered his career. Even Cody Rhodes, as big as he was after returning, was given a purpose and a goal that added much needed depth to his character. Cody would have been finishing his story in a much different and less satisfying way, had he not gotten involved in the Bloodline saga.

I end this by saying thank you, not just as a Roman Reigns fan but as a wrestling fan, not just to Roman but to Jey and Jimmy and Paul Heyman and everyone who got in the ring with him. The Bloodline Saga has been the best story in wrestling in decades and is on the short list of best wrestling stories ever. It made a star out of Jey Uso and revitalized the careers of many others. And it reminded us why we watch this stuff in the first place. It’s not just to see matches but to see ups and downs and drama betrayals and overcoming of obstacles. As an unabashed fan of Reigns it’s been great to see this all the way through and even though this reign has ended the story has not. On to the next chapter.