Joe Haines 6-3-14
@LJ_YOHAUNCE
Swerves are nothing new to the world of professional
wrestling. From the glass shattering
breakup of the Rockers, to Undertaker getting betrayed at the efforts of his
own FATHER, or the unbelievable alliance of Stone Cold Steve Austin and Mr. McMahon,
swerves are forever remembered as earth shattering moments that changed the
landscape of the company at that point in time.
It’s something us, as fans, would have never seen coming. They are moments that keep me coming back for
more as it makes the world of wrestling feel more like a storyline in The Game
of Thrones universe than a story in the WWE Universe. With all that being said, it still doesn’t
make them any easier to accept.
As the dust still settles on one of the biggest swerves in WWE history, many people are still in disbelief of what happened. On the June 2nd episode of RAW, Seth
Rollins, the Architect of The Shield, spit in the face of his fellow brothers. Set to the melody of thunderous chair shots, Triple
H’s “plan B” maliciously attacked Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose as the final
moments of The Shield unfolded before our eyes as the ringleader of Evolution mouthed
“I Win”. As many of us inevitably saw
the disassembly of The Shield coming at some point in the future, the majority
of us never saw it happening quite like this. Seth Rollins has become the newest member of Evolution,
and as Triple H’s super group gains an exciting, budding superstar, we can only assume that The Shield will slowly drift into obliteration.
So where does that leave Rollins, Reigns,
and Ambrose going forward?
If history can tell us anything; being hand-picked to be in
Evolution is a big fucking deal. They
remind us on a weekly basis that between Batista, Orton, and Mr. Helmsley,
Evolution has a combined 31 world championships. With that type of championship pedigree set
around you, it would be asinine to think that Seth Rollins isn’t destined for
bigger and better things. We all can see
that Rollins is a magician inside the squared circle. His moves are extremely exciting, he is a
great technical wrestler, and he sells every move as if he was getting hit with a
Stone Cold Stunner. But is he the right
choice for this heel faction? When I
think of Evolution, I think of ruthless, hard hitting, powerful wrestling, not
front flips and flying off titan-trons.
It’s an interesting selection; one that I thought was more of a fit for
Ambrose (the obvious choice for a breakout heel of the group). But, as we move into the future,
Rollins can only go up from here.
As many of us have seen over the course of the past few
years, Roman Reigns is designed for a championship-filled future. He’s got the look, the lineage, and a powerful
and exciting in-ring skill set. These are the ingredients that make an excellent champion in Vince McMahon's eyes. In a few years,
don’t be shocked to see every child under the age of 15 wearing a Roman Reigns
t-shirt. The guy could be as marketable
as poster boy John Cena if it is done correctly. As over as he is right now, the former powerhouse of The Shield's transition from a valuable team
member to main-event superstar will be effortless. Expect
Reigns to remain baby-face during this transition as the lack of main-event
faces in the company will make Reigns a great addition to a roster that is
currently starving for topflight good-guys.
The Sky’s the limit for Reigns.
As long as he improves his promo skills, he should be a top star in no
time flat.
Dean Ambrose, on the other hand, is the wild-card in this whole
situation. After his time with The
Shield is finished, what do you possibly do with him? He does have a few tools at his
disposal. 1.) He is arguably the better
man on the microphone in comparison to his fellow hounds of justice. 2.) He has a frantic, erratic, and psychotic
ring style that we haven’t quite seen before.
These, I believe, are the pieces for makings of a great heel in the
fourth coming years. But the only way
that they could possibly pull this off is if they give him the mic time to
succeed. With a talent like Ambrose, he
is not going to win fans over just by wrestling in the same way that Reigns has, for
example. He’s going to have to talk his
way into their good graces. It will –
just like most WWE Superstars – take a great feud in order to push him in the
right, upward, trajectory if he ever wants to be in a main event. But I’m afraid without a good program, Mr.
Ambrose will be set on the back burner and placed on the list of “wrestlers no
one knows what to do with”, which would be a shame, because there is a hell of a lot of talent there.
But all of this worry and future speculation could be for not. At the time of this writing, the
split happened less than 24 hours ago, and you can expect a feud between the remaining
Shield members and the new and improved Evolution to happen over the course of
the next month or two. Who’s to say
that The Shield won’t rebuttal the loss of Rollins with the addition of someone
else? A new, third member of The Shield
would, in my opinion, be unnecessary based on the fact that, to me, The Shield seemed
to be their own cohesive piece, not a combination of interchangeable parts. But, you can never rule out the possibility of a mystery member (CM Punk anyone? No? Yeah, I’ll shut up now). You also cannot rule out the potential for a
double cross on Rollins’ part. Just like
Daniel Bryan before him, Rollins may be playing a game (see what I did there?) in
order to get closer to his enemies. They
could also have Ambrose and Reigns run as a tag team for a while, but that would
defeat the purpose of splitting them up in the first place.
Who knows? Your guess
is as good as mine at this point. But
there is one thing for sure, the WWE knows what they are doing, and they’re
proving it time and time again. The balls that they show in order to split up a fan favorite, money making faction for the sake of a new story line shows that they have us in mind. Sure,
there are a few squandered superstars based on poor booking that we'd like to see have a little bigger piece of the spotlight (Ziggler, anyone?), but you can’t have
everyone vying for a WWE Title. It is story
development like this that keeps me coming back to the WWE week after week. And with the upward trajectory that the young talent is going, It’s
an exciting time to be a wrestling fan.
It is just unfortunate that it has to come at the expense of one of the
greatest wrestling factions in the history of the business. Good bye, Hounds of Justice. We barely knew you.
Joe Haines
@LJ_YOHAUNCE
The Common Man Wrestling Fan
Joe Haines
@LJ_YOHAUNCE
The Common Man Wrestling Fan
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