Eric Bischoff came away from the SummerSlam main event unmoved, and then agreed when his co-host put it to him that Roman Reigns is the most overrated main eventer WWE has ever had.
Reigns retained the World Heavyweight Championship against Seth Rollins in the closing match of night two, going 33 minutes and 33 seconds with no interference. Asked on 83 Weeks what he made of it, Bischoff separated the quality of the match from his interest in it.
“It wasn’t a bad match. It was a good match. It was a great match in some respects, but it didn’t do much for me. I mean, maybe because I’m just kind of over it. It doesn’t feel compelling in any way. It doesn’t grab my interest for any specific reason. I don’t feel like if I fail to engage in that story, that I’ll miss anything, because I’ve kind of seen a lot of it, variations of it.”
“So unless there’s an element that can come out of this matchup shortly that makes it really more interesting. For whatever reason, that’s the challenge. Come up with a reason to make it feel unique and compelling. But unless they come up with that, eh. I know they’re both great wrestlers. I know a lot about them. I just don’t know anything new about them, so I really don’t care about it. Hopefully, they can make me care.”
Conrad Thompson then went considerably further, prefacing it as a take he expected Bischoff to reject.
“I’m going to give you a hot take that’s going to annoy you and probably p*** you off. But here goes. I think Roman Reigns is probably the most overrated main eventer in WWE history. Like I know this isn’t a wrestling term, it’s a music term. But Roman Reigns is what music would call an industry plant. I don’t think if Roman Reigns disappears tomorrow, WWE’s fortune changes at all.”
“I think they pushed him so hard against the grain. Down our throats is the phrase that Triple H would use about why they’re not pushing Bron Breakker. Well, they pushed Roman down our throats forever.”
“I just don’t know that there’s any really truly fanatical Roman Reigns fans. We’ve been conditioned to believe he’s the top guy, but there’s no real reason. I don’t know that anybody could say here’s my favorite Roman match. When people talk about their favorite match ever, how many people list a Roman Reigns match? How many people list their favorite promo ever as a Roman Reigns match?”
“And it’s not like he’s doing the world PR tour and doing all the heavy lifting like they have a Cody Rhodes or before that, you know, a John Cena doing. He just flies in, takes 12 minutes to get to the ring, wrestles kind of the same match. Does it really, really slow, gets his hand raised, and he moves on.”
Bischoff’s response was two words.
“I agree.”
He then addressed the assumption behind the question, which was that he would defend the company by default.
“I know that’s not what you’re expecting because apparently people think that I support everything WWE, which is clearly not the case. But yeah, I give an honest opinion and I look at things from a business perspective, so which probably puts me on the WWE side of the equation for obvious reasons because they’re doing really, really well, but there are things like this that I just shake my head at.”
Bischoff did not expand on the Reigns point itself, and moved from there onto the Bloodline and what he sees as WWE repeating his own mistake in overextending the nWo.
Thompson returned to it later in the episode, having noted he was being buried in the live comments for it.
“No one gave a s*** about Roman Reigns until he shared the screen with Paul Heyman, and we all agree that Paul Heyman was a part of the Bloodline storyline.”
“Let’s just process how long he’s been positioned as a top guy. His first WrestleMania main event was 2015. That was 11 years ago. Can you imagine if Hulk Hogan main evented 11 WrestleManias in a row?”
“For me, I enjoy Roman Reigns as a part of that Bloodline story. I want Heyman by his side. I like the accoutrement. Him as a singles performer, there’s a sense of sameness. Even guys like the Undertaker have to switch it up.”
Reigns won the World Heavyweight Championship from CM Punk at WrestleMania 42 in April.
