Views From The Turnbuckle: Will Roman Reigns Be Ready?

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Roman Reigns has quickly become one of the biggest players within WWE. Reigns has deftly shaken off his former Shield cohorts, and now appears to be on the fast-track for singles stardom. The potential of Reigns and his ability to become a main event player in WWE has turned into a polarizing discussion, one that not only has fans with clashing opinions over the issue, but also reportedly WWE management.

Like all wrestlers, Reigns has his strengths and weaknesses. The big question is that whether Reigns' strengths end up out weighing his weaknesses. Will Reigns' be able to leap over the hurdles and become WWE's next megastar? Or will he fall back and end up being just another WWE star that was supposed to be the next face of the company, but eventually lost his push?

Contrary to some people's opinion, Reigns does have a lot going for him. The first thing that really helps him out is his relative youth. If you consider the three biggest hitters in WWE to be John Cena, Randy Orton and Daniel Bryan, then you are looking at guys who are not going to be around forever. Cena is 37, Orton is 34 with a lot of mileage on his tires, and Bryan is 33 with a scary injury history. Reigns is only 29 years old, with a pretty empty bump card. Ideally, he could carry the WWE for another 10 years the way Cena has.

Another going for Reigns is his potential as an in-ring performer. Reigns is still rough around the edges, but if you compare Reigns from his WWE debut with the Reigns of today, you see a totally different performer, a much more composed and confident in-ring worker who has made great bounds in a fairly short period of time. While Reigns is still a sub-par in-ring worker, he is a very good athlete, and has about as good of a family pedigree as one could imagine. And even if he doesn't become a great worker, hasn't John Cena shown us that you can be a huge, huge star in WWE and still only churn out mediocre in-ring work?

Probably the most important thing Reigns has going for him is his overall presence. The overall presence of a wrestler is hard to define, and I didn't really understand it until I attended Money in the Bank 2014. Before the main event, the everyone sitting in the section next to mine stood up, and a wave of excitement came over that side of the arena. I didn't know what was going on, but my buddy said that Roman Reigns was about to make his entrance. Reign's music hit and he came down the aisle and for the first time, I understood why WWE had so much faith in this guy. He coldly marched by me and everyone else in my section, never taking his eyes of the ring. I don't really know what it was, his brooding looks, the kick-ass entrance, the excitement of him contending for the world title, or a combination of all of them, but Reigns had a total command over the audience. Just seeing him step down the stairs, over the barricade and into the ring was a pretty cool moment, and unless you have experienced it yourself, it is hard to really understand.

While Reigns certainly has his strengths, he is far from a perfect performer at this stage in his career. The first thing that goes against him is his inexperience. While his youth offers a promising long-term prospect, he lack of experience often hurts him in the ring. No matter how naturally gifted you are, it still takes years to develop all the necessary skills that it takes to be a top level WWE star. While Reigns has made a lot of improvements since his call-up to the main roster, he is still not at the level that it takes to be the face of the franchise.

Reigns' mic skills have also been called into question recently. Reigns' promos so far have been pretty bland, just short statements that were clearly written for him and don't entail a lot of emotion. Unless you have a gimmick where you don't talk like Goldberg, it is impossible for a superstar to reach the top of the mountain without solid microphones skills. This is the hardest thing to predict for the future, since interview skills are much harder to develop than in-ring abilities. Some guys like The Rock and CM Punk just have a natural charisma about giving interviews, while others like Bret Hart and even Steve Austin really had to work to develop good mic skills. If WWE wants Reigns to be the next big star, they better hope he makes huge strides in that area.

The most significant thing Reign's needs is the full support of WWE management. Right now, he couldn't be in a better place within WWE's complicated hierarchy, but that might not last forever. WWE has consistently pushed new guys as potential superstars, but for one reason or another, that push stops. Whether it be The Miz, Ryback, Sheamus, Alberto Del Rio or anybody else, these guys get big pushes and then they stop. Reigns could develop into a really solid all-around performer, but something could happen, whether it be an injury, backstage politics or whatever, that derails his push and suddenly he is Drew McIntyre. Things always change in professional wrestling and nothing is ever set in stone.

Right now, I think most people can agree that Reigns isn't ready to be the next WWE Champion. However, by working major singles feuds with Randy Orton, and perhaps later Triple H, Reigns can make great strides in his ring-work and establish himself as a major star in the company. Is Wrestlemania (the rumored date for Reign's title victory) too soon for him to climb that mountain? Right now it seems so, but in a few months it could very well seem like not soon enough.