Roman Reigns: Future plans for the Former Universal Champion. What does the WWE have in Store for the Big Dog?
Roman Reigns defied orders from the WWE officials and turned up on Raw this Monday. In doing so, he opened the floodgates for others to follow suit. Roman claimed that Vince was still doing what he wanted to do despite reassuring the fans last year that he would listen to them. He also promised the fans that he would be there every Monday if they wanted it.
In storyline this is bold disobedience on the Big Dog’s part, However, in reality this is WWE’s way of having the Star on both TV programs.
By introducing the Wildcard rule, a rule that allows WWE superstars to traverse between brands with sanctioned ‘one night only appearances’, Vince has given himself an excuse to feature Roman and other top stars on both the shows.
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Post Wrestlemania, both Raw and SmackDown have suffered record low ratings. This has become a point of contention between Vince and the TV executives. According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer, NBC Universal have not taken kindly to the abysmal ratings in the 3rd hour of Raw. They are also objecting to Roman’s move to SmackDown.
“Fox wanted more storylines that are going to be on both RAW and SmackDown. You know, NBC Universal was real upset about the ratings especially in the third hour and was asking questions about: ‘Our ratings are this, this, and this why’d we give away Roman Reigns?'” Meltzer said on the latest edition of the “Wrestling Observer Radio”.
Fox, who have paid 1 billion dollars to air SmackDown for 5 years, do not believe that there is enough star power in either brand. Meltzer said fox wanted storylines that are going to be on both Smackdown and Raw.
The WWE believes that Roman Reigns is their biggest Star. However, they are unwilling to do away with the brand split. They have therefore introduced the concept of the Wildcard rule. The plan is to feature the Big Dog heavily on both shows. This, they believe will address the concerns of both the Television Networks demands and the falling ratings.
