WWE Trolling: The Fans Or Reigns?

[Low_Ki]

First and foremost, this is not a 'bash Roman' thread. So none of that here please.

I'll get right into it. Roman. Looking at the facts. Aside from the wellness violation which obviously equated to punishment in the form of losing to Balor on Raw and a couple of other high profile losses, seems to be losing a lot over the last year. Aside from Mania, lets look at the facts.

He lost to Owens in two main events. He went to the Rumble last year, and much like this year was the last man eliminated. While people may voice their disdain for the WWE pushing Reigns, they are also doing a lot of retracting as well.

The question, as the topic states is simple. Are the WWE trolling fans by putting Reigns in the main event picture to keep him relevant in the minds of its audience or is this all still punishment for his previous transgressions as I have noticed that with them it is like they will put him under the spotlight and then swipe the floor from under him as to placate the vocal audience.

What are your thoughts?

 

[Deoxyribonucleic A.C.I.D.]

WWE is putting Reigns in the main event because:
a) he sells
b) he's their chosen one
c) there's been so much invested in him (beating HHH, Ambrose, Orton, standing tall against Lesnar, Royal Rumble victory) that simply the cannot just put him on the midcard

WWE is not letting Reigns win as much as he used to, because:
a) they have finaly gotten smart

You can't just depush a guy that's been the center of your attention for the past 2 years. Roman has grown on me a lot. Maybe we just need to accept the fact that they were right about him all along, and they were just careless.

Plus, people care enough to boo him out of the building and other people care enough to cheer him. I just can't accept the fact that people are still booing Reigns in order to complain. Complain about what exactly?
He's booed because he's the chosen one, simply. He genetates electricity, the audience is into his matches and feuds. That says a lot. It's not only because the audience had Roman shoved down their throats. The fans really care for Roman. He's gotten mainstream.

Remember, Sheamus was also pushed down our throats. Why didn't anyone boo him out of the arena? Exactly. Because people didn't care, that's why he became a midcarder.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

WWE is putting Reigns in the main event because:
a) he sells
b) he's their chosen one
c) there's been so much invested in him (beating HHH, Ambrose, Orton, standing tall against Lesnar, Royal Rumble victory) that simply the cannot just put him on the midcard

WWE is not letting Reigns win as much as he used to, because:
a) they have finaly gotten smart

You can't just depush a guy that's been the center of your attention for the past 2 years. Roman has grown on me a lot. Maybe we just need to accept the fact that they were right about him all along, and they were just careless.

Plus, people care enough to boo him out of the building and other people care enough to cheer him. I just can't accept the fact that people are still booing Reigns in order to complain. Complain about what exactly?
He's booed because he's the chosen one, simply. He genetates electricity, the audience is into his matches and feuds. That says a lot. It's not only because the audience had Roman shoved down their throats. The fans really care for Roman. He's gotten mainstream.

Remember, Sheamus was also pushed down our throats. Why didn't anyone boo him out of the arena? Exactly. Because people didn't care, that's why he became a midcarder.

Pretty much this.

Despite the boos that he gets and despite the internet fans constantly hazing him, Roman Reigns obviously makes a good deal of money for WWE. While I believe that Vince is too narrow minded in his thinking as to what can make a wrestler draw money, he's hitched his wagon ultimately to Roman Reigns and he wouldn't do that if Reigns wasn't bringing in money. When it's all said & done, you don't necessarily have to be some 6'2" 250 lbs. stud to draw money, you just have to make people care one way or the other. Reigns gets a strong response, regardless of boos or cheers, and the really bad thing would be if Reigns got no response at all; if you give someone a solid push and you get crickets, then that's someone who's not a money player.

I also agree with the notion of WWE getting smart in that despite all those calling him the next John Cena, Roman Reigns hasn't been booked remotely as strong as Cena and that's a good thing. With John Cena, we basically had about 7 or 8 years there in which John Cena almost never lost and when he did lose, it was almost always due to some massively overbooked interference, protection in which the guy who beat Cena did so in a very flukey fashion or something else along those lines. Cena almost never, and I do mean almost never, lost decisively and that's not what we're seeing with Reigns; we've seen Super Cena, but we're not seeing Super Reigns anymore and he shouldn't be making a return. Circa 2010, if it'd been Cena vs. Owens for the title in a no DQ match, they'd have had Owens throw EVERYTHING at Cena, Cena would've taken it, bounced back and ultimately won. In Reigns' case, they protected both Owens and Reigns by making both of them look good and having someone interfere while the ultimately outcome of the match was still up in the air; you could say Reigns would've speared Owens through the table or you could say that Owens would've sidestepped or somehow countered given that Owens was still on the mat when Strowman was beating Reigns down.

 

[Messiah]

How can he be punished when he's in the main-event?.. They have to put him in the main-event since they already invested so much money in him..

 

[Navi]

First and foremost, this is not a 'bash Roman' thread. So none of that here please.

I'll get right into it. Roman. Looking at the facts. Aside from the wellness violation which obviously equated to punishment in the form of losing to Balor on Raw and a couple of other high profile losses, seems to be losing a lot over the last year. Aside from Mania, lets look at the facts.

He lost to Owens in two main events. He went to the Rumble last year, and much like this year was the last man eliminated. While people may voice their disdain for the WWE pushing Reigns, they are also doing a lot of retracting as well.

The question, as the topic states is simple. Are the WWE trolling fans by putting Reigns in the main event picture to keep him relevant in the minds of its audience or is this all still punishment for his previous transgressions as I have noticed that with them it is like they will put him under the spotlight and then swipe the floor from under him as to placate the vocal audience.

What are your thoughts?

I really don't see how he's been punished for anything, if you want to call it that. He has never been out of the main event picture even when he was holding a mid card title. Can you name me one actual feud he had with anyone for the US Title, and I don't mean a match here or there, a sustained feud.

Reigns was given the US title as a ruse to make fans think he wasn't in the main event anymore, but he never left it. If he wasn't main eventing then why was he feuding with Owens at the Rumble for the Universal Title. The main event scene on RAW since October has been Rollins/Owens/Jericho/Reigns in no particular order. These are the four guys that have been in the main event match of every show and PPV. The only exception was Sasha and Charlotte.

What I think is happening now is they saw that making him Super Cena V2.0 wasn't going to pan out, the fans rejected it, so now it's sort of make him the underdog, by dangling the carrot in front of his nose and pulling it away. The way they did it with Daniel Bryan, but the only issue is this won't work either. Reigns and Daniel Bryan and like apples and oranges, and the fans will reject this as well.

The WWE has to stop and rethink this whole thing over and get back to the drawing board. What made Reigns so popular with the Shield was two things, his silence and the fact that he could whip anyone's ass. That's the Roman Reigns they should have stayed with. Come out lay down a beating and leave again. Promo's should be short and to the point, don't for God's sake try to make him say funny things, he can't pull it off. Not everyone can be comedic and many have tried and failed.

He also shouldn't be slotted in as a face or a heel, take on all comers. One week it could be Owens the next week Zayn. Also get rid of the Shield music and gear, make him is own person, the Shield is no more. That is the only thing they haven't tried yet, everything else has failed. Oh and I don't believe they will keep going because they've invested money in him, the WWE invests money in all their wrestlers, Reigns has just been given more time than most others would have gotten. I don't know how much money he brings in, but it can't keep going forever.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

Simply put, reigns is still o top for a couple of reasons,

1. He does sells merchandise: since the target audience for his character are kids because he's been booked as a superhero, he will move merchandise and since the kids are the demographic that buys the most merchandise, reigns will continue to sells more merchandise.

2. They don't have any main eventers on raw. The fact is that all the main eventers that could help guys step up their came and become main eventer are on smackdown. I never understood why you needed cena, styles and orton on smackdown, you could have put one of those 3 guys on raw to help make the midcard guys become main event guys.

3. The fact is like him or not, he's over. The guy is over. The fans that like him want to cheer him and those that hates him want to boo him so he gets a reaction one way or the other and that what a main eventer is suppose to be, a guy that get a big reaction everywhere he goes.

So it might not please those that are against roman's, but that kinda why he's still in the main event picture even if some of us don't want him there and until something change, you will continue to see him in the main event.

 

[Kodo Sawaki]

I dunno how they could troll Reigns. Is punishment that after failed wellness he lost few high profile matches and then was crowned US Champion? Or how he was inserted to big title chase right after? Or how he was protected all the way to losing it and thru Royal Rumble when they inserted Brown to take him down? Or how he is gona get Undertaker in what is maybe Undertakers last match?

No, they troll smarks. And they troll them beautifully. Reports are that they only inserted Reigns so Orton could get face reaction for that win. Dunno why because last time I checked Orton is heel now, but they seemed to want that. Maybe because he would turn on Bray soon ala Batista on HHH in 2005. Anyway, that works really nice. Smarks boo him and by doing it they only make what WWE wants them to do. They could insert Owens with almost no reaction in feud with Reigns and he would get reaction because of it. They could get Orton to win Royal Rumble match and smarks would cheer because Reigns didnt win. They could even do Cena- Orton for 31 time ever and people would still hung up on the fact how Reigns would get Undertaker instead of Cena or Aj and how he would probably beat him. He became ultimate distraction and it works like a charm for WWE.

 

[BestSportsEntertainer]

Roman Reigns is certainly not being punished.

Sure he was mid-card champion but entered the main event scene immediately after winning. He beat Owens clean multiple times and never lost clean to Owens. He only lost the US Title after it was made into a handicap match. Then he was #30 in the Rumble (also the last eliminated) and is currently set to retire Undertaker at WM33. WWE is clearly still set on Reigns being the #1 face for many years to come.

What else is there to say? He's the top guy, whether we like him or not. WWE is set on it, and unless something major happens (such as another wellness violation), nothing is changing that. I don't like the guy, and a lot of the fans don't. He's booed everywhere he goes, but he draws and has a great look.

He's going to be pushed and we'll just have to deal with it.

 

[Vanilla Midget]

There's an urge with hardcore wrestling fans to try and overthink what's happening on television based on what we read on dirtsheets. We want to draw lines between Reigns' booking and his real life wellness policy suspension.

If Roman was being punished, he would have been losing midcard feuds, not main events. It took Jericho and Braun Strowman to stop Reigns from winning the title. Reigns defeated Rusev soundly and only lost his US title to Jericho in a two on one situation.

Since Roman put over Finn Balor, he's done nothing but win the US title and lose main event tile matches due to outside interference. Putting over Balor was necessary. Reigns was being moved out of the main event in order to give Roman time to rehabilitate his image.

Like any wrestler, Roman had dominated the WWE world title scene for over a year, so the time came to have him leave that scene to keep the main event angles from going stale. Putting Balor over was smart booking to cement a new babyface to challenge for the new Raw main event title while Roman moved on to other feuds.

I don't see where the punishment is when he's winning title and being booked incredibly strong. Reigns ate multiple finishers, including chair shots, a brass knuckles shot, and a Braun Strowman attack before entering the Royal Rumble and putting over Randy Orton.

They're being smarter about booking Reigns. They're accepting his nuclear heat and using him appropriately. I don't see how using him correctly is in any way a punishment.

Punishment is getting destroyed by Kane, losing your kayfabe girlfriend to John Cena, and not getting a singles match at WrestleMania. Punishment is when you're broken away from being a lackey for the Miz and given a Macho Man impersonator gimmick.

WWE is petty, there are hard facts for this. Miz and Ziggler making fun of Punk's UFC loss is a good example. There's just no way that Roman's loss to Rollins (the night Ambrose cashed in) followed by multiple protected losses and and a title run are in any way a punishment.

Roman looks like he may be handing Strowman a loss and appears to be getting the Undertaker at WrestleMania. Every time Undertaker competes, the clock inches closer to being his last. If it is his last, Roman Reigns may be beating Undertaker.

Win or lose, the Undertaker match at WrestleMania is the farther thing from a punishment. Most people are looking too literally at Roman's booking and equating the fact that he's not Universal champion as meaning he's in the dog house.

Isn't this what we want? Roman used appropriately? Beating the Undertaker will bring Roman's nuclear heat and take it to super nova levels. The much desired heel turn could be close, it probably won't, but hey.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

New statistics for merchandise sale and which superstar gets the more research on wweshop.com showed that roman reigns is no.2 in sale and research behind only cena and way in front of a.j styles and any other superstars in the company so I get why wwe is still pushing him as a babyface, because even through some fans really don't like him, he still move alot of merchandise for the company which mean that he's still over enough to bring alot of money to the company.

 

[Noshowers]

Without speculating on things we have no answer to (how much merchandise a person sells for example), He hasn't been reigning for over a year as WWE Champion because of the current reaction from the fans. They tried to make him Hulk Hogan after the Shield (Eat your vitamins, say your prayers, win every match no matter the odds and those scripted promos) and this was rejected by the fans.

With that still freshly in our minds, they now pivoted to a more John Cena type underdog (the huge muscular greek god that for some reason has to keep overcoming the odds no matter how many times they hold a championship). An example of this is the Strowman match. (Strowman really still hadn't done much in his career and Roman is a multiple time champ, yet WWE was still trying to sell us the thought that Roman had no chance to win).

The reaction to this didn't get much better so they intertwined the Daniel Bryan / Stone Cold screwed by the authority type angle.

The brakes were put on Roman a bit but the train is still rolling. He wasn't punished so much as just going through a couple transitions in the story they are trying to tell with him. The US title win was supposed to be seen more as a slap in the face of the authority, taking that belt since they screwed him out of the other one in my opinion, though as others pointed out it was more a prop on his shoulder.

He needs to go back to the trunks he had early in NXT and maybe even cut the hair....something to change his look. He needs something more dramatic to change with him that is not just a slight adjustment of the storyline.