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What’s happening?
In recent weeks, storylines involving The Shield are hinting that the group might break up very soon, prime reason being that WWE Creative is set to give Roman Reigns a big solo push.
Last week, F4W Newsletter’s Bryan Alvarez said that the management might replace Roman Reigns instead of disbanding The Shield: “The feeling this week is that when Roman Reigns does his babyface turn and split from the Shield, likely in February, that he’ll be replaced with a new guy in the group. The name Mason Ryan has been thrown around as a possibility.”
Will he be a good replacement for Reigns?
It would be a great move by the management if they push Reigns as a face and keep the Shield at the same time, but the idea of Mason Ryan replacing Roman Reigns doesn’t sound cool. It’s like WWE is replacing Reigns with just any other big guy from their company. Ryan didn’t wrestle as part of the main roster after the end of the New Nexus and is currently wrestling on NXT. This is enough to justify that Ryan won’t be a good replacement for a rising star like Reigns, plus it will be extremely hard for him to fill Reigns’ shoes and build a similar chemistry with Ambrose and Rollins.
Ryan is a powerhouse like Reigns but is behind him in terms of talent and charisma; how many of you actually missed Ryan and watched his videos on YouTube? If WWE wants to replace Reigns then the replacement should be in the form of someone who is at least as good as Reigns, and I don’t think Ryan is anywhere near him except for his size which reminds us of Batista. With Batista returning, it doesn’t look like we need an impostor.
Why is Reigns getting the push?
Talking about Reigns’ push, we get to hear people saying that familial relations with The Rock is the reason why Reigns is getting a big solo push, considering that Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins are also talented young performers. This doesn’t look like a genuine reason, because like him his brother, Rosey (if you remember him), too is related with The Rock, but he never got a big push. Reigns deserves this push because he is talented and charismatic and has the power to come close to the likes of Goldberg and Batista. There have been many other powerhouses in the company, but Reigns has that X factor that separates him from other powerhouses like Mason Ryan.
Pushing Reigns is a good thing, but pushing only him isn’t, Ambrose and Rollins don’t deserve anything less, these three have together left their mark on the WWE, and pushing only one of them won’t be liked by the other two. Compensating by giving them Ryan as a replacement isn’t a good choice because he isn’t as good as Reigns and The Shield are no longer as dominant as they were in their initial months. Bringing in Mason Ryan won’t elevate the group in any way.
Eventually, all three of the current Shield members will be on their solo paths very soon. It’s upto the WWE, how they deal with Reigns’ push and The Shield’s future as a group.
