He’s a visionary, he’s a revolutionary, and he has been talking for a lot too long!
I cannot understate what a waste of time Seth Rollins’ promo on Monday’s episode of “WWE Raw” was. Time is money, and while I get that Rollins has extra cash in his checking account than I’ll ever see in my life, I didn’t need “The Visionary” to come back out and talk for fifteen minutes simply to direct us to the upcoming March 21 episode of “WWE SmackDown.”
To be honest, I might’ve been upset at this promo even on a quiet day, where segments were just breezing by, but Monday especially was not the day to spend greater than five minutes on a “go tune in to “SmackDown”” announcement. This show was already going to be far longer than usual with all the chants coming from the Brussels crowd (we love you Brussels, but holy moly). By the point we got to Rollins’ pregnant, “let it soak into the group” pauses, I used to be making a will, because I used to be so certain that I might die of old age before this promo was over.
Long promos in and of themselves are usually not death sentences. For those who are saying things of considerable value — things that can’t be expressed in a social media post, or an in-ring moment, or an announcement — then long promos can offer a wrestler with the chance to essentially sink their teeth into their characters and show the group just why we must always care about them. This commitment to a personality and spoken passion for the stories hosted on the canvas stage are why great mic employees get as over as they do, even in the event that they are usually not one of the best within the ring. Nonetheless, time on the mic is simply nearly as good as you make it, and when long promos get used to debate things that might have been a social media post, an in-ring moment, or an announcement, it’s felt.
Rollins didn’t make any moves with this promo. It is sort of intriguing how little Rollins actually moved the needle or shook the table together with his words, because he is often great on the microphone. Nonetheless, when Rollins, who appears like the odd man out on this upcoming feud between CM Punk and Roman Reigns, was left without CM Punk or Roman Reigns to bounce off on during his promo segment, he absolutely flopped. The TL;DR of the entire promo was “Punk and Reigns aren’t here, but they shall be on Friday! See you in Italy!”
Like, that couldn’t have been an announcement? That couldn’t have been a social media post? I fail to notice what the purpose of that promo was — I fail to notice why we had to sit down through Rollins make a card announcement for fifteen whole minutes. By the point Rollins left, we were no further within the Punk/Reigns/Rollins storyline than we were at the highest of the show.
His outfit wasn’t even good!
Written by Angeline Phu
