WWE News: Steve Austin says Roman Reigns needs to learn from his promo with John Cena
What’s the story?
John Cena and Roman Reigns were scheduled for a contract signing to confirm their upcoming match at No Mercy. But what resulted was a promo that rocked the WWE Universe.
The Background
Roman Reigns is the Big Dog in WWE and the ring is his yard. He doesn't want anybody to forget that fact either as he continually keeps bringing up how he retired The Undertaker at WrestleMania 33.
After a challenge was thrown down on Twitter, John Cena jumped over to Raw in order to confront Roman Reigns and they got things started off with a bang. They were interrupted by Miz and Samoa Joe, but Cena and Reigns would ultimately tag together and win as a team.
However, during the closing moments of their tag match, a misfired Superman Punch from Reigns landed on Cena instead of Samoa Joe laying Big Match John out for a bit. The first real shot might have been friendly fire, but this war was far from over.
It was later announced John Cena and Roman Reigns would have their dream match at No Mercy. This encounter was once thought of as a WrestleMania level match but now it finds itself elevating a B-Level event to a can't miss show.
The heart of the matter
WWE is known for their contract signings before a big match so it should have come as no surprise Cena and Reigns would get a chance to sign their names on a piece of paper inside a ring dressed up as a makeshift boardroom.
But what transpired was a war of words most say Cena clearly won. There were points in the segment where fans wondered what was real and what was a work but reports are the whole thing was totally scripted. Dave Meltzer reported in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Vince personally spoke to both Roman and John beforehand to let them know what he wanted them to do.
However, Roman Reigns did freeze up after John Cena had a great ad-lib about people saying Kurt Angle sucks too and he's an Olympic Gold Medalist. This bit of improv caused Reigns to take a longer pause than needed during the promo giving Cena the chance to say Roman needs to learn how to cut a promo if he wants to be the Big Dog. This line from Cena wasn't scripted at all and came straight from the hip but it still got to Reigns.
Steve Austin recently spoke on Sean Waltman's X-Pac 12360 podcast about Roman Reigns' performance in the promo and how he should take it as a learning experience.
"Anytime you go out to the ring and you didn't learn something new, you probably missed an opportunity. I don't care how good you are, you can always get better. So, if Roman learned something from that and he can capitalize on it and gain and improve in the future, props to him."
What's next?
Seeing how this kind of promo worked so well, it's only logical WWE should try and implement more real emotional aspects to their programs. They can't do it every time and things will always need to be fabricated to a certain degree because it's still entertainment.
But hopefully, WWE will figure out another way to capture fan interest through this kind of angle that blurs the line between work and shoot.
Author's take
Roman Reigns is trying to establish himself as the face of WWE and although he might not have won this promo, history could tell a different story. WWE edited John Cena's impromptu comments off of the Hulu replay of Raw so we can only assume Vince didn't approve of the verbal burial as much as some fans did.
But it was still one of the best back-and-forth promos I've seen in a while and certainly exceeded my expectations for the segment.
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