Why John Cena vs. Roman Reigns in September is A-OK
A few weeks ago on an episode of The Straight Shooters, I went on a bit of a diatribe explaining why I believe John Cena vs. Roman Reigns was a bit of marketing genius employed by WWE to get people talking.
I mentioned the fact that a majority of wrestling fans — or at least that’s what it seemed like — were pretty much up in arms over the fact that WWE was “hotshotting” this match between two of the biggest names in the industry seven months before WrestleMania 34.
Given the fact that on the SmackDown side, WWE “gave away” matches like Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Cena and Nakamura vs. Randy Orton on free television, the response to the Cena vs. Reigns announcement didn’t shock me as much as I’d have thought earlier this summer.
You see, we’re conditioned to believe huge matches have a time and place, a proper build, and a beginning, middle, and end to the story. It makes sense, but the fact that WWE doesn’t exactly relish waiting to build a big story months in advance over a long period of time and end maybe a year or two later isn’t anything new.
And I’m all for having a storyline build for months and months and months and then seeing the huge payoff at a huge pay-per-view. But, in 2017, that’s just not going to happen. Especially not in WWE.
In the podcast, I mentioned the fact that we’re all fans first. As a fan, is it really necessary to worry about how much money WWE would be “leaving on the table” by not saving a Cena-Reigns match for the main event of WrestleMania? Does it make sense to get up in arms and cite the reasoning of your displeasure with a Cena-Reigns main event now rather than then having to wait seven months just so you can see the big WrestleMania set and signs instead of the No Mercy ones?
It really shouldn’t. As fans, wouldn’t you want WWE to give you as good a product as they can? Sure. They’ve been chastised many a time over their failures to give the fans what they want, and they’ve rightly deserved it. But this time, fans want to see Cena vs. Reigns, whether they hate both of them, one of them, or none of them.
It’s possibly the biggest money match the promotion has at the moment.
John Cena is healthy.
Roman Reigns is healthy.
NFL season has just begun and WWE isn’t trying to take the L every week like they’ve done so many years in a row.
When you’re watching that NFL game Sunday night, you’re going to probably have the WWE Network playing on your phone, iPad, or whatever other device that allows you to watch the pay-per-view at the same time as watching the game. You’re going to have WWE action in front of you at the same time as NFL action.
That’s exactly what WWE wants. Sure, some people will wait until the game is over to watch. But the very fact that people will be wanting to watch the match or even thinking about it is something WWE’s already notched in the W column for themselves.
It’s not that the Cena-Reigns match had no build. In fact, Cena and Reigns have been throwing shots at each other on Twitter for quite a while. Cena came to Raw to specifically call out Reigns. They’ve had over a month to build the match. That’s plenty of time, even with two of the biggest stars in the world. Their promos have ranged from good to really good to great. I think the brief angles with each of them competing in tough matches with Jason Jordan [who is, yes, still being billed as Kurt Angle’s son] was done well, and helped Jordan out in the process. At least for the time being. [Jordan will be facing The Miz for the WWE Intercontinental Championship on Sunday at No Mercy.]
And then there’s the argument about the B-levelness of the pay-per-view. Pay-per-views like No Mercy have never been as big as the classics: Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam, or Survivor Series. However, this year has seen many big main events on what would be labeled typically as the B-level shows. The Elimination Chamber match. Kevin Owens vs. Goldberg at Fastlane. Lesnar vs. Samoa Joe at Great Balls of Fire. Hell, the Money in the Bank match that headlined that pay-per-view was great. Battleground was probably the one pay-per-view this year that actually felt like a C-show.
I’ve always believed the card makes the importance of the event. WrestleMania always has huge matches up and down the card. Starrcade always did. SummerSlam regained its importance over the last few years. The Royal Rumble has always been important, regardless of the outcomes. So when the top two matches at No Mercy this coming Sunday are Cena vs. Reigns and Lesnar vs. Strowman for the Universal Championship, this is an automatic A-show. The undercard looks pretty damn good, too. So the complaints that WWE is putting a Cena-Reigns match on a “B-show” holds no credence at all.
We’re conditioned to believe what’s the A-show and what’s the B-show, but WWE is changing that narrative. And they can. We don’t decide what’s the A-show and B-show. We never did. We were always told. And this year especially, it seems as if WWE wants to put on as many A-show main events as possible. And no, I won’t count Battleground’s main event … simply because I had to sit through it.
Does it tarnish the other A-shows? Not entirely. The “real” A-shows are four hours long at the very least. Every other show generally goes three. But No Mercy is without a doubt considered an A-show with those top two matches.
Again, we don’t decide which shows are A or B. And come this Sunday night, I fully expect WWE to give us a reason to talk about that pay-per-view not just on Monday, but on Tuesday and Wednesday, too. Maybe even Thursday. Friday? Nah.
Far be it from me to tell wrestling fans what to do. I wouldn’t want anyone telling me what to do, that’s for damn sure. But I just can’t fathom the reasoning behind hating that WWE is giving us Cena vs. Reigns now.
Wrestling fans are notorious for never being happy. I talked about this on the Gully Blanchard Podcast the other day. Yes, we are, in fact, a jaded bunch. WWE’s conditioned us to believe in who they’re pushing instead of letting us make our own decisions. For that, I can understand the automatic pushback in anything they do. It’s an impulse reaction. But today, five days away from one of the biggest matches in company history, and people are still mad about it.
That? That I just don’t get.
Be a fan first. Worry about WWE’s decisions later. They’re giving you Cena-Reigns. Take it. Unless you hate both of them and don’t want to see the match.
But the number of those people seem to be in the minority, anyway.
Here’s the video package WWE showed during Monday Night Raw:
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