Roman Reigns' Main Event Push Will Suffer with Big Show Feud

The idea of a feud between Roman Reigns and Big Show leading into Extreme Rules on April 26 is so incredibly flawed that it is difficult to imagine anyone in WWE Creative possibly thinking it was a good one.

Reigns has had his push to the top hampered by countless roadblocks, all seemingly built to undermine him. There was the Royal Rumble fiasco, the ill-designed program with Daniel Bryan and the loss in what was his most important match, a WWE World Heavyweight Championship clash with Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 31.

But no roadblock on his journey to pro wrestling royalty poses as big a threat as Big Show does to ruining any chance Reigns has of being the face of WWE's bright future.

A veteran of WWE for 16 years, Big Show has firmly established himself as one of the greatest giants in wrestling history. While there is no denying him his place in history, or his countless accomplishments, the time for Big Show to have a great match against anyone—to be even remotely entertaining in any extended in-ring action—has come and gone.

No one buys into him as a threat and whatever star power he may have had has been extinguished by years of nonsensical babyface and heel turns, not to mention losses that diminished his perceived invincibility. At this point, he is simply an old, tired and boring "guy," the ineffective muscle for The Authority. He is exposed more and more for his deficiencies at this point in his career every time he hits the ring.

And unfortunately, for those who work with him, they are the only ones worse off than he is.

Erick Rowan was gaining momentum as a singles babyface, with an intriguing character, when he battled Big Show at TLC in December. The match was awful. Rowan suddenly fell out of favor with management, finding himself lost in the midcard shuffle and appearing only on Main Event and Superstars, barring an occasional appearance on Raw and SmackDown to job for a higher-profile Superstar.

Ryback also suffered from working with Big Show, losing momentum from a booking standpoint, following matches with the mammoth competitor this past winter.

Now Reigns, regarded by management as the man to take over for John Cena as the franchise player in WWE, is faced with a scenario in which he must do what no other Superstar has been able to do of late—and that is force a good match out of the giant.

He has had his chances in the past, as late as two weeks ago, but has been unable to accomplish that lofty goal. The matches have been plodding and have failed to maintain the attention of the audience, at least, until Reigns' huge comebacks lately. 

In order to maintain the momentum he had on the heels of his WrestleMania classic against Lesnar, Reigns is faced with a scenario in which he has to do what greater Superstars have not been able to do.

If he wants his push to be unaffected by the uphill battle WWE Creative has forced him into via this latest rivalry with Big Show, he will have to turn in the greatest performance of his career—even greater than the match with Lesnar.

And even then, it may not be enough to recover from the stench associated with the Big Show program.