Roman Reigns Mega (push) Thread! *SPOILERS*

Moneymaker

From Wreddit;

The Royal Rumble may have been the first time he was actively booed to such a degree, but it is not the sole reason behind the hate. Like Stroud said, it started long before that. I thought I would type this out to remind everyone just how long this has been brewing (forgive me if I get some things out of order).
The Shield breaks up. Dean goes into a hot feud with Rollins while Roman goes into a cold feud with Randy Orton. Roman wins, nobody cares because it's sandwiched between Nikki Bella's heel turn (yes, people cared more about this) and Brock squashing Cena.
Roman gets hurt. Dean gets extremely ****ing over during that same Rollins feud. Roman, meanwhile, is made to cut ****ty satellite promos in what is the real first step of his downfall. WWE feels as though they have to remind us on a weekly basis that Roman Reigns still exist, even though absolutely no one forgot.
It is also heavily rumored that Roman Reigns is planned to go over Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 31.
Next, Dolph Ziggler gets the spot Roman probably was supposed to get at Survivor Series, and also gets mega ****ing over for it. This is while Reigns is still cutting the terrible satellite promos.
The Punk podcast happens. This is not the sole cause, as some people have claimed, but it does draw more attention to WWE's Reigns agenda.
Roman Reigns wins Superstar of the Year. Some people think it's legit, some don't. What I think most people agree on is that it was completely undeserved given the other people on the list, and even if it WAS legit, it still came off as WWE forcing it within the context of the other stuff. Perception is reality.
Reigns is then inserted into NXT Takeover: R Evolution, and he says that he's going to be the first NXT Alumnus to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Everyone's like, "WTF, he wasn't even there that long."
He comes back at TLC. The return itself is pretty hot, and then he completely ****s up the promo afterwards, mispronouncing a simple word like declare and then standing there like a goofus.
Daniel Bryan comes back and inserts himself into the Royal Rumble. Everyone goes nuts, thinking there's hope after HAVING PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT that Reigns was a lock to win.
Reigns cuts the sufferin' succotash promo, and then the Jack and the Beanstalk promo. Everyone assumes that there's no way he could be getting the big push if he's cutting promos this bad. Cue that familiar Edge video.
WWE books the absolute worst Royal Rumble match in history, making the previous year's look like a delicious piece of cake in comparison. They take that hot Ambrose push and say **** you. They take the rise of Dolph Ziggler and say **** you. And yes, most importantly, they take the return of Daniel Bryan, and possibly one of the best stories we could have ever had, and say **** you.
Then they bring in the ****ing Rock to try and force us to cheer the guy. And because the rest of this **** has been so ridiculous, THE ROCK GETS BOOED.
In the weeks that follow, they attempt to make Bryan look like the bad guy who is attempting to steal Reigns' spot, and then have Reigns beat him. Bryan endorses him and the people who have paid enough attention to this entire thing are not buying it.
WrestleMania now features the three stars of the fall in a nice, big ladder match while the Chosen One gets to headline WrestleMania, after WWE has done an absolutely, astonishingly, outrageously bad job of building him up. And they are so cowardly and insecure at the idea of Reigns not being over that they are not going to have him face off with Lesnar until the very last week.
Also, the story has become more about Lesnar with him basically serving as Punk 2011, circa 2015, which I'm sure is not going to help the WrestleMania reaction for Reigns.
There's the full, complete, and correct narrative on how this came to be.
Believe that.

Mr.Nice Guy

Wow a lot of untruths in that post.^

- Plenty of people cared that Reigns beat Orton. Look at the response at the time.

- "Roman Reigns wins Superstar of the Year. Some people think it's legit, some don't. What I think most people agree on is that it was completely undeserved given the other people on the list"

This makes no sense. If it was legit, how can 'most people...agree...it was completely undeserved'? If it was legit it means most people got their wish!

- "and even if it WAS legit, it still came off as WWE forcing it within the context of the other stuff. Perception is reality"

No it didn't. He hadn't been on TV for weeks prior to this and when he came out the crowd are noticeably shocked to see him. I don't think he would have appeared at all had he not won.

- "he completely ****s up the promo afterwards, mispronouncing a simple word like declare and then standing there like a goofus."

Oh wow he mispronounced a word! A bit like Cesaro with his four corners of the ring botch? Or Rollins telling Cena to wrap his legs around his legs? Everyone messes up at times unless you're Heyman who is a class above everyone. Petty and selective to single him out as if he's alone in this. There are few top drawer promo guys around these days.

- "Reigns cuts the sufferin' succotash promo, and then the Jack and the Beanstalk promo. Everyone assumes that there's no way he could be getting the big push if he's cutting promos this bad. "

Again this is baloney. Everyone knew he was getting a push in spite of the terrible material he was given. Never read anyone say they didn't think he was being pushed as the chosen one.

- Also it's not true that they made Bryan out to be a heel in the feud. There were times when Reigns came across heel-like also. They deliberately left it vague.

Basically it's just another vitriolic anti-Reigns promo that is bereft of a lot of facts and padded out with a lot of questionable assumptions. Standard fare, really. Do like how the author has decided it's a full, complete and correct narrative though. I for one am not believing it, however.

CSF

Standing by the argument that it almost 100% definitely wasn't legit.

He isn't particularly popular no matter how much some would like for us to believe it so.

When Cena gets booed or chanted about, the kids chant back. When Reigns gets booed or chanted about, he just gets booed or chanted about.

If Cena had been this unpopular from the beginning, he could never have gotten as polarising as he is now. Even kids pick up on this sort of thing, my 12 year old brother also thinks Reigns is lame, him getting shat on by crowds every week probably helped that.

briany

The thing I don't get about Reigns' push is that the WWE has to know full-well that the traditionally smark-heavy WM crowd are going to gleefully s*it all over Reigns in the main event. How do we know this will happen? Because the sector of older wrestling fans have been fairly vocal in their dislike of Reigns at regular RAWs, so imagine what it'll be like when they're concentrated in their thousands. It'll at least be similar in makeup to the crowd at the Rumble and that begs the question, what's Reigns done since then that would make the crowd not chant 'bullsh*t' at him/the WWE?

So we're supposed to have this guy, who only half the crowd kind of likes, beat a guy who everyone knows could probably legitimately kill Reigns in a shoot, and that's supposed to be the launchpad for the next great enduring star of the company?

D.Q

I just want to put my head in the sand for a year or so and taken it back out when Reigns has inevitably failed as the top guy and has dropped back down to his correct place on the card. Whoevers fault it is, creative or reigns, the fact is, from my point of view, I'm not in any way looking forward to the main event of wrestle mania. I just don't care about reigns in the slightest. And I don't see how they are going to change that.

rovert

The Rock answering the Roman Reigns question better than Jericho:

Somewhat different topic for a different thread but Meltzer has hinted for years now about how much Rock wants to wrestle Lesnar preferably at Wrestlemania. That main event could help them shift a lot tickets for Wrestlemania 32 at AT&T Stadium home of the Dallas Cowboys. The Stadium record is 105,000 people for a football game. WWE could surpass that as they can put seats on the Football field. It is further reasoning to re-sign Lesnar.

veganrun

rovert wrote: »

The Rock answering the Roman Reigns question better than Jericho:

Somewhat different topic for a different thread but Meltzer has hinted for years now about how much Rock wants to wrestle Lesnar preferably at Wrestlemania. That main event could help them shift a lot tickets for Wrestlemania 32 at AT&T Stadium home of the Dallas Cowboys. The Stadium record is 105,000 people for a football game. WWE could surpass that as they can put seats on the Football field. It is further reasoning to re-sign Lesnar.

F*** it. If they book Rock v Lesnar for next year, I'm going!

rovert

veganrun wrote: »

F*** it. If they book Rock v Lesnar for next year, I'm going!

Also it is in Texas so expect another 12 months of "Austin coming out of retirement" talk. Undertaker is from Texas too so 12 months of "will Undertaker retire talk" too.

CSF

What a great video from The Rock. The only danger with everybody coming out of retirement is that there'll be no room on the card for the current roster!!!

veganrun

Think there were rumours of Sting V Taker for WM32, thing Sting is from Texas as well.

DM_7

HBK v D Bryan mania 32 as well

Bounty Hunter

DM_7 wrote: »

HBK v D Bryan mania 32 as well

Another plot to keep him out of the main event :pac:

A Primal Nut

Also the way he said "Don't worry about what I'm doing Sunday" and jokingly saying New York is a long way from San Francisco makes me think he'll be there in some form.

CSF

A Primal Nut wrote: »

Also the way he said "Don't worry about what I'm doing Sunday" and jokingly saying New York is a long way from San Francisco makes me think he'll be there in some form.

For sure

Rjd2

Probably going to be in the Andre The Giant Battle Royale. :cool:

Looper007

veganrun wrote: »

F*** it. If they book Rock v Lesnar for next year, I'm going!

I'm not getting the whole love in for Rock/Lesnar part 2

Have you not seen the Rock in the ring since his return (he's had stinkers with Cena and Punk) and Brock is only good when he's in the ring with a in ring general. God that match will stink, don't get the whole hard on for it.

Loughc

DM_7 wrote: »

HBK v D Bryan mania 32 as well

HBK has always said he'd never come back out of retirement and I believe him.

briany

Looper007 wrote: »

I'm not getting the whole love in for Rock/Lesnar part 2

Have you not seen the Rock in the ring since his return (he's had stinkers with Cena and Punk) and Brock is only good when he's in the ring with a in ring general. God that match will stink, don't get the whole hard on for it.

It'll be a big draw, but the match won't be getting too many stars from Meltzer. It couldn't be any worse than Rock v. Hogan and that match was awesome purely on the strength of the atmosphere.

But in general I'm against it because part-timers in the main event will never let those guys who are there all the time get their moment.

DM_7

Loughc wrote: »

HBK has always said he'd never come back out of retirement and I believe him.

I was adding to the list of rumours (re Texas), not saying it would happen.

rovert

rovert

Bounty Hunter

I'm guessing he doesn't consider them shoting it at him at Wrestlemania to his face so

The Strawman Argument

Has there been any evidence that Reigns actually enjoys anything about wrestling asides from the money? Even in interviews he tends to go on about how he's gonna do what they tell him to do and cash the cheques rather than anything at all about the artform. It's surely a bit weird for someone raised in it all, no? I mean, even Brock seems as though he genuinely enjoys some aspects of it a hell of a lot.



Another thing, and I'm not sure whether it's just that he's being seriously over rehearsed or what, but does the guy seem to have a serious lack of charisma beyond his look that's becoming more and more apparent as he gets used to giving interviews?

D-FENS

The Strawman Argument wrote: »

Has there been any evidence that Reigns actually enjoys anything about wrestling asides from the money? Even in interviews he tends to go on about how he's gonna do what they tell him to do and cash the cheques rather than anything at all about the artform. It's surely a bit weird for someone raised in it all, no? I mean, even Brock seems as though he genuinely enjoys some aspects of it a hell of a lot.

I remember seeing Scott Hall on BBC’s Live and Kicking once. Some kid asked him why he wasn't called Razor anymore. After explaining, he added “The cheques always said Scott Hall though”.
It struck me at the time as an unnecessary comment to say to a child, but despite his flaws I don’t think anyone would doubt Hall’s love for the business.
I’ve also read several comments by wrestlers saying they felt short changed by Vince at times or moved elsewhere for a better offer.
So maybe you’re reading a bit too much in Reigns’ comments but even if you're right, is treating the business as "just a job" a recipe for failure? Goldberg would say no I think.

SlickRic

The Strawman Argument wrote: »

Another thing, and I'm not sure whether it's just that he's being seriously over rehearsed or what, but does the guy seem to have a serious lack of charisma beyond his look that's becoming more and more apparent as he gets used to giving interviews?

He looked like an unsure child approaching Brock in the ring on Monday.

There was nothing.

I'm starting to think ALL he has is his look and some athleticism.

Jon Stark

SlickRic wrote: »

He looked like an unsure child approaching Brock in the ring on Monday.

There was nothing.

I'm starting to think ALL he has is his look and some athleticism.

I don't even understand the love for his look to be honest. He looks a bit smarmy and greasy to me. That's why he reminds me of Nash so much.

Rjd2

Jon Stark wrote: »

I don't even understand the love for his look to be honest. He looks a bit smarmy and greasy to me. That's why he reminds me of Nash so much.

He is a very good looking guy I think, you can see why the ladies all go gaga over him. However yeah he doesn't have any other outstanding attributes as of yet.

You look at Cena, he is maligned as anyone but in nearly everything Cena excels him hugely, charisma, mic ability, workrate and all round likeability.

The Strawman Argument

D-FENS wrote: »

I remember seeing Scott Hall on BBC’s Live and Kicking once. Some kid asked him why he wasn't called Razor anymore. After explaining, he added “The cheques always said Scott Hall though”.
It struck me at the time as an unnecessary comment to say to a child, but despite his flaws I don’t think anyone would doubt Hall’s love for the business.
I’ve also read several comments by wrestlers saying they felt short changed by Vince at times or moved elsewhere for a better offer.
So maybe you’re reading a bit too much in Reigns’ comments but even if you're right, is treating the business as "just a job" a recipe for failure? Goldberg would say no I think.

Definitely not saying money isn't the most important factor, the whole "I'm supporting a family" thing is completely fine, it's just weird that I've never read anything about his love of wrestling that you get from most everyone, or any level of enthusiasm regarding developing his ring work. I dunno if a person like Scott Hall at the height of NWO-era too-cool-for-school arrogance is someone they'd be wanting Reigns to be comparable to btw (and I think he had other things on his mind than the business for that span tbh).

Goldberg (1) wasn't a Cena or Hogan type guy as they are hoping Reigns can be, he had a much more clearcut gimmick that was not sustainable and (2) wasn't doing tons of interviews about how he's gonna do what he's told and rake in the money




Is Reigns perhaps losing something by being such a typically attractive man? I mean, sure it's going to get women cheering and whatever, but he might just have one of those faces that you can't get any kind of decent reactions out of.
Cena sure as hell isn't as good looking of a guy, let alone Hogan and Austin. Rock's looks and all pretty much made him a heel first and it was his charisma that turned him.
Dunno about looking like a lost child, to me it's more like he doesn't even realise there's an art to the whole thing, it's fascinating.

Moneymaker

You know watching Reigns lately, he's lost all confidence.

He's not stamping his presence on segments, matches or promos.

He's just kind of there.

leggo

I think fans would be disappointed to find that most just see it as a job. It's the thing in their lives that they happen to be good at and, while they get into it starry-eyed and passion-filled, professional reality sets in at a certain stage. Work is work, whether you're doing what you love or not. Some no doubt love coming into work every day, some don't. The morale for the job in the WWE locker room is likely no higher or lower than the average office job.