iMoreland wrote:Reigns has had great match after great match yet people still think he's incapable of wrestling. His character is his only weakness. His promos are getting more and more solid every time he talks and his ring work is amazing.
If Reigns wrestled on the indies like Ambrose or Rollins he'd be universally praised for his work.
It's Cena all over again. Cena's been a great wrestler for 10+ years yet people failed to realize.
He's had a lot of great stipulation matches, but I've found his regular matches to be largely underwhelming. The main problem is that, like Cena in his prime, he only does about four or five moves per match. Every damn match is just him spamming the superman punch a dozen times with the occasional Samoan drop or drive-by sprinkled in before he spears his way to victory. There was a time when he seemed to be adding new moves to his repertoire (that crucifix powerbomb was cool), but that time seems to have passed and he's actually regressed it seems. I assume Vince told him he was being too ostentatious out there or something.
Again, I don't think he's incapable of wrestling. I just find his matches to often be, like Cena's, boring because of how predictable they are. He also doesn't sell well at all, which is another thing he learned from Cena. He'll be getting the crap beat out of him all match only to suddenly be fine when it's time to drop a couple of superman punches and spear for the win.
If Reigns wrestled in the indies, I'd expect he'd have learned a lot of extra moves and, thus, his regular one-on-one matches would be better. Ambrose, by the way, has gotten a lot of flack for how lazy he's gotten over the past year. I've been highly critical of him for ages now. His move set sucks, that middle rope rebound clothesline is the worst move in wrestling, and the dude hasn't had a great match in forever. I'd take Reigns over him all day every day right now if we're solely judging by in-ring performance. Ambrose is a much better talker and has more charisma, though. Reigns has the charisma of a particularly uncharismatic bag of wet dog sh*t, though, so that's not exactly a monumental accomplishment.
As for Cena, I think saying he's been a great wrestler for ten years is a bit of a stretch. Five years? Sure. But ten? I don't know, man. Personally, I think Cena really hit his stride in the ring during his US Championship open challenge a year or two ago. Prior to that, he was a good big match guy (although, again, his matches often fell into the same finisher-fest formula that he still relies on), but his week to week work wasn't great.