As the three former members of The Shield began their runs as singles stars, Seth Rollins and Jon Moxley/Dean Ambrose seemed to be favored by many wrestling fans because of their time on the independents, and because they were CM Punk’s first choices for the group.
There was much more skepticism of Roman Reigns, and it wasn’t long until that turned into hostility. A key moment that led to the outright rejection of Reigns happened in early 2015, when he interrupted Rollins on SmackDown and said (emphasis
mine):
“… look at you, you’re just so full of yourself now. Actually, you’re full of something else. You are a sniveling little suck up sellout full of sufferin’ succotash, son! Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, that was not easy to say!”
Talking about that stretch of his career on Club Shay Shay earlier this week, Roman told Shannon Sharpe:
“I probably would have said no a few more times early on, but I didn’t have the equity within the company. I wasn’t rooted well enough, you know, in the main event scene. I was still auditioning. I was still proving myself. I was still earning that equity.”
The example that came to mind for the Big Dog-turned-Tribal Chief? He was fuzzy on the dates, but… you guessed it…
“This was like 14 years ago, and they’ll still quote me for saying ‘sufferin succotash.’ This was so long ago. It was 12 years ago, you know?
”I mean, I’ve delivered unbelievable work since then, but still, I’ll be tied to that. There wasn’t that many, but there’s probably two or three promos or scenarios, segments or, you know, finishes of a match or something like that that I would probably go back and develop the balls to be like, ‘Nah, not today, brother,'”
That’s a sentiment our own Geno Mrosko expressed on the moment’s third anniversary:
Watching it back now, it’s still mind blowing that he was given such horrific copy to recite from a script that should have been burned before it ever reached his fingertips. It is, however, worth watching because I’ll be damned if it doesn’t show just how much Roman Reigns has grown as a performer. I’m not saying he could make that copy work today — I don’t even think John Cena at his cheesiest could make that work — but he’s far more comfortable in his own skin, the kind of change you hardly notice because it’s drawn out over time.
And that was back when The Bloodline was just a glimmer in Reigns’ eye!
For me, while I’m sure it wasn’t fun for him, I’m glad we had that awkward stretch of Roman’s WWE career. It informs his current character so much, adding layers we wouldn’t have if The OTC had arrived fully formed before our eyes.
What’s your current take on WWE Creative/Vince McMahon giving their hand-picked next big thing a Sylvester J. Pussycat line? Could, should, or would Roman have said no?
