Dave Meltzer Claims That Roman Reigns Is Not “The Guy” in WWE, Says Casual Audience Has Moved On

– During a recent appearance on The Wrestling Observer Radio Show, Dave Meltzer criticized WWE Superstar Roman Reigns, claiming that Roman Reigns was not in fact “The Guy” for WWE’s hopes that he will be their top Superstar for the foreseeable future. Below are some highlights from Meltzer’s thoughts on Roman Reigns as the top guy for WWE.

Meltzer on why Reigns is not the guy: “At the end of the day, he’s not the guy! As soon as they broke up The Shield, I remember saying it that he’s not the guy. Then it became painfully obvious that that’s the case. In their mind, they are still hung up on that looks thing, and that’s where they are out of touch. There was a time in the ’80s where good look, good body — that’s enough and that’s what you want. And people were plenty into guys who weren’t necessarily the best wrestlers if they had the right look.”

Meltzer on WWE’s audience: “This is why. They do not have the casual audience they used to have. They have a hardcore audience. So the hardcore audience has different likes than the casual audience. I know they’re thinking we got to book for the casual audience. Well, guess what? When you have three-hour Raws every week, that doesn’t exist. You’ve got a certain audience, and they’re very loyal. They’ll buy buy tickets to the big shows, and that audience is gonna watch. It’s their freaking religion. And, when they don’t like it, they’re gonna complain, but they’re still gonna watch because that’s what hardcore fans do. Casual fans? You burned them out by trying to give them too much product. They don’t want to keep up with it. They’ve moved on.”

His thoughts on Drew McIntyre: “Who’s the guy? If it’s not Roman Reigns, then who’s the guy? John Cena’s part time now. It can’t be him. Who? Who do you go with? You could go with [Seth] Rollins, but he’s definitely been taken down a notch. [Dean] Ambrose has been taken down several notches. So they both had their windows of opportunities, and I think the company blew it for both of them honestly. Their decision on Roman, which went back years, it was one one of those decisions … once he went as a single, he did well, but he never did all the way well. Reigns is not the guy. There are others who could have been the guy, but they squandered them. I think the damage has been done. I don’t think you can go back to those guys. So I kind of think it’s Reigns by default until somebody comes up. [Drew] McIntyre checks a lot of boxes. He’s a really aggressive worker, good talker — better talker than Reigns. He’s got a good look like Reigns. In some ways he’s a better wrestler than Reigns. Maybe him, but do they want a non-American in that spot? I don’t know. I don’t know if they want to go that far, but maybe they would. I don’t know. Who else is there right now? There’s nobody there right now. It’s a hard situation. But it doesn’t matter because they’ve already determined it’s going to be Roman Reigns no matter what I said, so there you go.”