I’m thinking that maybe he was considered such a big part of their presentation that even WWE realized they couldn’t just drop him. The AOP debut was the RAW after Mania, and with that crowd in the house I think they needed to have SOME explanation why Ellering was gone.

But like I said, I’m entirely speculating. Could just be strange WWE booking at its finest.

I’m wondering if Ellering maybe didn’t want the schedule that comes with a WWE manager, maybe he was happy making the occasional Orlando appearance and calling it a day.

No way to know for sure, but wouldn’t surprise me.

I’m a fan of Charlotte and generally a WWE apologist.

But...

The story CLEARLY sets Becky as the face. Basically her second generation blonde friend who’s been at the forefront of the division forever and gets opportunities for waking up in the morning gets a couple months off to get some upgrades in the chest area. Then she walks in with her new breast friends and ends up in a title match at the expense of her adorable girl next door underdog friend Becky who’s worked her way into the title picture after forever.

Oh and let’s do it in front of a passionate, partisan, New York crowd.

If WWE didn’t know who the face would be in that scenario then they’re more clueless than many fans berate them for being and I defend them for not being.

Great stuff Imp, it pulled me out of the weeds to chime in.

Agreed.

They used to call the holder Mister Money in the Bank...why they didn’t just replace Mister with Monster is beyond me.

Still not good, but infinitely better.

You make a lot of good points here, so just know that I'm going to be in agreement on most of them. So I'll cover the two I disagree with.

I think it's too soon for Charlotte to turn heel. While I prefer her in that alignment, I think that Becky making this move makes more sense from a storyline standpoint, and it also gives Becky something new to sink her teeth into.

As for Braun, I initially had similar thoughts, but then I thought about it and was OK with it. He said he's not a coward, he didn't say he was stupid. So he's not a coward in that he wanted to let the person who won know face to face that he'd be cashing in. Also, he himself had already had a match that night, so theoretically they'd be on a level playing field in that regard.

I thought it was a bit strange, but made enough sense that I was OK with it. I was more unhappy about the fact that they pulled the bait and switch on the cash in, though it made plenty of sense in the context of keeping the fans from going AWOL on the match from the door.

That is a disgraceful and out of touch comment. The “brotherhood of wrestling” doesn’t give you carte Blanche to say or do anything you want.

On top of that you can’t come out and say “they don’t understand the brotherhood of wrestling” and then say “I’m not here to judge anyone’s reaction.”

Those two things don’t go hand in hand.

I think every time he opens his mouth he’s making things worse right now. If he had any true comprehension of his actions his response would be along the lines of “It’s my job to work harder to prove to that other 15% that I deserve their forgiveness, and if I never get it, then that means I never earned it.”

He may or may not be. I tend to agree with you that if fans were allowed to feel like it was "organic" rather than feeling forced then this wouldn't be the situation it is today.

WWE did itself no favors though, they've flat out antagonized the fans with him as well. The One Vs. All Rumble was the ultimate example. They found a way to get Roman's Title victory cheered in Philadelphia (the same place that was all over his Rumble win) by having him beat Sheamus who was utterly loathed at the time, and then came up with this preposterous angle to put Roman in a "odds stacked against him" situation again.

The problem is that when the fans who are reacting negatively know he's the "chosen one" they can't get invested in a storyline where the company is against Roman. Fans are too plugged in, and yet WWE continued down that road again undoing the little progress they managed to make. Main Eventing multiple consecutive Mania's (regardless of the result) has done no favors either.

The biggest mistake WWE has made is underestimating the hive mentality of this community. You can see it here. If I'd have posted something that says "Roman sucks, push (insert former New Japan or Indy star here)" I'd have 35 thumbs up. But I dared question the status quo of "Roman sucks". I didn't do it in an antagonistic way, I didn't do it simply to be contrarian, and I laid out indisputable facts, and still have countless thumbs down. Certainly one could disagree with my premise, because all of this is subjective, but to massively thumb it down because it's in some ways pro-Roman is silly.

Since the original dissolution of The Shield Roman has been a top champion for 7.6% of those days. Since the inception of the Universal Title Roman has been Universal Champion for ZERO percent of those days. Finn Balor has had more days as Universal Champion than Roman Reigns. Brock Lesnar has been champion for SEVENTY percent of the time since the title was created.

Yet despite all of that, because of the antagonistic nature of WWE vs. The Fans when it comes to Reigns this mindset of Roman is terrible is what WWE is dealing with. They're dealing with the hardest of hardcore fans. They're dealing with the adult males who spend their hard earned money to walk into a show and have formed this community with others of the same mindset and that is a very powerful force to overcome.

WWE has done itself no favors in even making a real effort to win over those fans, instead they've regularly antagonized them to the point where that group no longer has any objectivity at all. While I blame them for falling into the trap of "groupthink" and being unable to see the forest for the trees, I also fully understand that WWE has pushed them there.

I think to say that there are "more hard working guys" is pretty absurd. I'm sure there is a plethora of talent that busts their tails regularly, and like it or not Reigns is one of them.

Reigns is on every show and making numerous corporate and MAW appearances. You can judge Reigns for an awful lot of things, though I think the way the company has handled him is the bigger issue, but to question his work ethic seems silly to me and gives the credibility of your whole comment a bit of a hit in my eyes.

But I'm certainly curious who you think is more deserving and why they're FAR more deserving?

Thank you. Roman isn't perfect, but anyone who thinks he hasn't improved is just off-base.

I still think he's right even there. Not necessarily about a monumental move in attendance, but at the very least in the fan experience. While going to a house show you know there's a 99.9% chance no titles are changing hands:

1) On occasion they do.
2) There's something extra special about seeing the champion up close and personal. Especially if it's one of those kids who loves Roman.

For me it doesn't move the needle as an adult male, but I think for a percentage of the crowd he does make a valid point.