WWE has painted themselves into a corner with Royal Rumble

By Ryan Womeldorf | Jan 20, 2016

Credit: WWE (Twitter) /

Credit: WWE (Twitter)

Credit: WWE (Twitter) /

The WWE seemingly has a million problems these days.

The product has been universally panned of late, fans and critics alike slamming the product for lack of creativity, consistency and attention to detail.

On top of that, the company is going through a rash of injuries that it hasn’t had to deal with before. Randy Orton is out with a shoulder injury. John Cena will have surgery to repair a shoulder issue of his own. Seth Rollins is recovering from torn knee ligaments. Cesaro and Kidd are likewise dealing with long-term issues. The Man Called Sting may have wrestled his last match.

So with all of the injuries, the company has had no choice but to put all of their eggs in the Roman Reigns basket. They’ve put the belt on him and now are building the main event of Sunday’s pay-per-view, normally built upon the 30-man rumble match, around Reigns as he defends the title in the rumble match itself.

The problem with all of that is that the WWE has seemingly painted themselves into a corner both creatively and with Reigns himself.

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Consider that Reigns is still very fresh as champion. He won the title for the second time back on Dec. 14 and has had one major defense, beating Sheamus as Vince McMahon served as special guest referee. That, in turn, is what led to Reigns having to defend his title in the Rumble match.

Putting Reigns in this position poses two issues. The first is that, if Reigns wins the Rumble, it will be the second consecutive year he has won the rumble match. That hasn’t happened since Stone Cold Steve Austin won both the 1997 and 1998 events and would only be the third time in history that it’s happened (Shawn Michaels won the 1995 and 1996 events).

The consensus among most hardcore fans is that Reigns is always made to look strong, always put in a position to win. Having him win a second consecutive rumble match would only reinforce the LOLRomanWins sentiment. Not only that, but with his having just won the title, it feels obvious that he will win the rumble. The whole concept of the rumble is built around surprise and this is as close to being the furthest thing from that.

The second issue is that his losing the title this soon doesn’t make a ton of sense unless it leads to yet another Authority-based story where Reigns has to overcome the evil Authority. We’ve had enough of the Authority storyline as that’s been the only one they’ve driven home in the last few years.

Think about it: since Vince came out as the owner of the (then) WWF, the authority figure storyline has been the dominant theme. Vince has been the evil boss against nearly everyone of relevance: Austin, Triple H, The Rock, Mick Foley, the Undertaker and now it has come back around with Daniel Bryan leading into Wrestlemania XXX and now Reigns.

Though the Authority storyline likely isn’t going away anyhow, leading directly into a scenario where Reigns has to topple the Authority at Wrestlemania can’t be the best possible scenario creatively. Falling back on tired tropes and storylines is partially how the WWE got into the position where they are bringing in their lowest ratings in years. Why settle for them as the driving force for your biggest show of the year?

As it stands, it seems that the WWE has set themselves up for a disappointing scenario similar to last year’s rumble, where even The Rock showing up couldn’t keep the crowd from booing Reigns.

The company is clearly on the back of Reigns at this point. But perhaps the WWE needs to find a new creative vehicle for him to drive.