Kayfabe Trouble Away
The truth about PED usage in sports is that it is more common than tests yield and that many go to great lengths to beat testing. In the same summer that Maria Sharapova or members of the Russian Olympics team were popped for PED violations, it was announced last week that former WWE Champion Roman Reigns has tested positive for a banned substance and will serve a 30 day suspension.
The Reigns situation has seemingly been handled with preferential treatment. Less than 48 hours prior to the suspension he was carrying the belt. Sure, he lost it cleanly to Seth Rollins at the Money in the Bank Pay-Per-View (PPV), before Seth Rollins lost it to Dean Ambrose, but WWE had invested so much in trying to build Reigns as their next big thing. The timing of the Reigns loss opens up speculation as to when WWE knew about the violation.
The next day Reigns appeared on Monday Night Raw building a storyline inserting him into a match at WWE’s July PPV, Battleground, in which Reigns would face both Seth Rollins and current WWE champion Dean Ambrose in a title match.
Then next day the announcement dropped about the 30 day suspension, which conveniently ends before Battleground and will allow Reigns to still participate in the main event.
Many speculated how this would be handled on-screen, if at all, and right out of the gate heel Seth Rollins weaved it into kayfabe with a worked shoot. Rollins claimed he wasn’t supposed to acknowledge the suspension and claimed that the Reigns suspension reflects upon him as former members of The Shield and asked for Reigns to be removed from the Battleground PPV title match. In Rollins’ characterization as a chicken-shit heel, advocating for Reigns to be ousted from the match is supposed to be seen as a tactic to benefit Rollins’ chances at winning the championship back and an acknowledgment that breaking the rules doesn’t matter.
Working babyface, Dean Ambrose came out to the ring and defended Reigns giving him a pass because his tweet owned up to his mistake and that he was welcome to Reigns still participating in the title match at Battleground.
In kayfabe, Reigns just made a forgivable mistake. In reality, WWE just let a top star get away with cheating so as not to harm their product.
These 30 days off the road are the only real consequence Reigns will face. Titus O’Neil was suspended for 60 days simply for unprofessionally grabbing Vince McMahon’s arm in a way that O’Neil thought was playful but the McMahon thought was inappropriate given the circumstances of happening right after Daniel Bryan’s retirement speech.
Once Reigns comes back the suspension may never be acknowledged again. He may still be afforded the opportunities to still headline PPVs and/or written a redemption story to help us all forget about violating the policy. Either way, WWE buried their policy in the process to continue to get Reigns over.
