Reflections on the 2015 WWE Royal Rumble

I wrote the last wrestling-related piece on Culturedallroundman.com in the middle of last May. Having acclaimed WrestleMania XXX, which took place on 6 April in New Orleans, I followed up with an in-depth look at the stalling characterisation of Bray Wyatt, within the context of the Extreme Rules PPV on 4 May and Wyatt’s ongoing feud with John Cena. I argued that the nuances in Wyatt’s character – the subtle and suggestive blend of ‘elements of folklore, Gnostic belief, American Spiritualism, and psychedelia’ which had previously defined both his persona and his cultish Wyatt Family – were being lost in a process of heavy-handed and shortsighted booking.

Unfortunately, after the high of WrestleMania XXX – which I regarded then and now as one of the strongest events WWE has produced – for much of the rest of 2014 the company tread the sort of path suggested by Wyatt’s faltering momentum. In spite of WWE’s desperate need for new stars, several wrestlers who were hot on the back of WrestleMania, and seemed destined for the main event, were miscast or neglected and allowed to fall away. Equally notably, Cesaro, who received one of the loudest audience pops of WrestleMania XXX for triumphing in the André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, was in the aftermath of the event placed with Paul Heyman: an ostensible boon, which in fact served to force Cesaro into the shadows. He became an afterthought, as Heyman inevitably prioritised his main charge, Brock Lesnar; and the audience became confused as to whether the man they had been set to cheer was now portraying a face or a heel. Cesaro presently finds himself tagging with Tyson Kidd. The team shows promise, but with the tag division hardly a WWE priority, this marks a considerable and difficult to fathom fall from grace.

One can only hope that a similar fate does not await Dolph Ziggler. After trading the Intercontinental Title back and forth with The Miz across last summer – a feud which was insufficiently developed, given the talents of its two participants – Ziggler was finally given a push in the build towards November’s Survivor Series. With the Authority’s control over the company on the line, at Survivor Series Ziggler proved the last man standing, having produced an underdog performance – replete with superkicks – reminiscent of Shawn Michaels. The ground seemed to have been laid for Ziggler to ascend to the main event. However, just a few weeks later, Ziggler’s endeavour was overturned as the Authority were restored to power; and at the beginning of January, the continuation of the storyline saw him fired along with Ryback and Erick Rowan. John Cena was ultimately left to restore the trio their jobs: and Ziggler appeared reduced once again to a bit-part player.

Meanwhile assorted other talents, further from the main event scene, but with more than enough ability to provide WWE with an exciting and aspirational middle of the card, have continued to flounder. Among their number stand Wade Barrett, R-Truth, Big E, and Kofi Kingston. The latter pair comprise two-thirds of the dubiously conceived stable The New Day. Bray Wyatt’s former protégés, Erick Rowan and Luke Harper, have fared better thanks to their involvement on opposing sides of the Authority’s struggle for power: they have shown their worth as singles competitors, but in truth fit on the margins of this storyline while their ties to Wyatt remain unresolved, and they require firmer direction. As for Wyatt, he suffered his fallow period throughout last summer, before returning alone and rebuilding towards the year’s end engaged in a prolonged feud with Dean Ambrose. Wyatt is not as popular now as he was this time last year; but his initial run created a reserve of goodwill which bears well now that his character is back on a firmer footing.

In addition to these fleeting ups and sustained downs, soon after Extreme Rules, Daniel Bryan succumbed to injury. Requiring neck surgery, he was ruled out of action indefinitely, and made his return to the ring only a couple of weeks prior to this year’s Royal Rumble. Bryan’s absence left WWE without their most popular superstar and their most capable main event in-ring performer; and the timing of the injury was cruel too for a man who has worked so hard and for so long to reach the pinnacle of the sport.

Still, it is difficult to determine to what extent Bryan’s injury altered WWE’s long-term plans. With Brock Lesnar breaking The Undertaker’s streak at WrestleMania XXX, it must be assumed that the intention was always to highlight Lesnar with a headlining role at this year’s WrestleMania in mind. To this end, it seems likely that – having won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania XXX – Bryan would have soon lost the belt to the former UFC fighter.

It is debatable whether the strategy of positioning Lesnar with the belt has worked. His long periods away from the company – missing PPVs as well as the majority of weekly television broadcasts – diminish the main event picture, as those wrestlers who remain and work week upon week are left with no natural point of focus: the title belt, which should be the locus of collective striving, is missing, and instead the few legitimate title contenders are left to bide their time and hope that they will get the opportunity to bring about Lesnar’s demise. On the other hand, absent for such periods and without the title belt, even Paul Heyman would struggle to keep Lesnar relevant and to build for him an extraneous feud. Vince McMahon obviously feels that Lesnar, as WWE champion, can be inserted into a programme whenever he is available and prove a big enough draw for the company to endure his spells on the sidelines. And perhaps the company has always conceived a headlining match versus Lesnar at the coming WrestleMania as a surefire way to make a new star.

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Many of present-day WWE’s worst characteristics – its inability to build and sustain new stars; its unwillingness to listen to its audience; the lack of attention it pays to the details of in-ring storytelling – culminated to produce a horrific 2015 Royal Rumble. While the Royal Rumble is arguably the company’s second biggest PPV of the year, the three matches which began the event were mundane tag-team affairs. At least the pre-show tag match featured four of WWE’s best athletes, and possessed a degree of novelty given that the teams on display have fairly recently formed. Tyson Kidd and Cesaro faced off against Kofi Kingston and Big E, with Kidd taking the pinfall victory for his team after manoeuvering Kofi into one of Cesaro’s European Uppercuts.

The show proper commenced as The Ascension faced the New Age Outlaws. While the Outlaws were hugely over with WWE audiences in the late 1990s, their sporadic revival over the last year, primarily in order to give the rub to emerging teams, already feels stale. Meanwhile after a dominant run in NXT, where they served as tag champions for almost a year, on the main roster The Ascension are physically unremarkable, while appearing aesthetically a rather worn throwback to some of their larger forebears. Given time as part of a stable tag-team division, The Ascension could prove useful heels; but within the paucity of the tag roster at present, it is difficult to see them enlivening or engaging with the WWE audience. The Ascension avenged the beating they took at the hands of WWE legends a few weeks ago on Raw, earning a pinfall victory over Billy Gunn courtesy of the Fall of Man, their leg-sweep/roundhouse combination finisher.

Then came the bout for the WWE Tag Team Championships, as The Usos met challengers The Miz and Damien Mizdow. The Miz held the WWE Championship and headlined WrestleMania XXVII back in 2011, and managed admirably up against John Cena: he knows how to play a heel, and convincingly raised his intensity level for the culmination of that feud. But after losing his title to Cena at the subsequent Extreme Rules PPV, The Miz endured a losing streak between late 2011 and early 2012, and has been stuck in mid-card purgatory ever since. At least with Mizdow he is part of one of the more entertaining aspects of current WWE programming; and his work as a heel is helping Sandow’s Mizdow gimmick get over.

So The Miz made his entrance to a nice mixture of earnest and pantomime heat; while Mizdow’s mimicry has made him one of the most celebrated characters on any wrestling card. Chants of ‘Mizdow’s Awesome’ littered the match. The Usos, by contrast, continue to garner a solid if unexcited crowd response. After both Miz and Mizdow hit Skull Crushing Finales, the Usos recovered. With The Miz straddling Jey Uso in the corner of the ring, Jimmy made a blind tag and stunned The Miz with a superkick; allowing Jey to powerbomb him from the top rope, upon which Jimmy splashed Miz for the three-count. So The Usos retained their titles; but a potential feud between them and The Ascension will entice nobody.

A women’s tag contest featuring The Bella Twins against Natalya and Paige offered just as little in the way of interesting action or unfolding narrative. With Paige’s time in the ring severely limited, the Bellas beat up on Natalya before securing a comfortable victory. They celebrated in the aisle while Paige helped Natalya lick her wounds ringside.

So we progressed to the match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship: a triple threat contest pitting Brock Lesnar, John Cena, and Seth Rollins against one another. In Daniel Bryan’s absence, and following the post-WrestleMania XXX breakup of The Shield, only Seth Rollins has established himself as an indispensable part of the main event. Rollins is a beguiling performer: slightly built, lithe and agile, and possessing all of the characteristics that would make for a sneaky heel; but at the same time convincingly aggressive and capable of holding the centre of the ring. While all three men emerged to strong responses from the Philadelphia crowd – with Lesnar receiving the loudest and clearest pop – it was Rollins who structured the action and really shone.

This was a good match, but both Brock’s style and the three-man format lend themselves to spots rather than nuanced wrestling – with competitors frequently recuperating on the outside from high-impact moves while one-on-one action continues in the ring. More than the format and Brock’s arsenal however, major WWE matches these days routinely tend towards spotfests, without much in the way of pacing or in-ring psychology. Finishing moves and near falls predominate over slow storytelling, the wearing down of one’s opponent or the targeting of limbs.

Lesnar dominated the early stages, which culminated in his delivering an F5 to Rollins, with Cena just managing to break the cover. Seizing a brief opportunity to mount some offense, Cena hurriedly managed to hit Lesnar with three Attitude Adjustments in a row, only for Rollins to intervene; but even after a a Curb Stomp from Rollins, Lesnar managed to kick out on the count of two. As the action moved to the outside, Cena tackled Lesnar through the fan barricade, before tossing him into the steel steps. Lesnar was beaten up, and it was left to Rollins to climb the top turnbuckle and land with an elbow drop, driving Lesnar through the announce table.

With Lesnar immobilised on the floor, the exchange between Rollins and Cena in the ring resulted in Cena applying the STF, before Jamie Noble and Joey Mercury interfered on Rollins’ behalf and turned the tide through a triple-team powerbomb. As EMTs gathered to attend to Lesnar, Michael Cole informed those of us watching at home that Lesnar had suffered at least a broken rib; but there were apparently fears also for his neck, and Lesnar still had not moved a muscle.

Back on the inside, Cena regained the upper hand. He dropped Rollins over the top rope, and hoisted both Noble and Mercury onto his back for a double Attitude Adjustment. Then an Attitude Adjustment on Rollins brought a count of two-and-three-quarters. The action turned again, and a Curb Stomp now brought Rollins within milliseconds of victory. But suddenly, after lying dormant for so long, Lesnar was up and German suplexing his opponents left and right. Cena fell to the outside; yet Rollins took a suplex and landed acrobatically on his feet, and at once started bashing at Brock with his Money in the Bank briefcase. Lesnar appeared to be in trouble; Rollins placed his groggy head atop the briefcase in preparation for a Curb Stomp; but once again Brock was up, and caught Rollins with a final F5 to retain his gold.

The effort displayed by these three men is without question, and the title match was undoubtedly the saving grace of an otherwise disappointing night. It succeeded in winning the plaudits of those in attendance. Still, the match was markedly flawed. It is counterproductive for Lesnar, for instance, to take three Attitude Adjustments at the midpoint of a match and stand up easily after the first two: it both demeans the move, and makes it implausible for Brock to suffer at the hands of standard offense. More significant is the manner in which Lesnar cast aside pain at the conclusion of the bout. After not moving for minutes on end, to suddenly storm the ring and begin casually throwing opponents makes an absurdity of wrestling as a physical contest. Far from an impressive feat, Brock would have looked stronger – and the match would have been so much for the better – if his return to the ring had been more fraught and laboured, his victory the product of exceptional human effort rather than indifferent superhuman prowess. Perhaps Lesnar was simply playing possum – but such coy subtlety hardly fits with his characterisation. This proclivity towards supernatural powers of recuperation is one shared, incidentally, by Cena, who routinely casts off the effects of a match to hit, in easy succession, his five moves of doom.

The Rumble itself began well, but became desperately bland before the closing stages invoked furor in the Philadelphia audience. The Miz and R-Truth were not bad opening participants: the trope of a first entry underdog, who battles on in the Rumble for longer than anyone could reasonably expect, cannot be utilised every year; and The Miz and R-Truth are good athletes who ought to retain some import, if only owing to their past endeavours. Arguably the highlight of the Rumble followed The Miz and R-Truth to the ring: for the third entrant was Bubba Ray Dudley, returning to the WWE after a ten-year absence, and returning too to the home city of ECW. Bubba called upon R-Truth for a run through of Dudley Boyz classics: The Miz succumbing to the ‘Wassup’ diving headbutt to the groin, and to the 3D.

Bubba eliminated both Miz and Truth, before engaging in a back-and-forth fistfight with Luke Harper. This was coherent storytelling, as two rough, physically imposing brawlers, the old and the new, squared off against one another. When the fifth entrant emerged as Bray Wyatt, the story became more layered, with Bray – another sturdy brawler – and Harper rekindling their Wyatt Family bonds, and Wyatt succeeding in eliminating Bubba. Then Curtis Axel began to make his way to the ring, only to be blindsided by Erick Rowan who, adorned in a sheep’s mask, confronted his former Wyatt Family partners. But as Rowan won the upper hand over Harper, Wyatt tossed Rowan over the top rope, in the process sending Harper off the apron and equally out of the Royal Rumble.

Alone in the ring, Wyatt was the first to gesture towards the WrestleMania sign. And after Bubba’s comeback, the next phase of the Rumble revolved around Wyatt, as he eliminated in turn a returning Boogeyman, Sin Cara, and Zack Ryder; demanding a microphone between entrants in order to declare this his year, before initiating a rendition of ‘He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands’. Though some of the early tempo had been lost, Wyatt had eliminated five men and established himself as an ostensibly genuine Rumble contender. But next to the ring was Daniel Bryan. Receiving the biggest cheer of the night, Bryan hit Wyatt with four running dropkicks in the corner, following up with a hurricanrana from the top turnbuckle.

Fandango entered and interrupted Bryan’s beat-down of Wyatt. Bryan sold as Fandango got in some offense; then as Bryan took charge, there came the first appearance of the night of an old-school Rumble tactic, as Bryan attempted to lever Fandango out of the ring. Tyson Kidd made his entrance, followed by Stardust. Kidd and Bryan exchanged moves, before Kidd was eliminated. Bryan and Wyatt engaged once more, with Bryan pushing Wyatt through the ropes, and diving through them to the outside on the attack.

Diamond Dallas Page was the Rumble’s next – and, as it turned out, last – surprise entrant. He received a decent reception, but as someone who reached the height of his popularity in WCW in the late 1990s, and whose WWE run proved far from successful, DDP has – despite his rewarding move into personal fitness – little connection with the WWE audience. He hit Diamond Cutters on Stardust; on Fandango from the top turnbuckle; and on Wyatt. Alas, DDP was then eliminated upon the arrival of Rusev. Fandango departed also at Rusev’s hands; then as Rusev and Wyatt stared each other down, Bryan landed a double dropkick from the top rope. Stiff kicks to the chests of the kneeling pair brought resounding ‘Yes!’ chants. However, when one of Bryan’s kicks was blocked by Rusev, the Russian hero hoisted Bryan up and over the top rope, although only as far as the ring apron. To the horror of the crowd, Bryan proved unable to make a full recovery, as Wyatt charged and knocked him from the apron to the arena floor.

The crowd were clearly disgruntled, but their immediate reaction was more one of shock. The truth is that the audience in Philadelphia, and the WWE fanbase taken as a whole, neither expected nor demanded that Bryan win the Rumble. But they desired his victory, because despite his success at last year’s WrestleMania, his subsequent injury left them unsatiated, Bryan’s potential unfulfilled, and the lingering fear that his status as one of WWE’s major players has not been truly consolidated.

More, the manner of Bryan’s Rumble departure was anti-climatic, both as action and as narrative. Merely shoved from the apron, there was no plot development around his elimination: no sense elaborated that he may still be rusty, coming back after a long injury layoff; no bemoaning of bad luck. The man who remains WWE’s most popular wrestler by far had been shunted out of contention, and it was portrayed as something incidental. Perhaps Bryan’s elimination can, in the long run, encourage the crowd to get behind him as they did last year. This time round, however, Bryan should work from underneath not to overcome some authority faction – that angle is played out – but to overcome personal odds. Still, Bryan vs. Lesnar presented the most exciting and intriguing possibility for the main event of WrestleMania XXXI: a match that would have booked itself, with Bryan – more than simply the underdog – having to test his body against the much larger man; while the contrast between two intense, physical styles could have brought the best out of both competitors.

From this point in the Royal Rumble, the action in the ring fell away. There were no real stories told, no antagonisms played out. Chants in support of Daniel Bryan frequently emanated from the crowd. Goldust came out, and he and Stardust briefly quarrelled; while Kofi Kingston’s Rumble trick for 2015 saw him tossed from the ring but held up by Adam Rose’s Rosebuds, who momentarily restored his participation. Rusev then eliminated Rose and, at the third attempt, Kingston, and Goldust and Stardust also departed. Roman Reigns entered through the crowd, and received only a superficial response. In the palpable rush to make Reigns the next big thing, WWE has thwarted any possibility of his organic connection with the audience. This was a connection Reigns had made by this time last year, as part of The Shield; but in the aftermath of that group’s breakup, the least experienced, least nuanced, and least charismatic of its members has failed to develop his own identity. Hurt by months on the sidelines owing to injury, and incapable of showcasing his personality by way of interviews and promos, Reigns has been unduly awarded for a thoroughly mediocre year. Thus the fans are left to respond to the padding WWE has placed about Reigns, debarred from an earnest response to the man himself.

Big E made an appearance. Then the high point of the second half of the Rumble came upon the entrance of Damien Mizdow. As Mizdow walked to the ring, The Miz interfered and demanded that he cede the spot – affording The Miz his second opportunity to take part in the contest. The Miz was shoved from the ring apron, however, before he could make a second entry; and as he was laid out on the floor, there was nothing preventing Mizdow from seizing the moment. At this point, Mizdow was receiving one of the best receptions of the night. But Rusev made short work of him, and without missing a beat, he was back on the floor, mimicking Miz as though the preceding interlude had never happened. This was entertaining light comedy, and one of the few expressions of character in the Rumble’s later stages.

Jack Swagger was out next, then Ryback, and the ring began to look small as it filled with the oversized. Kane appeared to what must have been worldwide groans. Offering relief, the twenty-fifth entrant was Dean Ambrose. He pummelled Kane before being pulled off by Bray Wyatt, and was rewarded with a ‘Let’s go Ambrose’ chant. Titus O’Neill was eliminated within seconds courtesy of the combined efforts of Ambrose and Reigns. Wade Barrett emerged next, followed by Cesaro. And then at number twenty-nine came Big Show. Rusev eliminated Big E; before the two big men, Big Show and Kane, began teaming up, eliminating first Ryback then Swagger. At some point Rusev disappeared from the action; but the fans didn’t particularly notice, because by this point a weary hostility had set in, especially as they watched two tired figures repeat a long familiar process.

Dolph Ziggler was the Royal Rumble’s final entrant, and he immediately added some zip and vigour to proceedings. There were superkicks for Show, Kane, and Wyatt, then a double-DDT for the two big men. Ziggler eliminated Barrett; but turned into a Cesaro Swing. Cesaro managed to get Ziggler as far as the ring apron, but when Ziggler pulled Cesaro out to accompany him, it was Cesaro who ended up heading to the back after two superkicks sent him tumbling to the floor.

While the course of the Rumble at this point seemed clear, with the sense before the show that the winner would boil down to Bryan or Reigns, there was still hope that Ziggler, Ambrose, or even Wyatt might take a surprise victory. All three men would have been cheered; the former two emphatically. Yet after a big punch from Big Show caught Ziggler coming off the top rope, Ziggler was tossed to the floor; before Wyatt too was unceremoniously dumped by both big men.

The crowd transitioned from exasperated discomfort and occasional bursts of dissent to outright anger. Wyatt’s early work in the Rumble, and his elimination of numerous opponents, seemed to have been forgotten; the focus of the commentators instead turned to the record for total eliminations now held by Kane; both Wyatt and Ziggler were thrown away as though they didn’t matter and couldn’t hope to compete. The Royal Rumble in the end did precious little to enhance either talent; while the manner of Wyatt’s elimination made more of a mockery of the performance of Daniel Bryan, who Wyatt had eliminated now some thirty minutes ago.

In theory, Ambrose and Reigns teeing off against Kane and Show could have provoked a frisson of excitement, with the former Shield teammates battling against members of the authoritarian old guard. But the ground for this hadn’t been prepared, the Rumble had long lost its early impetus, and too many of the crowd’s favourites had been carelessly erased. Worse was to come, for now Ambrose too was tossed aside. ‘Bullshit’ chants erupted. The contest was effectively over, for it was brazenly obvious that neither Kane nor Show would be winning the Rumble; but the trio left in the ring laboured on, with Reigns struggling to flip the two big men as they bickered against the ring ropes.

So Reigns was the last man standing: the climactic moment of an anticlimax forty minutes in the making. Kane and Big Show now reentered the ring threateningly and menaced Reigns. And whose music was this, and who was this taking the ring by storm? It was The Rock, who appeared to a tremendous pop – but the pop was only briefly held. The Rock’s presence was too telegraphed: he and Reigns are cousins, and after WWE seemingly pushed to one side a host of fan favourites in order to protect their chosen performer, their audience was unwilling to embrace Reigns upon command, owing now solely to his familial relationship with a more illustrious and accomplished peer.

A People’s Elbow on Kane received another big cheer, but by the time Reigns had regained his composure, and came to The Rock’s aid with a Superman Punch on Big Show, the boos of the fans were full throated. In a bizarrely orchestrated coda to the Rumble, suddenly Rusev reappeared in the ring. Apparently he had left without being eliminated. His status in the meantime was left unexplained – although hiding is inconsistent with his character – but it mattered not, for even though the audience now cheered for Rusev to win the Rumble, Reigns threw him over the top rope to reaffirm his victory. The Rock reentered the ring to pose with Reigns, but his consternation was evident as the crowd’s anger failed to subside; and it is difficult to believe that Rock wasn’t apprehensive about just such a conclusion. Stephanie and Triple H appeared in the aisle to ponder their company’s new title contender; but they were ghosts only, ignored amid an outpouring of ire in Philadelphia.

Almost twenty years ago, when The Rock was starting out in the wrestling business, WWE pushed the third-generation youngster as a blue-chip babyface, with designs on making him the focal point of the company. Too blatant, and utilising an outdated methodology, the plan was an utter failure: within a few months of his debut, the supposed fan-favourite was on the receiving end of chants declaring ‘Rocky sucks’ and ‘Die, Rocky, die!’. Fan appreciation has to be earned: it cannot be forced on any meaningful level. What’s more, the depiction of clean-cut superheros is entirely out of step with modern culture. It hasn’t properly worked in wrestling since the early 1990s; was rendered an antiquity by the success of Stone Cold Steve Austin; and pales in the face of a broader sphere of television entertainment, whose leading characterisations of recent years have emerged in The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, and Game of Thrones.

The Rock turned his career around when, allowed to simmer for a while as part of the Nation of Domination, his wit and charisma came to the fore as a heel. WrestleMania as it has grown to exist today is not dependent upon one match; but the title bout for thirty-first iteration of the event – which will take place on 29 March from Santa Clara, California – is still salvageable. The most obvious solutions involve either inserting Daniel Bryan into the match, or turning Roman Reigns heel. WWE faced a similar predicament one year ago, when Batista’s Royal Rumble victory met with a markedly similar response. Then, Batista was turned heel; and Daniel Bryan, after going through Triple H in the show’s opening bout, ultimately forced his way into a triple-threat main event and came away with the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. It is difficult to see WWE relenting and using Bryan in the same way again. He will have to make do with his lot for the time being. This may amount to a fruitless rehash of previous matches against Kane or Sheamus; but much more promising, there has been this week the suggestion that Bryan and Ziggler will be afforded the opportunity to steal the show.

In some ways, Reigns may be better off heading into WrestleMania as a heel. Lesnar, the current title holder and his scheduled opponent, is receiving a strong face response, while after the Rumble the fans are already down on Reigns and will be hard to recover. A heel role may require less openness on the microphone; and it could easily be achieved were Reigns to find reason to turn on his older cousin. On the other hand, WWE has clearly pinned its hopes on Reigns making it in the long term as a major babyface; while Lesnar may well depart and return to UFC after WrestleMania, with his WWE contract up. If Reigns is to remain a face, he will have to be detached from his cousin over the next two months: to get on side with the audience, he must present himself as his own man.

A match between Reigns and Lesnar would be a highly physical affair, but probably one dependent upon spots and out-of-the-ring activity. There would be high-impact slams, steel steps and barricades, and lots of false finishes. Reigns does not possess a large moveset, nor the in-ring experience of someone like Bryan. The match could still work on its own terms if the build towards it was right. Aside from turning Reigns or involving Bryan, Seth Rollins may have a role to play, in one way or another. One scenario would see Rollins take Lesnar’s title before WrestleMania, going on to face his former Shield companion for the belt in a match which would be less prestigious, but more rounded and perhaps more conducive to Reigns’ development, while freeing up Lesnar for another important spot on the card. Alternatively, Rollins could save his Money in the Bank briefcase and cash in on Reigns in the immediate aftermath of a WrestleMania title victory. That would set the stage for a lengthy feud between the pair; but it remains that at this point in time, such an outcome would see Rollins, WWE’s only current main-even heel, cheered for his act.