John Cena Takes Blame for Roman Reigns' Uphill Battle to Become Face of WWE

As soon as it became evident WWE was grooming Roman Reigns to replace John Cena, a chunk of the [...]

By Jeremy Snodgrass

As soon as it became evident WWE was grooming Roman Reigns to replace John Cena, a chunk of the wrestling world committed to denouncing the decision. After nearly four years of push and pull, Reigns is finally at WWE's peak, but it's been an arduous journey.

And John Cena knows it's at least partially his fault.

During an appearance on Jimmy Traina's SI Media Podcast, Cena discussed how his reign as the face of WWE made things difficult for whoever followed him next.

"Roman has it tough. I kind of ruined this for everybody; the content and the format change did. Attitude Era was male 18-35. And our program still draws males 18-35. But we're a PG program. Which means your audience is a six year old. I don't say don't cater to the male 18-35, but your audience starts at six or younger. So you have to give them essentially Shrek or Cars, or the Lego movie," he said.

The 18-35 demographic has undeniable given Reigns the most trouble. Despite being a group of people who are married, have jobs, and pay taxes, this group has vocally resisted Reigns since 2015. A lot of that comes from the frustrations of feeling unrepresented in E's product, but it may be better tied to them yearning for something that resembles the Attitude Era. But that's just not in WWE's card in 2018.

"Sometimes 18-35-year-old dudes don't want to watch the Lego movie," continued Cena. "Don't think there's not a second in my mind that our audience isn't six. Our audience is so mixed that there's never going to be a good guy that appeals to everyone. Even if it's someone that the fans endorse and become the guy; it's a thing where the fans are like, 'Okay, you as a company are going with this guy? No, you're not because we get to choose!'"

Cena underlined that Reigns' character hasn't changed much during his ascent. But that's not a knock, rather a pertinent fact. Reigns used to be embraced by most if not all WWE fans. But once word got out that WWE wanted him to be "the guy" people began to resist.

"When Roman was with The Shield, everybody loved him. He didn't really change much. He was soft-spoken, his actions spoken for him, he performs incredibly well. Yet there's a giant uprising because a lot of it is, 'You can't tell us what to like.' And that's okay; it's just tough waters to navigate as a company and it is tough to build stars. You have to look at your consumers and the analytics. People really like Roman Reigns. And the numbers are there to prove it," he said.

By now, asserting Reigns isn't worthy of his top spot is a tired argument. While he's been hurt by some questionable booking, 2018 has been his best year yet. Now that he's finally Universal Champion, that fans that spat out his rise seem to be easing their aggression. The days of the universally beloved Superstar are likely a thing of the past. WWE is simply too big with a remarkably diverse fanbase, so picking one Superstar for everyone to love is impossible.

[H/T Wrestling Inc.]

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