Roman Reigns' Royal Rumble Win Says a Lot About WWE Right Now

Roman Reigns is back atop the WWE mountain after his Royal Rumble win.

The outcome of the main event from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, says much about the state of WWE, too: The company desperately needs him there. 

And it's not a knock on Reigns in the slightest. WWE has, for lack of a better term, booked itself into this corner. There was no mystery about the end result or a drawn-out, effectively match-within-a-match showdown when the final four hit. 

Enter at No. 26. Hit a series of moves and boom, Reigns is the winner.

WWE storytelling peaked with Reigns' Bloodline saga. It has been in a tailspin since. He was happy enough to say as much to a global audience, too. 

Reigns had an interview with Pat McAfee before the Rumble and took potshots at Triple H and WWE Creative, which could be summed up as "I left and everyone stunk up the place."

"I leave an opening and give them plenty of space to create whatever type of superstardom they want. Get over, kids," Reigns said. "We're two years here now. We haven't advanced. We haven't evolved."

And…he was right.

Reigns put over guys such as Bronson Reed on his way out the door. Perhaps the defining sentiment since he lost at WrestleMania 40 to Cody Rhodes is the consistent struggles of WWE Creative. The Triple H flaws as head of creative are glaring now.

There has been a notable lack of younger top guys getting built up enough to be main eventers. Fan feedback led to an underwhelming Jey Uso title stint. Rhodes has been in purgatory. Gunther has been relegated to the dangerous guy who retires legends. Randy Orton feels like a part-timer and shows up with Jelly Roll-types. The Bron Breakker-types just aren't ready. Somebody like LA Knight is apparently a WWE Unreal sideshow. 

Nearly every time WWE has had a chance to do a massive headlining story that could rival The Bloodline, there have been big stumbles. John Cena's heel turn and retirement tour reign supreme there. 

Who else was ready for the top billing again? Rhodes didn't need the Rumble win. His run got derailed before 'Mania season even started, too, and justifiably so, really. Drew McIntyre and CM Punk currently hold the top titles. There's flexibility for Rhodes to get it back in time for The Tribal Chief, too. 

The online portion of the WWE fanbase can bemoan the Reigns win all it wants, but the massive live crowd reaction to his win sort of said it all. 

And fans will need to pick the hills they want to die on: The Tribal Chief has the widespread casual, non-wrestling-fan appeal that WWE so desperately craves. If that's a must-have for the company…this sure beats the brakes off having Lesnar win the Rumble, right guys?

With Reigns, he's almost like a bridge to the next generation at this point. The next wave isn't ready. And the one who might be, Breakker, got a smart storyline write-off. The men's Rumble match itself did right by up-and-comers like Oba Femi. 

Femi feels like the next big thing. He oozes it without saying a word. The creative team had him slam through all sorts of names in this Rumble. His time is near. His exit was a tad weak, but he's inevitable, and it should go without saying, but Reigns could accelerate his path pretty soon here.

And while he might be a bridge and break-glass-in-case-of-emergency option for WWE, the upshot with Reigns is simple: He's the guy who grew by leaps and bounds during the Bloodline saga, one of the best pro wrestling storylines ever, that made us rethink what stories can be told in the medium. 

Another tough pill to swallow? The vocal fans would've complained regardless. Reigns lost his title nearly two years ago. He was going to get back in the mix eventually. It could've waited until 2030 and still received the same reactions. In that sense, he's in-his-prime Cena.

But the WWE product desperately needs him now, not later. There's an interesting ramp here for Reigns to play this almost pseudo-meta-antihero character who rails against what WWE has become under Triple H. 

Hardcore fans irritated with the decision right now would be lying, too, if they claimed to dislike the amount of history and storytelling that can go into a Reigns-Punk WrestleMania feud, especially with Paul Heyman in the mix. 

WWE is in a rough spot right now, most fans would agree. Reigns isn't a byproduct of that; he's a solution. And the guy who overcame the years of cringeworthy Vince McMahon pushes against the will of fans to evolve into the pinnacle of storytelling should be given some grace here.

Reigns isn't going to be in the ring forever to bail WWE out. Maybe we should curb the knee-jerk reactions and let the man cook again.