In an environment where everything is scripted and pre-determined by writers and the powers-that-be of WWE, the company has the tools to control the narrative of WWE programming to send out whatever message they desire. They cannot control their fan base, but they can have the means to spread the message about who is right and who is wrong in the storyline. It’s also not entirely in their power to prevent a wrestler from doing something wrong outside of the ring. Following these events though, it’s in the WWE’s court about what to do with the wrestlers. Do they punish them? Do they stay the course? Do they praise him? Or in Roman Reigns’ case, do they shame them?
Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar are the next two of the biggest names in professional wrestling to have ever been flagged for anti-drug policy violations. Roman broke the wellness policy for the first time in June 2016 while Brock Lesnar was notified for a violation of the USADA’s MMA anti-drug policy. However, these two men are arguably too of the most vilified examples of those that have been flagged for anti-drug policy violations. Why’s that? It’s simply because the WWE still continue to reference these events and shame both men for their violations. Randy Orton referenced Brock Lesnar’s violations at Battleground in a segment at Battleground, while Roman has been the target of Seth Rollins and Stephanie McMahon’s verbal jabs on-screen for his suspension.
With the assistance of social media and mainstream press picking up the news, Roman and Brock have become two of the most newsworthy cases in recent memory. However, does that essentially put pressure in WWE to make an example out of these men? The media are unlikely going to simple turn a blind eye if WWE and UFC shows leniency on these two men. That affects the companies image with people questioning their methods.
I’m sure Vince McMahon is not somebody that would allow the media to dictate this decisions, but there also other things to take into account to. He can’t afford to rub sponsors and networks the wrong way, as they’re aiding WWE financially. Should WWE mess up the sponsors are also targeted by affiliation, as they are supporting the product. For the fans that complain about WWE being PG and RAW being three hours long, they do it in order to maintain a healthy relationship with the sponsors and networks. With those things in mind, WWE had to take action against Roman Reigns when he violated the wellness policy. They also had to do it because, well, it’s company policy to do so.
Now Roman Reigns has served his suspension, but it seems that the punishment for Roman hasn’t stopped. Confirmed by Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Live, Roman’s indeed in the “dog house” of WWE. He’s not in good standing with the company at the moment, which is hurting his image on screen. After never truly being beaten clean since his major push began in 2014, Roman was suddenly on the receiving end of three clean defeats in his last five matches on television. He lost the WWE World title clean to Seth Rollins, he was the one pinned by Dean Ambrose at Battleground and he was beaten clean by Finn Balor on RAW last week. Suffice to say that he’s probably not going to be as “protected” as he was in the past. That’s all well and good, as I would not condone WWE pushing a wrestler as strong as before right after a suspension. If they did continued to push Roman like they did before, the wrestlers that had never broken the wellness policy before would be upset at the idea of WWE backing Roman more than they backed the “clean” wrestlers that had never once broken that policy.
However, Roman has also been on the receiving end of on-screen insults from Seth and Stephanie. Seth and Stephanie calling Roman a loser and an embarrassment is actually very detrimental when you’ve considered how badly WWE tried to get Roman over as their top star. In a perfect world, I don’t think the off-screen actions of a wrestler should be brought into storylines. However, if you’re gonna go through with mentioning Roman’s suspension on TV, I would at least try to make it seem as if Roman is trying and redeem himself. According to the storyline, that’s probably what they’re trying to do. However, him getting beat over and over as well as the insults from Stephanie and Seth aren’t doing him any favours.
I think WWE have probably decided to let the boat sail on Roman as a top babyface but they’re still putting Roman in their main events and he’s still a babyface. There’s still the intention of having Roman be a top guy, if not THE guy. Well if that’s the case and you want to keep him as a babyface, you should at least not have him presented as a loser and an embarrassment. Roman confessed to his violation and did a big tweet about how he was sorry, he served his punishment and now he’s back. When trying to portray Roman as a babyface, the storyline should be that Roman did something bad and now he has to redeem himself. I would not put the belt on him right away or anything crazy like that but it would hurt if you did the angle of Roman having to work his way up from the bottom. At least Roman’s not in the top matches, so at least you’re sending the message to the roster that they will also go down the card if they mess up.
However, the WWE are still adamant about shaming Roman Reigns. They’re trying to tell the viewers that it doesn’t matter what Roman’s doing now, because he did ONE bad thing. He’s a top star but we’ll still always remind you that he did something bad. That ONE bad thing is justification, in WWE’s mind, to shame Roman while trying to present him as a top star. If you want to bring the violation into the storyline and you want to shame Roman, telling the fans that Roman is now a bad man for what he did, you may as well turn him heel. The dude can work as a heel and he’s got a big, mean-guy look to him.
Again, in a perfect world, I don’t think you should let real-life events affect WWE storylines. I would not let Roman off the hook, but I would never think to bury one of my top stars.
Brock Lesnar is another interesting one, as he technically will not get punished by WWE as he’s a part-timer. Part-timers are not subjected to the wellness policy in WWE and his anti-drug violation came while competing in UFC. However, WWE still continue to mention what Brock did as well. They reported it on social media and WWE.com, as well as allowing Randy Orton to make a comment about the notifications. I just found it funny that Randy Orton made the comment about Brock’s anti-drug violation when Orton himself has broke WWE’s wellness policy twice. I don’t want this to come off as a bash at Orton but Orton would not have been my #1 pick to have made this comment at Brock. Once again, in a perfect world, I wouldn’t have mentioned it all. However, Randy Orton making the comment was also a reminder that another big star from WWE has broken this wellness policy. Effectively, WWE are exposing their top stars for having done this thing in the past. I don’t think Brock or Paul Heyman (assuming he’ll show up in the future) will actually mention Orton’s wellness policy violations in response, but it just comes off as very hypocritical when Orton makes the joke about Brock.
The last thing I want to mention, when it comes to Roman, is that I don’t think a wellness policy has ever been covered this much in a WWE storyline. I don’t recall WWE ever bringing Hornswoggle back on the television to mention his wellness violation before he got released. I don’t recall recent examples like Randy Orton and Rey Mysterio ever being brought back on television, only for WWE to make a joke about it. However, in this case, WWE still continue to mention Roman’s FIRST violation of this wellness policy. This is not like he’s done this before. This was his first strike but in WWE’s mind, it’s been made out to be like it was Roman’s last.
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