>i don't actually care about him staying in the
>ring or trying to earn his way up, i'm mostly just having some
>fun with those,

well that's good lol.

but the character is written REALLY dumb. his
>motivations are really fuzzy and something about family and
>brothers and punching people in the mouth and blah blah blah.

Honestly when you look back that's par for the course. Outside of specific feuds the motivation for most wrestlers is pretty vague and general.

>they've tried to fix everything they did wrong before last
>year's rumble, but they've only gone halfway. this latest
>tournament does not make him a sympathetic figure, and that
>was the whole point.

I really don't see why. Dude has improved and dude has worked his ass off. I think people are asking for a little too much. In fact, I'll argue there's nothing he can do to win over the people who hate him.

Here's what I know: the shows I've gone to always have these obnoxious ass smarks who boo everyone they're "supposed" to like and cheer everyone they're not. I'd argue these make up the bulk of those booing him and enough people are following that lead that it's going to be difficult to turn that tide enough to prevent the "Cena" effect. I'd bet money that there's NO booking that can fix this.

>>Triple H has done nothing to warrant a spear?

>not recently, no. he offered reigns a deal to shoot straight
>to the top, just like he had earned. reigns decided not to...
>fine. had HHH gone out of his way to try to screw him during
>the tourney, THEN he deserves a spear. but he didn't. he let
>the tournament play out, watched reigns earn it, then came out
>for the handshake. even if you don't trust his intentions, BE
>ON THE LOOKOUT FOR SHEAMUS.

Nah. Come on. Hunter has been the proverbial devil in Reigns ear for the duration of this tournament. There's every reason to suspect he's up to something. Not to mention Hunter recruited Rollins away from the Shield.

That, of course, brings me to the criticism about the way he's written. The writing is awful across the board, so why the particular emphasis on him there? There's pretty much NOTHING well written in WWE (not including NXT), so the writing for Reigns shouldn't be all that big a deal in that context.

To that end, they should have realistically written more of that history into this story. I can't think of a single element of this show that is remotely well written.... aside, that is, from the relationship between Dean and Reigns, which is why I vote against a turn until they've built enough equity long term that the shock will actually be an event.

>OF COURSE the plan would be HHH serves as the distraction
>while sheamus cashes in.

Well yeah. So why NOT take out HHH if the plan is that obvious? I think this portion is overblown in context of wrestling history, particularly with the money in the bank cash ins. Everyone gets got with that, not counting Super Cena surviving an incredible beating at the hands of Sandow (remember him?).

Plus, there was no music on this one. Typically a MITB cash in involves music hitting for the guy with the briefcase. At least with this they created a distraction and had him come from nowhere.

So Reigns has two matches in one night, wins his first title after beating his best friend, the little devil in his ear- the one who drove a wedge in The Shield, no less- comes out to "congratulate" him and most likely has ulterior motives, Reigns takes him out, and then Sheamus rolls up from nowhere mid distraction to take him out?

Damn. That's a long ass night. That's an awful lot. If you're not, at a minimum, understanding of such a mental lapse under those circumstances, I can't see how you're anything but biased. Frankly that's harsh criticism for Reigns that borders on unfair IMO.