If not Roman, then ... Who? - WM / Raw Spoilers

The ending of WM made it seem like WWE would still persevere with him, and then he got his ass verbally handed to him by Joe - which is either a fall or attempt to further garner sympathy from the audience.

But, what choices do the WWE have? Who else could fill the role of 'new Cena' considering that WWE have invested nearly five years into Roman? Options seem limited:

- Seth / Dean: both feel like they have spent too long characterised a tier below. Not sure they can really make it to that level
- Joe: great heel, will probably play a role in making the next guy, but, he isn't "the" guy in WWE
- AJ: ditto Joe (but face) - remain top dog on the B Show
- Lashley: in his 40s already. Nope
- Drew / Finn / Cesaro: not American. Nope
- Braun: bit odd looking - not exactly an all American sort
- KO: ditto Braun
- Daniel Bryan: can they trust him? Would be surprised if he came back to a full time schedule

Not exactly an inspiring list of candidates.. so probably expect more of Roman for the next few years. Anyone I have missed?

Roman has improved massively and I cant remember the last objectively bad match he had, but they cant clear off the stink of his first push. I think coming up against the rise of Daniel Bryan harmed him beyond saving. Its been 3 years since his first match with Lesnar and the crowd still wont accept him.

Might be time to move on. Rollins is probably the best choice to build the company around. Great in the ring, delivers a good promo, can work as both a heel and a face and he’s currently over with the crowd.

Who? Who? Who? Who? Who? Who?

Also I'd argue that Braun is an all American sort of guy, he's a stereotypical country boy, who is immensely popular and based on his actions at Wrestlemania is full babyface now as well. He's got to be the one who takes the title from Lesnar.

First and foremost, I don’t think Joe didnmuch more than speak in character at a babyface and on a Raw where Roman won’t get much love. 

However, WWE absolutely blasted Roman’s chances of gaining credibility at Mania by making him kick out of so many F5s. I know that it actually ended up building into the shock of Lesnar winning as people were reading a wwe script where Roman/Cena/Hogan somehow powers through and conquers, but the match was so limited (sidenote - this is also cos Lesnar is such a poor performer in the ring these days)

Braun is limited in the ring (I’m sorry, he is) and has yet to deliver a strong promo. I think he’s showing a continued growth in charisma, but it’s a bit corny at times. So he’d not be my choice for long term gain, although he’s over enough at the moment to be considered a good next choice.

I think Styles, Nak and Bryan are staying put, though Bryan finally beating Lesnar is the story WWE should have always wanted to complete. 

Joe I think had his chance and won’t be revisited as Champion. 

Rollins is the best thing on Raw, but I’m unsure that they’ll move him from the IC any time soon, or that they’ll let another Shield guy do what Roman couldn’t. Same applies to Ambrose (who I doubt will work with Lesnar ever again)

Balor would be a great case for it but if they won’t put him over Rollins, I can’t see them putting him over Lesnar. 

This is all short term, but I’d srill hope the build around one person stuff dies. You have to have other guys at main event level that people like for wrestling to work.

Short term - MITB winner will be interesting. I do think Roman might win in Saudi Arabia though, he’s hugely popular in those markets.

One of the big issues for me is there's not currently a tier A heel which in turn makes a tier A face. Lesnar just doesn't show up enough and any other heel starts getting cheered so they turn them. Personally dependent on when Ambrose is fit I would have the Reigns v Lesnar match end with Ambrose and Rollins emerging from under the ring and for the Shield to then take down Lesnar. It lets Lesnar then disappear as usual until Summerslam, gets the belt on a hated Reigns and creates a proper Tier 1 heel unit for which they can they build a face to go up against the odds to try and take down at next Mania.

The best potential in WWE is stables fighting. If Raw got together:

The Shield
The Club
Samoa Joe and AOP
The New Day
The Woken 
Sanity
The Bar (with Chris Hero)


However, the shake up could give a fiercely detested Nak, whilst Ciampa should be done in NXT for my money and would come up hated. 

The two most liked competitors are both on Smackdown, but I can see them building to the AJ/Bryan match at Summerslam whilst Nak’s feud is used to keep that from happening

I’m sure Almas, Mysterio and Lashley will factor into plans somewhere

Meltzer on Brock and title situation:

• Meltzer confirms it's a new contract with higher "rate" (salary?), and not an extension of the old one.
  
• Not sure if it's a one-match contract or more than one-match contract, but will probably have more ideas in the future, ie. after the Saudi Arabia match, or after he puts his name in the USADA pool.
  
• The agreement for Lesnar to stay was made on the Monday RAW go-home show before WrestleMania 34, contract was signed on Sunday before the match.
  
• Roman Reigns knew about this new deal only on the WrestleMania day, and he was in the mindset that he's winning the championship as he showed up. So his promo on RAW after Mania was somewhat true as well.
  
• Meltzer is not sure whether Reigns was mad or not. He'll probably be mad if Strowman ends up with the belt (huh.), but that's not the case leading up to WM.
  
• But as far as the writers concern, and Roman understood it as well, there was absolutely nothingthey can do to convince the Mania crowd to cheer for Roman. The crowd would boo Roman no matter what, so Saudi Arabia may be the best bet to crown Roman since he'll probably get much less boo there than in US.
  
• The idea moving forward, right now, is either Reigns (heavily favored) or Strowman as the champion. But hey, Vince changes his mind all the time.
  
• Max 5-10 people knew about the change in ending. The original ending to the Mania match was supposed to be when Roman came off the rope and got put in the F5 position, Roman would counter it to a Spear and pin Brock. It was changed to Brock pinning Roman after an F5 so everyone (probably backstage) will not think that Brock has gone off-script and shoot on Roman.
  
• There were a lot of confusion among the people backstage about that ending, nonetheless, especially when Brock came up and threw the belt at Vince. That's probably just to work the people at the back. 
  
• Meltzer thinks that's a bad vibe since it resembles WCW backstage. He feels that it also has bad impact on the writers and the producers as well, because here they are working for the company, and are not put in the know at all, so your morale would have been really low. Even the people that are usually in for the super insight stuff were not in for this one.
  
• Just to clarify, the story that Brock is going in this for himself is untrue. Roman got screwed is also untrue. 
  
• Brock has yet to put his name in the USADA testing pool, so until then he'll stay in WWE and obviously, perform. The moment he puts his name in, that's when we can tell "okay he will fight 6 months from now", and probably have a better idea when his contract with WWE is running out.
  

Is that two Manias that Reigns has turned up at expecting to win the title from Lesnar and being told no on the day? Brutal

I vividly remember Dana White saying in an interview a while back that Brock finishes with the WWE at SummerSlam 2018.

Seth Rollins would be my pick. He ticks every box.