The concept of privilege and wealth playing a huge role in professional wrestling is nothing new, with there being famous on-screen characters throughout wrestling history who benefited from growing up with money or having the right connections and genetic gifts to make them a star. Yet in an age where the discussion of distribution of wealth in the western world went from the dinner table and run-down bars to mainstream political discourse wrestling, has been unable to escape the complications of the modern, western world, even if it tries to deny it. From the Occupy Movement to Bernie Sanders and his loud, clear message to votes that there is something wrong with our world right now, the talk is out there and unavoidable. Regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum, chances are that you aren’t entirely satisfied with your share of the world’s wealthy and maybe even resenting those that have more, even though you work incredibly hard. It is this simple concept that the WWE and Vince McMahon in particular have failed to grasp when it comes to creating and presenting stars to their fans.

Vince McMahon is the 1%. We, the fans, are not.

Vince McMahon, wrestling’s resident billionaire, has hand-selected Roman Reigns to be his next "top guy," initiating him into what appears to be a promising career as the avatar for the one percent and Vince’s weekly drama where the big, muscular, good-looking, fun-loving guy overcomes the odds. Reigns serves as the chosen one to WWE’s throne, the heir apparent to John Cena’s position as the leader of the WWE Universe and the guy that they can trot out on national television for fundraisers and other charitable events without concern over unprofessional behavior. Hell, we have billboards where I live of Roman Reigns and his daughter to advocate for being a solid father. In spanish as well as english. Like it or not Reigns is the new Cena and it happened in a flash.

Many fans have spent years trying to pinpoint which tangible qualities that Cena possesses are the culprits at making him just so unlikeable to the general populus over the age of 10 and why he can’t connect with actual, adult wrestling fans. At first it was that John Cena couldn’t wrestle very well, then it was delivery in promos to his goofy merchandise, then it was that he’s "crammed down [our] throats." Is John Cena just too much of a goody goody to get behind, was he just the chosen one that was forced down people’s throats, or was he just bred for excellence that most of us could only dream of?

These are very much similar traits for Roman Reigns, whose ascent to the top of the WWE has been marred with booing crowds, think pieces galore and twitter rants on top of podcast rants about how he’s not the guy. What we do know is that Vince McMahon thinks that he’s the guy and that’s all that really matters. Years upon years of John Cena’s mixed reactions weren’t enough for him to budge on Cena, they won’t be enough for him to budge on Reigns, either. #DealWithIt, the Big Dog is everything that you aren’t and never will be, which is most likely his biggest problem at connecting with crowds over the age of believing in Santa Claus.

Yet they persist in trying to convince you, their loyal or at times disloyal fans, that he’s really, secretly your guy, you just didn’t know it yet. Their attempts at making him popular have mirrored what worked in the past with building up stars such as Stone Cold Steve Austin and Daniel Bryan, only for their efforts to fall flat. Those tactics simply haven’t worked out for Reigns and, if anything, have made the disconnect between what Vince wants and what fans want from a moderate ravine to a veritable Grand Canyon.

The question crossed my mind a few months ago as to why someone like Steve Austin or Daniel Bryan could foster such strong bonds with fans while other, hand-selected stars, have struggled to gain traction. Even looking at current WWE, fans have been quick to embrace Dean Ambrose, while Roman Reigns, the former NFL hopeful, has struggled every step of the way. You could say that passion for wrestling played a part in their genuine appeal, or that this abstract, online wrestling fandom concept of "workrate" that appeals to hardcore fans that each man possesses in their own, different way were factors in fans rallying behind them, but there has to be something else. The only link that came to mind was wealth, or lack thereof.

To do this, I looked into where each man grew up and the median household incomes per year in each area. While this can’t account for individual experiences, one’s wealth (or lack thereof) has a lot to do with development and disposition in life. The answers all -- shockingly -- fell within the same range, which was alarmingly low for how expensive the modern world we live in really is. Steve Austin grew up in Edna, Texas, with the median household income currently being $35,000 per, well under the national median income of $53,000. If you’ve been working for a while and imagine raising a family, owning a home, a car, etc., $35,000 is close to impossible to live on. Daniel Bryan, on the other hand, grew up in Aberdeen, Washington, where the median household income is $38,000. As for Ambrose? He grew up in Cincinnati, a place with the lowest median household income of all three at $33,000 per year.

All three came from places where the working class outnumbered the rest and people had to work for everything that they had. Affluence was not a part of life for any of these men and for them to reach the heights that they did is nothing short of a miracle. Austin’s father left when he was young, Bryan’s father was a freaking logger and Ambrose grew up in Cincy, I don’t need to say anything more, do I? None of these three were groomed for greatness in any way, any of the greatness that they did or will achieve came through hard work, persistence and all of that showed through for fans.

For each of them you can see their modest backgrounds reflected in their actions and how they speak and choose to express themselves. This lends them credibility with audiences, thus they can connect to wrestling fans easier. While WWE does not explicitly publish numbers as to the median income of their fans, what metrics they do provide to investors show are essentially just age ranges, so what can be gleaned from their audience has to simply be analyzed by experience. Wrestling fandom has never truly been that for the wealthy, instead it has trended towards the poorer members of society.

Historically pro wrestling wasn’t high art or avant cinema, instead it was a passion play of sorts for the masses. The broke masses. That isn’t much different today, at least with what we see of the median income per household in the US being at $53,000. I’m married right now, planning on having kids at some point and even live in a place where the cost of living isn’t that high and I couldn’t even imagine trying to do all of that on $53,000. Needless to say, the average American consumer isn’t rich, nor do they relate to wealth in any sort of strong way. If you are like me you see the undercurrents of discordance all around you; people upset at how hard they work and with how little they take home. Many aren’t happy with simply sitting idly by while the wealthy play out their fantasies for them on live television, which you could argue the WWE at this point is nothing more than that; just a way for Vince McMahon to live out his weird, musclebound fantasies. He got to play the heel for many years, but he was never really the good guy, now through the likes of Cena and Reigns the WWE has had and will have a musclebound, good-looking nice guy at the helm of the company.

Vince McMahon’s legacy and the stars that he chooses to create all reek of privilege. Vince McMahon, himself, is the literal embodiment of the one percent, a man who fluctuates between a billionaire and not-exactly-a-billionaire depending on the strength of the WWE’s stock value. Vince also didn’t have to grow up in poverty, his father running the WWWF at the time and the company doing well enough to be handed off to him when he came of age. This also led to him having the comfort of experimenting on television to make the product that we know today, breaking free of the formula his father had worked with. Vince’s struggles were against other rich white men who either didn’t like his ideas or wanted to run their own variation of his business to compete with him. If Vince wasn’t happy with something, his attitude has historically been, "fuck ‘em, I’ll do it without ‘em," as evident in the WWE Network’s launch.

The stars that Vince McMahon has created and attempted to create in the past have all been all very different from those that happened organically at the whim of the fans. Those stars were created organically and weren’t something that could be planned for, they just happened. "Happy accidents," ya know? Ironically, they also came from humble beginnings that appeal more to crowds of equally humble beginnings. Yet, in stark contrast, most of Vince’s creations over the past twenty years have been bred for greatness or came from wealth. No better example exists than that of John Cena.

John Cena was born and raised in West Newbury, Massachusetts. This was one of the more affluent parts of Massachusetts where the median family income is a whopping $128,000 per family, over two times the national median income by a comfortable margin. WWE has never hidden this fact, either, with his parents’ idyllic house showcased during an angle featuring Edge and Lita, showing what is presumably the comfortably large house that he grew up in. Everything that we know about John Cena’s upbringing shows a comfortable life with a functional family and with Cena excelling at sports in his college career, hardly someone who had to claw his way to the top. Instead, someone who was invited to an exclusive club based on genetics and other intangible factors.

Now, this isn’t to say that John Cena didn’t work hard to get to where he is, because John Cena has worked incredibly hard and there is perhaps no one else in the business with a reputation for work ethic like he has. Cena’s achievements are, indeed, his own, I’m not looking to discredit anyone here, simply to look at how and why certain things happened, as well as public perception.

Cena was chosen for greatness by the WWE, slotted as an instant superstar. Within five years as a professional wrestler, all within the WWE umbrella, John Cena was a world champion, slotted at the top of cards and seen as one of the men who would carry the company into the future. Fans immediately saw through this and the jokey, lovable white rapper John Cena become something for fans to deride. He became the embodiment of Vince McMahon’s wishes, a veritable rich man’s avatar or fantasy come to life.

In a way, it wasn’t Cena’s fault. How could someone like Cena connect with people who have had to struggle every day of their lives to get by and be able to, with a straight face, listen to a rich, athletic, attractive white man tell them to never give up? The whole thing was farcical, at best. Had Hulk Hogan pulled the same act years prior? Of course, but Hogan didn’t grow up with that same level of privilege, nor was he immediately slotted for greatness. Instead he was just a jacked guy that promoters saw as a haphazard talent until he became a star during the strange days of Reaganomics and rock n’ roll.

Yet this is what Vince McMahon was comfortable with and what he felt the fans wanted then and still want now. Maybe it’s just what he wants and has little connection to reality.

In his mind how could wealth play into what fans wanted to see when they were tuning in, week-in and week-out, to watch muscled up supermen smack each other with chairs? Hulk Hogan had sustained his company for years, with interim stars like Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart stepping in when business was slumping before he stumbled upon his golden ticket with Steve Austin.

The rise of Steve Austin was organic, which is why it worked out so well. Austin was never supposed to be that top guy, no matter how much the history has been rewritten over the years. Someone like Triple H, who grew up in a more affluent area of New Hampshire and was led to wrestling by his love of bodybuilding fit the mold better, as did the third generation wrestler, the son of Rocky Johnson, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

Yet Austin was undeniable, a true breakout star that McMahon knew he had to harness and monetize, even if it went against his beliefs of what a pro wrestling star should be. Both of the safer choices in Triple H and The Rock continued to grow and thrive on their own, but both of their careers rose due to lengthy runs as despised heels before they were accepted as beloved fan favorites. In fact, the early runs of both Triple H and the Rock as faces were disasters, the Rock in particular was rejected sharply by the fans.

You see, Vince had always made his own rules without consequence, so history outside of what he did really didn’t seem to apply. While in certain regions throughout North America saw dynastic families build legacies, those that ascended to national stardom as fan favorites were anything but privileged. If you need proof, look no further than Dusty Rhodes. While there may be stars from that period that are beloved more in specific regions or were remembered for being better workers, Dusty Rhodes was the everyman that caught fire and captivated the hearts and minds of fans across the country.

Sure, you could point to Ric Flair as an outlier, a guy that made money and played that of a wealthy character for his entire career only to become one of the most beloved wrestlers in history. Yet Flair’s rise to the top was not as a babyface, but as a cowardly heel. Yes, he had money, but he showed it off, he flaunted it and crowds hated him for it. He was not only famous, he was infamous and fans would pay money to see their local, clean cut hero beat the tar out of that pretty boy and take his title from him. Only later would Flair become a viable face, when in comparison to an off-the-rails Hulk Hogan and WCW would he seem more connected to the average person.

Dusty Rhodes, in the most literal sense, should be the template to follow to build up stars in professional wrestling, yet Rhodes never quite fit into McMahon’s mold. In fact, Dusty’s run in WWF was essentially to shame him for his weight and success outside of Vince’s ring by putting him in polka dots with a common woman of a valet as opposed to a beauty queen like his big stars usually got. Yet Dusty still built up a legacy under those circumstances, even if it was one which he wasn’t entirely comfortable, which is really quite astonishing.

Roman Reigns isn’t a bad guy, nor is he a bad wrestler at this point. In fact, Reigns has put in a lot of work to improving his skills both in the ring and on the microphone. Most of this, of course, at the company’s behest and with their aid. In many ways, his career and life mimics that of his famous family-member in the Rock. Both come from the same, dynastic wrestling family that Vince knows quite well and has been a part of his traveling circus since the beginning. Reigns, much like the Rock, had a strong athletic background and was groomed for greatness from the beginning. Both of their uncanny athleticism and family ties made a job in the WWE all-but a formality for them and the fans were always able to sniff that out, not that the company ever tried to hide it. In fact, in both cases, the company flaunted this fact, completely blind to the fact that outright saying "this guy has a job and good position because of his family" doesn’t always endear a person to other people.

Neither of them had those legitimate struggles, though, that the more organic stars had. For the Rock his decision to turn heel was perhaps the best thing for his career at the time, allowing him to work out his frustrations at being unable to connect with audiences and for his natural ability not propelling him straight to the top immediately. The Rock got to refine his act over time, to become more comfortable in his own skin, which is not a luxury that Reigns has had at all.

The years haven’t been kind to Vince McMahon, creatively, with his creation of John Cena being met with constant ridicule throughout the run and Vince having to simply keep the ship pointed forward while brushing off the mixed reactions. Now we see the very same struggles in Reigns, in perhaps a more hostile environment towards the filthy rich than prior. As Vince’s net worth has climbed and his status as one of the world’s few billionaires has been cemented, his grasp on what the common fan wants has slipped to the point of no return. His connection with his audience has deteriorated to the point where he’s playing a game of tug of war with them and wins, no matter what, since he’s in charge of the company and what happens. If you don’t like it, tough.

But this fear of the poverty-stricken has done him no favors, in fact, it has hurt his product more than he’d be willing to admit. The ascension of the Rock could not have happened if there was no Stone Cold Steve Austin to rise up and bring the company into the limelight like he did. The Rock becoming a certified star had everything to do with the foundation that was built on the back of Steve Austin’s magnetism and connection with the common, working class fan who helped to raise him up like a messiah.

Who is there for Roman Reigns to build himself up with? Daniel Bryan was the closest thing to a new Steve Austin, only the company pushed back, refusing to back down and let the little, "goat-faced" every man be the face of their company. Yes, there was a conciliatory title win at Wrestlemania, but it mirrored more closely the win that Chris Benoit received years earlier at Wrestlemania 20, when the little workrate guy finally got his big moment as a diversion to keep the fans complacent while John Cena ascended to his throne.

Arguably the super push for John Cena didn’t quite pan out into creating a new Hulkamania like they would have wanted. That being said, he has done quite well for himself and the company, even if he never quite reached that level where he could smash the records set by Hogan, Austin and the Rock. Things also didn’t work out too well for Chris Benoit or Eddie Guerrero, but that’s another story for another time. It is incredibly difficult not to notice that Daniel Bryan is perhaps on the precipice of some dark times of a similar path of self-destruction with his lingering injuries and struggle to get cleared to wrestle again, even if it’s a detriment to his health.

(Photo via WWE.com)

WWE once again finds itself at a crossroads, with the path ahead of them filled with many obstacles and them opting at bulldozing everything in their way as opposed to thinking on their feet and adapting to their surroundings and the times. Someone like Dean Ambrose has the ability, charisma and "regular guy" appeal that a Dusty Rhodes, a Stone Cold Steve Austin or Daniel Bryan had and the fans have been expressing overwhelming support for him only to see him batted back down the ladder repeatedly. WWE could have their next breakaway star right there and ready, only the company sees him as a stepping stone to the "Roman Empire" era of the company.

The elephant in the room here is that Dean Ambrose connects with the fans and Roman Reigns doesn’t.

One of them has had a privileged run in the company while the other has had to struggle every step of the way. If the WWE was really in touch with their supposed "Reality Era" then this would be a perfect way to build up Dean Ambrose into their next big star. I believe in Dean’s struggle and he comes across as sympathetic in everything that he does. As for Reigns? I don’t believe his struggle, nor does anyone else. It’s manufactured, and while everything in wrestling is, to some degree, when it’s that transparent it simply doesn’t work. The fans want to cheer for that guy that has struggled and would be willing to accept that guy with the privilege later on, but Vince doesn’t get that, he doesn’t get it at all.

And how could he? He’s rich and we aren’t.

Dave Walsh is a novelist and combat sports writer best known for his work with the sport of professional kickboxing. For more information, check out his blog at http://www.dvewlsh.com.