When the Rock, the biggest crossover star in professional wrestling history, told other wrestlers “know your role,” he wasn’t just saying it because it sounded cool. Within the structure of a major wrestling event, each matchup on the lower and mid-card should serve the main event in some way. Other wrestlers needed to know their role in the face of stars like the Rock because it’s their responsibility to build excitement, preserve anticipation, and plant seeds for the main events. Their goal is not always to shine and put on great performances themselves.
When wrestlers go to the ring, they have many responsibilities beyond having an exciting match; in fact, in many cases, that isn’t even one of the top three objectives. Each match on a card, or at least each match on any good card, has a specific job or jobs within the structure of the show. To put on a wholly successful show, each match must know its role and tell a story that not only builds to its own internal crescendo but also pushes the card on its gradual, upward journey towards the climax.
On Sunday’s Hell in a Cell pay-per-view, one contest broke these cardinal rules to a degree that did harm to the show as a whole. The matchup between Bray Wyatt and Roman Reigns, which went on second, pulled out all the stops to thrill the crowd and ended with both men looking like tough competitors, but by the time the final bell had rung and Roman Reigns’ hand was being raised, it was hard not to wonder what the other wrestlers were going to do for the next two hours.
With the Dudley Boyz out next and struggling to get over as babyfaces against the New Day, it was not good for the show that Wyatt and Reigns went through multiple tables. When a big part of an act’s gimmick is commanding each other to fetch such tables, it rains on their parade a bit to break an entire catering spread worth of them just ten minutes beforehand. As of now, the tag team division doesn’t have much going for it beyond New Day and the Dudleys, so it seems especially selfish of a first-hour singles match to completely burn out something that could’ve been a major tease in a title match.
More importantly, with a 50-year-old Undertaker in the main event and a 48-year-old Kane in the World Title match, it was not good for the show that Wyatt and Reigns did so many big spots. Although his family closed the show with their abduction of the Dead Man, it was actually Bray’s knockdown, drag-out brawl in hour one that truly put Undertaker in a bad position.
Had Reigns and he not swung kendo sticks at each other with such ferocity, Brock Lesnar may not have needed to wallop the semi-centurian quite so hard with those chair shots or slam him quite so emphatically onto the exposed boards of the ring. Had they not used every shortcut reversed for main events in the second match of the night, maybe the World Title bout wouldn’t have come off as so dull and the Taker-Lesnar confrontation wouldn’t have needed both men to bleed.
With all that said, however, it’s not as if Bray Wyatt and Roman Reigns are even principally to blame for this error of execution. Wyatt is a strong heel talker who needs to wrestle athletic babyfaces to perform at a level that gets his character over without needing to use shortcuts. Reigns is still a top act in the making, but he needs athletic heels with strong ring awareness to feed his offense and aid his timing so he can get over without needing to use shortcuts. These are not two acts who should be facing each other one-on-one in a major gimmick match on pay per view.
The only conceivable exciting match these two could have was one with every stop pulled out and every big spot done. WWE booked themselves into a corner where they either had to send Wyatt and Reigns out to the ring knowing they were going to stink up the joint or give them free rein to do things that would force other performers higher on the card to take bigger risks. Smart bookers don’t put themselves or their main event stars in positions like that.
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David Gibb
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