{"id":112507,"date":"2021-01-31T13:55:52","date_gmt":"2021-01-31T19:55:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=112507"},"modified":"2021-01-31T13:55:52","modified_gmt":"2021-01-31T19:55:52","slug":"reigns-o-meter-119-reigns-takes-a-back-seat-to-royal-rumble-hype","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2021\/01\/31\/reigns-o-meter-119-reigns-takes-a-back-seat-to-royal-rumble-hype\/","title":{"rendered":"REIGNS-O-METER #119: Reigns takes a back seat to Royal Rumble hype"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-315048591\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p>This week\u2019s Smackdown was the go home show for the Royal Rumble and instead of focusing on the champion, Roman Reigns, we were basically watching the Daniel Bryan show. It\u2019s been a long time since we\u2019ve had ourselves a good old fashioned Daniel Bryan show so, for once, I can dig it.<\/p>\n<p>Bryan opened the show with probably the strongest piped in audio of any piped in audio thus far and talked about how much he wants to win the Royal Rumble. It has been a very long time since anybody but Roman opened the show but Bryan has spent a couple of weeks now explaining why you should watch the Royal Rumble. Then Smackdown does that thing where it gets all weird because A.J. Styles shows up. Why, you say? That\u2019s a fair question.<\/p>\n<p>This week\u2019s Raw did not feel like a go-home show. By the looks of it and using the method of \u201cthis is a brand vs. brand invitational\u201d, the WWE are scrapping the whole brand split just for the sake of a big go-home show.<\/p>\n<p>They called it quarterly? I wonder if we\u2019ll see this all over again right before WrestleMania?<\/p>\n<p>The WWE recaps the Roman Reigns vs. Kevin Owens feud, briefly, before getting on with the show. We\u2019re seeing the words final showdown in real big print. This isn\u2019t something that the WWE has ever stuck to before. We\u2019ve also seen this phrased on social media as a war of words. That sounds fun, doesn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n<p>You probably detected a note of sarcasm there, but once we finally reach the Roman Reigns section, I\u2019m very pleasantly surprised with the return we get. After another recap, this time much, much longer, we reach the start of the second hour draw segment. The segment is a prerecorded interview with Michael Cole, with the cameras on a side by side. It\u2019s a championship staple that\u2019s been most recently used with Sasha Banks and Carmella. Roman looks bored. He looks tired. Paul Heyman does the heavy lifting here.<\/p>\n<p>When Roman is ready to speak he cuts Michael Cole entirely out of the conversation. He asks whether Owens\u2019 father is a smart man. Both men are speaking so quietly the Thunderdome audio is at risk of swallowing them up. Roman makes a chess metaphor, which I was not at all ready for.<\/p>\n<p>Roman\u2019s mafia don persona gets stronger every week. Kevin Owens, one of the strongest speakers in the game, comes across as absolutely powerless in the face of hashtag The Big Dog\u2019s casual, relaxed threats. Kevin Owens calls Roman out as a mafia boss, proving conclusively that WWE read this here Roman Reigns-o-meter.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-4270509794\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>As Kevin Owens\u2019 passion and fury reaches a crescendo, Roman Reigns turns off the TV. The man is apparently so good at what he does that the laws of physics change and webcams turn off like TVs. Kevin Owens needs to calm himself down; he\u2019s going into this one far too hot.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Roman Reigns and Kevin Owens exchange words en route to Royal Rumble: SmackDown, Jan. 29, 2021\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_x9op6yNUOM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>After that, Smackdown enters go-home show territory and gets more than a little bit messy. We go from AJ Styles vs Daniel Bryan one on one, to the inclusion of Cesaro on commentary and Sami Zayn at ringside. While a great match goes on in the ring, Big E arrives to pick a fight with a Sami Zayn who has been picking a fight with him. Zayn gets thrown across the announce table towards Cesaro and just like that Cesaro gets into the fight. Bryan clears them all out with a suicide dive and the end result is five men scrapping in a ring. End result of that is Shinsuke Nakamura coming out to help out and beat people up.<\/p>\n<p>Give me this Intercontinental title scene, WWE. This would be one hell of a Smackdown Six.<\/p>\n<p>The WWE quickly cut to a break so that they don\u2019t have to explain how we get to a six man tag and when we return, lo and behold, we\u2019re in the middle of a six man tag. Michael Cole has already started with the \u201cif this was the Royal Rumble&#8230;\u201d schtick he does every year. What I\u2019m trying to say is that there was not enough Roman Reigns this week.<\/p>\n<p>As it turns out, six men is not enough people for one match so as the battle continues the numbers rise. The Miz and Morrison arrive, carefully steering clear of Roman, and they attack Shinsuke Nakamura and Big E. How is balance restored? Well, Otis is here. That\u2019s good. Ideally as Daniel Bryan\u2019s training partner he and Gable should have been here much, much sooner, but we are where we are.<\/p>\n<p>We go to break again so that the WWE doesn\u2019t have to explain what comes next. Michael Cole seemingly has no idea what it is. He calls it a ten team tag. Then it\u2019s a ten man tag. Then it\u2019s a nine man tag. We can at least still call it wrestling.<\/p>\n<p>But that\u2019s not all! Daniel Bryan stands alone in the ring until he is saved by, of all people, Sheamus. Sheamus who beat Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania with one kick. So what, he came across from Raw and just stood around backstage waiting to see if a massive handicap match had a slot going before the end of the night? Sheamus ends up picking up the victory in the Daniel Bryan vs. A.J. Styles singles match.<\/p>\n<p>But wait, there\u2019s more! With only one minute left of the show, Braun Strowman turns up and destroys all of the heels, suggesting yet another dynamic change on Strowman\u2019s part.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-1894642371\" class=\"pwtor-content-1 pwtor-entity-placement\"><!-- Tag ID: pwtorchcom_test_300x600 -->\r\n<div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __300x600\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>The show ends so that the WWE doesn&#8217;t have to explain what just happened. Bless you, dear reader, but your Reigns-o-meter is going to follow suit.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>NOW CHECK OUT LAST WEEK&#8217;S REIGNS-O-METER:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2021\/01\/23\/reigns-o-meter-118-reigns-and-kevin-owens-collide\/\">REIGNS-O-METER #118: Reigns and Kevin Owens collide<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-3697660763\"><div id=\"pwtor-1538976591\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>This week\u2019s Smackdown was the go home show for the Royal Rumble and instead of focusing on the champion, Roman Reigns, we were basically watching the Daniel Bryan show. It\u2019s been a long time since <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2021\/01\/31\/reigns-o-meter-119-reigns-takes-a-back-seat-to-royal-rumble-hype\/\" title=\"REIGNS-O-METER #119: Reigns takes a back seat to Royal Rumble hype\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":5725,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,4585,27],"tags":[74,693,72,71,117],"class_list":["post-112507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opnionandanalysis","category-reigns-o-meter","category-specialists","tag-roman-reigns","tag-royal-rumble","tag-smackdown","tag-wwe","tag-wwe-smackdown"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/ReignsRomanWK1_3x2_600-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112507"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112512,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112507\/revisions\/112512"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}