Roman Reigns and the wink that broke Tumblr

Due to the hell that is moving, we've been a little short staffed here at cSs the past couple of days.  One of the casualties of that was a Smackdown reaction column.

There were two really significant things that happened on the last Friday night edition of that show, and they both involved internet lightning rod Roman Reigns.  So, better late than never, here's some thoughts about one of them.

As the show opened, Seth Rollins is in apex a-hole form, calling for a ten bell salute to honor the "lackluster careers" of recently the recently 'fired' Dolph Ziggler, Ryback and Erick Rowan.  He's interrupted by Reigns who delivers a speech that sounded to me like an old rejected script written for a babyface Chris Jericho.  It includes the bat=$#!+ crazy line, "you are a sniveling little suck-up sellout full of suffering succotash son!"

Then he says "yeah, I know, that was not easy to say", and does this:

First of all, even as a heterosexual male of the species, OH MY.

Second, that's totally directed at me, you and everyone who's been dogging his verbal skills and making fun of his fumbling over words in promos.

The Reigns backlash, and the backlash to that backlash, has been a fascinating thing to watch and be a part of.  With this segment on Smackdown, it went full meta and entered 'reality' era kayfabe.

That's only part of why it will become legend, however.  Some of it is because the reports broke shortly after this aired of who is personally penning The Powerhouse's promos.  A bigger element will be because, even though he was handed a bunch of nonsense to say, Reigns pretty much nails it.

Yes, some of the pauses are awkward, but those are probably being fed to him as much as the ludicrous words.  And you'd pause too if you had to brace yourself to say "donkey dung for brains".  There are moments in between the insane phrases and strange beats where you see his natural charisma coming through, and when it eventually gets to where it needs to have always been - the "enough talking I'm gonna kick your ass now" part - it's actually quite satisfying.

The whole segment makes you hate the villain, smile along with the hero and then cheer when the whooping starts.  That's pro wrestling 101.

And if Reigns can deliver a speech written by the 12 year old boy trapped inside a lunatic senior citizen billionaire, imagine how cool he'll be when he's handed something that's actually cool.

Or, heaven forbid, allowed to say his own words.

Here's the whole segment.  If you missed it, give it a watch.  And either way, chime in below and what you thought of The Big Dog's performance this past Friday night.