Questions and quotes: About big dogs, past and present

Bron Breakker has got WWE crowds woofing. It’s simple but effective, the big scary wrestler getting the crowd to “woof" before a big move. Brody King does it in AEW. Breakker does it in WWE.

As Breakker defeated Sami Zayn at this weekend’s SummerSlam, the dynamic with the crowd in Cleveland was decidedly split. On the one hand, the crowd rallied behind Zayn, ever the scrappy underdog. On the other hand, the pop was huge when Bron hit the first of two spears on Zayn en route to getting the pin.

The people love this dog, woofing to show their support. Just one question: are they going to start calling him the “big dog?”

Announcers making dog noises

Bron Breakker is meant to be the unstoppable monster, the one who will injure all of his opponents if not restrained by outside forces. “Meaner than evil,” his trunks sometimes say. That might not be the typical guy whom the fans would choose to back. But still, the crowd woofs.

This trope - that of the unstoppable monster - tends to hit its ceiling quickly. I’m thinking of Braun Strowman in WWE, or Wardlow in AEW. People get bored of the beat downs, squashes, and shocked reactions from announcers, especially if they don’t eventually give way to something with more depth or substance. And as we’ll get to in a minute, WWE has a few of these characters at present.

That makes Breakker an interesting case, particularly for a lapsed NXT viewer such as myself. I’m already feeling some fatigue with his schtick. I’m only willing to go along with so many times that Michael Cole sells me on the violence of his spear. But it’s my understanding that Breaker has been doing this for a while, and doing it well. I can see that it still works with most crowds. I would point you again to the pop when he speared Zayn this past weekend.

So, I find myself trying to be open minded. And I will say, Breakker has already wrestled multiple matches on the main roster that offered more twists and turns. There does seem to something more with Breakker there, more depth to the reactions and interactions as the match unfolded into something really great.

There have been moments, like in his matches with Zayn and Ilya Dragunov, that leave me willing to go along with the idea there’s something more there. Maybe this is more Brock Lesnar and less Wardlow.

I’ll remind myself of this open mindedness when he’s squashing one opponent after another as the Intercontinental Champion later this summer.

Have we reached the point of Roman Reigns, fan favorite?

The more Solo Sikoa appeared on Smackdown and declared himself the new head of the table over recent weeks and months, the clearer it became that Roman Reigns was coming back as a baby face. The crowd booed Sikoa. They threw their full support behind Paul Heyman when he refused to acknowledge a new tribal chief.

Even with some time to gear up for this reality, it’s still surreal to watch Reigns as a fully over good guy.

WWE fans know the story with Roman. Anyone who watched this promotion in the 2010s knows the story. Roman was always pushed as the top guy. The crowd didn’t want him. One heel after another lined up as Roman’s foe, disrespecting him and the fans and just generally being the bad guy. The crowd still didn’t want him.

Roman Reigns worked hard. He was the face of the company. Yet he never reached that extra level. He never reached that point where he felt special, where he was the guy who fans wanted to see and wanted to will forward to victory.

That shared fatigue provided the background when Roman was away for two extended absences. He was away for cancer treatment and then for a long stretch for apparent health reasons. Finally, upon his return to empty arena shows, we saw a new presentation for the artist formerly known as the Big Dog.

Aligned with Paul Heyman, his longtime foe, Reigns was fully a heel.

In a story and character arc that has unfolded over years, Reigns established himself as the Head of the Table. He was the head of the Bloodline, a group made up of his family and, famously, the one and only Sami Zayn.

That group has yielded multiple long-term stories. One of the volumes wrapped up when Reigns lost his title to Cody Rhodes and ended his years long reign as champion. Now another volume is starting to take shape, and it no longer involves Reigns as the big bad heel.

Thinking back to those years of having Roman forced on crowds as the top guy, one might have asked the question: “what will it take for the crowd to get behind Roman Reigns?” What we may have known then, and what we certainly know now, is that it was complicated. It would take multiple factors and stories and characters to get that big pop for a Roman Reigns entrance.

The most interesting thing to me is the evolution of everything around Roman such that his good guy gimmick will be so close to his bad guy gimmick.

He’s still going to be the Tribal Chief, right? Fans are pointing those ones up to the sky. I bet they’ll acknowledge him. Roman could very well copy and paste one of his heel promos, but now he’ll get cheered for it.

That’s not a bad thing. It’s just interesting to consider when it comes to stories, characters, and who we root for. Think about Solo Sikoa as the main foe in this story moving forward. He started as muscle for a heel group. Nobody had heard of him. It took many instances of his interference and dominance to sell him as a serious villain.

He went from the muscle to someone on the level of his cousins Jimmy and Jey Uso. Eyes were on Sikoa as the group fractured and chose sides. He mattered enough that his allegiance was a significant part of the story about the future of the Bloodline.

Then, with Reigns out of the picture, Sikoa was established to the point that he took over the Bloodline. He took over, and people cared enough that it shouldn’t be him that they started clamoring for the artist formerly known as the “big dog.” They chanted “We want Roman!” On Saturday night in Cleveland, Reigns arrived.

Here we are, in 2024, and we have a moment that will live on for years. People will relive that moment. And that moment was built on Roman Reigns, baby face, the one the fans wanted.

Can we get a tranquilizer gun angle?

Bronson Reed got himself over as a monster in a memorable segment from this past Monday’s Raw. What started as a familiar type of beat down on Seth Rollins transformed into something more as Reed hit one tsunami after another from the top ropes.

It turned into something different and supremely entertaining when Reed continued with the move even with personnel there to break things up. The visual of people scattering as Reed flew in was awesome.

From there, the crowd was into it. The announcers were putting it over big. As they did, Michael Cole and Useful Idiot Pat McAfee kept throwing out suggestions to stop him. Tasers! Handcuffs! And yes, McAfee suggested a tranquilizer.

Now I want an angle in this feud that involves someone hitting Reed with a tranquilizer dart. It could be Rollins. Maybe a returning Becky Lynch. I’m open to ideas.

Questions about AEW

All In is coming up quickly. Let’s bat around some questions going into Wednesday’s Dynamite.

• Is MJF an American Hero? As I’ve noted before, he’s supposed to be an over-the-top jerk face version. But in 2024, that actually just makes him a hero to a lot of people.

• Could Darby and Jack Perry steal the show? You bet. The “four pillars” match is an all timer, and it involved these two.

• Did Mercedes Moné and Britt Baker need a third character in their story? I’ll stay open minded, but I’m thinking no.

• Will Ospreay and Lance Archer tore the house down last week. Yes, I know that’s not a question.

Even Will Ospreay’s YouTube thumbnails are better than everyone else.

At this time next week, we’ll have more clarity about the directions for All In and the Bash in Berlin, a show I didn’t know existed until this past Monday night. In the meantime, we can all ponder the journeys for all the big dogs in our lives.

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