Roman Reigns

[The Gribbler]

Okay, taking off the hate gogles and the Fan-Boyisms, what do people really think about Roman Reigns.

In the ring, I think the guy is fine, he is nothing special but overall he is no worse than half of the roster and I have never actually had a problem. Hell, when the shield split, I was all for the guy getting a push. He looks good, works alright and has a decent family lineage.

But on the Mic, the dude just bores me to tears. I didn't notice it in the shield because he didn't have to talk much, but I have literally never watched a Reigns Promo and been even a little bit interested.

I think there was a two or three week period where the WWE covered this by just having him walk through people and kick ass. Didn't give him a mic, just let him thrive in what he was good at. And in those weeks I was as interested in Reigns as I have ever been.

Overall, I don't hate the bloke but they need to take the mic away from him. Either don't let him talk and have him kick some ass, or give him a mouthpiece. I just never want to hear him talk again...


Thoughts?

 

[Y 2 Jake]

I've seen better big matches from Reigns than I have from anybody but Styles in recent years, which is impressive because WWE stubbornly refuse to book him to his strengths. That said, they always do that. It's why almost everybody on the roster isn't as good as they could be.

 

[Spencesc11]

I think the best way to get him over is to re-form THE SHIELD. If you look at all 3 guys they've lost steam as they probably should've never been booked as true "Faces". They need to be more of good guys with attitude like the Stone Cold, Rock, etc.. And to me clearly Ambrose should be more of the mid-card champ. He just doesn't sell it as "The Man". But post Mania I would move Ambrose & Styles back to Raw. Keep building up The Club and start an epic Shield vs. Club feud that could go most of the year. That would be great booking and imagine the merchandise sales!!!

 

[Jack-Hammer]

I've basically said this in other Reigns threads, but what the hell.

From an overall perspective, Reigns is okay. He's far from being the best I've ever seen and he's far from being the worst I've ever seen. He often has good matches I've seen lots of wrestlers on the roster have better matches. In terms of personality, the guy ranks pretty low because he just doesn't come off as this guy who has this overwhelming energy about him. On the mic, he's gotten better but one of the reasons why he's improved is because he's been able to play off of guys like Chris Jericho, Kevin Owens and Seth Rollins; if he's in the ring doing solo mic work, the shorter and more to the point he works, the better.

I don't have Reigns and I don't love him. I feel that there are a good number of wrestlers on the roster who're simply better and more entertaining. As far as Reigns getting pushed, I'm pretty much just resigned to the fact that he's going to be one of the top players in WWE. I don't believe he'll ever be embraced by the fans as the ultra heroic babyface Vince wants, too much time has passed and Reigns was pushed too hard before he was ready.

 

[Deoxyribonucleic A.C.I.D.]

The irony is, that if you comepare him to the other Shield members, Reigns had a mych better year in 2016 than Rollins and Ambrose. And I'm not talking about his accomplishments. I'm talking about the little things, because the thing is, he didn't really have a bad match, has gotten much better on the mic and carries himself around like an A+ guy.

Rollins had a lackluster face turn and has just been on the sidelines waiting for HHH. You can't really blame Rollins here, but I think they could have handled the face turn better.

But Ambrose.. it's like he failed at every opportunity given to him. Bad match with Brock at Mania. Nothing special with Y2J other than one spot, forgettable world title run, been lost ever since. Just shined a little bit against John Cena. Maybe Ambrose needs a big feud with Cena in order to really establish himself.

On to Reigns. The guy's good. He's constantly improving. Let him grow more before pushing back to the main event and by that I mean, making him world champ again.

 

[Navi]

I've never kept my feelings about Reigns hidden so I'll say it again. I liked him better when he was part of the Shield. His weaknesses were hidden, Ambrose and Rollins carried the work on the mic, and most of the in ring action. Reigns would get the hot tag come in and finish the job.

Since embarking on a solo career and having the rocket shoved up his behind, he's lost lot of luster in my opinion anyway. He's not great on the mic, although he has improved a lot. His matches while not MOTY candidates are good, although very predictable. In short he's kind of boring, and being in the main event picture, although the WWE will says he hasn't been for so long, has gone beyond tiresome for me.

Like JH said, I don't love the guy, but don't hate him either, becoming totally apathetic towards anything he does really. It's very obvious that Vince wants him to be the next John Cena, I just don't see it happening, fans have made their feelings known, and the more he's pushed the more they turn away. If he hasn't gotten over, even with the fact that they keep mentioning and teasing a Shield reunion hasn't done it by now, then I don't know what will.

Either reform the Shield and have them run through the roster again, or just try an new tactic. He'll win the Universal title again and he will be boo'd, then he'll drop it and we'll continue on this merry-go-round forever it seems.

 

[ShinChan]

The irony is, that if you comepare him to the other Shield members, Reigns had a mych better year in 2016 than Rollins and Ambrose. And I'm not talking about his accomplishments. I'm talking about the little things, because the thing is, he didn't really have a bad match, has gotten much better on the mic and carries himself around like an A+ guy.

Rollins had a lackluster face turn and has just been on the sidelines waiting for HHH. You can't really blame Rollins here, but I think they could have handled the face turn better.

But Ambrose.. it's like he failed at every opportunity given to him. Bad match with Brock at Mania. Nothing special with Y2J other than one spot, forgettable world title run, been lost ever since. Just shined a little bit against John Cena. Maybe Ambrose needs a big feud with Cena in order to really establish himself.

On to Reigns. The guy's good. He's constantly improving. Let him grow more before pushing back to the main event and by that I mean, making him world champ again.

I don't think that Reigns had a much better year than Rollins and Ambrose.

Rollins was out injured for the first half of the year. Then his feud with Kevin Owens didn't help either. Infact it was a lame feud. And his face run, just ugh thanks to Triple H. So, he has had the worst out of all 3.

Let's get to Ambrose. The two blots are his matches against Brock Lesnar and Chris Jericho. Other than that, he has had a good year. Last person to be eliminated from Royal Rumble. Had a good enough match with Triple H at Roadblock (v 1.0). Then came Brock Lesnar and Chris Jericho. And then he won MITB and cashed in on the same night. Won the highly anticipated and inevitable Shield Triple Threat match. Had an awesome feud with AJ Styles. And then this then this feud with The Miz and InterContinental title win.

Roman Reigns had an awesome feud with AJ Styles. Meh main event with Triple H at Wrestlemania. Dumb feud with Rusev and US title win. Not to forget the suspension.

So, Dean Ambrose had the best year out of all three. But as a whole, Shiled's year wasn't good for sure.

 

[JoeMallard]

I change the channel every time his music hits and he starts walking down the ramp. Everything he does and is about to do can be seen coming from a mile away. He always looks like someone took a dump in his cereal. He's completely killed my attention to the main roster WWE programming. If he just disappeared, I wouldn't even miss him, maybe Raw would actually have some legit guys that haven't been killed by Vince and Kevin Dunn's Roman Reigns circle jerk.

 

[ShinChan]

I change the channel every time his music hits and he starts walking down the ramp. Everything he does and is about to do can be seen coming from a mile away. He always looks like someone took a dump in his cereal. He's completely killed my attention to the main roster WWE programming. If he just disappeared, I wouldn't even miss him, maybe Raw would actually have some legit guys that haven't been killed by Vince and Kevin Dunn's Roman Reigns circle jerk.

I'm no big fan of Roman Reigns either. I think that he's the least interesting for me out of the Shield.

But is he this bad enough that he makes you change the channel?

I don't think that he's this bad. I know that he has some weaknesses like everyone has but I don't think that he's bad enough to make me change the channel or kill my attention to the main roster programming.

Of course, Vince loves him. And his booking is quite bad sometimes. But I don't think that he's worth my hate atleast.

 

[Wald]

A+ Look
B In-Ring
C Promos

That's Reigns for me. The guy has some great power moves so works well as a babyface when put in there with someone capable of carrying the workload. I'd like him to turn heel though because it would give him the opportunity to expand that moveset and incorporate more rest holds, maybe even add a submission finisher too. Ideally, he'd follow the lead Randy Orton sets, who is by far and away the best heel in-ring worker the company has.

His promos are dull but I have a feeling he is being heavily scripted still by Vince so he doesn't take the full blame for this. I think the guy has a natural swagger to him that would work best as a heel first and a tweener later.

Really, Vince just needs to get over himself and turn Reigns heel for a year long run before switching back. It would give him breathing space to develop in to a top draw, which I definitely think he could be. He'll never get over as the top guy if they keep just telling us he's the top guy though

 

[Psykohurricane55]

Personally, I always thought that reigns as main event possibilities if only the iwc would give him a chance because the guy isn't that bad and his promos are getting better.

I've read alot of fans saying that vince should just get over himself and turn heel, the problem with this is pretty much the same thing as when the iwc wanted ena to turned heel, they would lose a ton of money by turning him heel. The guy while not bringing john cena money in merchandise sale, is still bringing more money then a lot of guys that the iwc actually love.

We have to remember that wwe is not just a wrestling company that cather to the hardcore fans, they have different fans groups that like different things and roman reigns might not be the iwc cup of tea and might want to hate him because he's not a indy guy, but has seen the last couple of weeks, reigns does have his fans that are starting to get heard everywhere.

Finally, I think that while reigns is over with a certains group of fans, he needs something to get him over with evrybody and reforming the shield could be the one thing that could help no just him but also seth rollins and dean ambrose who have also lost alot of steam since the split of the shield.

So a reunion of the shield would not only bring the more fan back in roman reigns corner, but will also help seth rollins and dean ambrose get more momentum.

 

[Dave]

Reigns is fine. What I will say, however, is that WWE have utterly ruined whatever potential he had to be the main event star that his beginnings promised. They should have had him win the Royal Rumble the year before he actually did win it. They dropped the ball on that one and it became very clear that WWE were making him "the guy". But when the WWE audience wanted to see people like Daniel Bryan get that spot, there's no way they were going to accept it. Reigns is merely a victim of bad booking from the WWE at a time when the decisions were easy to make and the WWE made them incorrectly.

In terms of his talent, he is utterly fine. He isn't amazing in the ring but he can tell a good story. The match with Lesnar at Mania, and the match with Triple H at Mania the year later, we're actually really good. He didn't get any credit for them but watching the Lesnar encounter in particular was very good. He is frightfully boring on the mic but he doesn't have to be good. Rollins was the mouthpiece of the Shield and Reigns was the muscle. So book him like that going forward and you're not going to have a problem. The issue Reigns and the WWE have now is that he had a reputation and its very hard to shake that once its there. Just look at John Cena and his entrance.

 

[Navi]

We have to remember that wwe is not just a wrestling company that cather to the hardcore fans, they have different fans groups that like different things and roman reigns might not be the iwc cup of tea and might want to hate him because he's not a indy guy, but has seen the last couple of weeks, reigns does have his fans that are starting to get heard everywhere.

Finally, I think that while reigns is over with a certains group of fans, he needs something to get him over with evrybody and reforming the shield could be the one thing that could help no just him but also seth rollins and dean ambrose who have also lost alot of steam since the split of the shield.

I really don't believe that the excuse that Roman Reigns isn't liked is because "he's not an indy guy", and I really wish people would stop using that expression. Styles, Rollins, Ambrose, Balor, Owens, Zayn and Nakamura are "indy guys" and the IWC doesn't have the same dislike towards them. Neither do the fans. Shouldn't matter's a damm where someone learned the craft, the fact is now they are in the WWE and that's all that matter's. So using the excuse - He didn't start out in the indies, should actually help him, but it doesn't.

Not many wrestler's get over with everyone, that is a pipe dream. The last one who did was Daniel Bryan, and even he didn't get over with everyone. There were a lot of Daniel Bryan haters out there. He got blamed for a lot of the shit that happened at the Rumble a few years ago when Batista won. I'm a Cesaro fan and live with the fact that a lot of other fans don't like him, doesn't matter to me who other fans support and who they don't. It should only matter to you who you like. Just as every wrestler is different, every fan is different and usually has an opposing opinion.

Reigns will do fine because the company will push him regardless of what fans think. So Reigns fans will just have to get used to the fact that he won't be universally loved by all. Also think reforming the Shield, as much as I would like to see it, just to get Reigns over would be a waste. They have already teased it over and over again. Yes he gets cheered when they do powerbomb someone through a table, but when he's on his own the boo's start up again.

 

[ShinChan]

Personally, I always thought that reigns as main event possibilities if only the iwc would give him a chance because the guy isn't that bad and his promos are getting better.

I've read alot of fans saying that vince should just get over himself and turn heel, the problem with this is pretty much the same thing as when the iwc wanted ena to turned heel, they would lose a ton of money by turning him heel. The guy while not bringing john cena money in merchandise sale, is still bringing more money then a lot of guys that the iwc actually love.

We have to remember that wwe is not just a wrestling company that cather to the hardcore fans, they have different fans groups that like different things and roman reigns might not be the iwc cup of tea and might want to hate him because he's not a indy guy, but has seen the last couple of weeks, reigns does have his fans that are starting to get heard everywhere.

Finally, I think that while reigns is over with a certains group of fans, he needs something to get him over with evrybody and reforming the shield could be the one thing that could help no just him but also seth rollins and dean ambrose who have also lost alot of steam since the split of the shield.

So a reunion of the shield would not only bring the more fan back in roman reigns corner, but will also help seth rollins and dean ambrose get more momentum.

Quite wrong here.

Dean Ambrose was drawing more than Roman Reigns at B circuit of live events while Roman Reigns was the champion touring A circuit.

And he was doing it while being in midcard position. That says a lot when a midcard wrestler outdraws your champion. So, WWE ain't gonna lose a ton of money by turning him heel. Infact, it could be opposite of that.

 

[The Life Of Pablo Ren]

I think he's a far better worker than people give him credit for. He seems to gel really well with people, the only big match of his that I've found to be disappointing was him and Triple H from Mania last year but I tend to place more of the blame for that on Triple H and whoever the hell thought it would be a good idea for that match to go half an hour. His matches against AJ were some of my favorite last year and his match with Lesnar far exceeded my expectations.

His biggest problem is his body language, forget the mic work. The two go hand and hand and if he fixes the body language I think the mic work will naturally improve. I can't stand it when he starts talking and does like this weird shrug/half smile thing. I don't know if that's just something that his body does because he's nervous or if he's directed to do that but it needs to stop. Work on being stoic, if it means you have to talk in a Randy Orton-esque monotone voice, do it. It'll get the job done a hell of a lot better than it is now.

As for how to book him? They need to turn him. There's no one they can put him with that can put him over AND keep him over as a face. Admit this was a failure, turn him heel and run with that for a while. If you want to try the face experiment again in the future, go ahead, but right now he needs a reset.

 

[Loveless]

He is a personality vacuum that drags down any promo he's involved in.
I've said this before but the WWE are going to need to accept that they can't "create" faces anymore. The crowd will decide who they like, usually based on talent, and to hell with whatever the WWE wants. Trying to fight it or force the issue will not work. The only way to make Roman work as a face, is to turn him heel and let the crowd turn him back when they've decided he's worthy.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

Quite wrong here.

Dean Ambrose was drawing more than Roman Reigns at B circuit of live events while Roman Reigns was the champion touring A circuit.

And he was doing it while being in midcard position. That says a lot when a midcard wrestler outdraws your champion. So, WWE ain't gonna lose a ton of money by turning him heel. Infact, it could be opposite of that.

i'm not really talking about live event gates because your right on this last year ambrose was drawing more then reigns did that a fact i'm not going to dispute. What i'm talking about is merchandise sales figure which reigns last year was moving more merchandise then ambrose and pretty much everybody outside of lesnar, taker, cena and aj styles and the rumor going around is that he still in the top 5 as far as merchandise sales is concern so that what i'm talking about when i'm talking about how much money they would lose if they turn him heel. I might not be a favorite of a lot of adults wrestling fans but he is a favorite to the democraphic that really matters to wwe and that's kids because they are the one's that will make their parents spent a whole lot of money on merchandise during the event. So in that sense Reigns is more of a character for those guys

 

[BestSportsEntertainer]

I really don't know what to say that I haven't said a thousand times before.

I just don't really like Roman Reigns. He's not good enough to be the top guy and never will be.

His booking has damaged him beyond repair. Royal Rumble 2015 killed him.

 

[Jericho91]

The fans have made it abundantly clear that they dislike Reigns no matter how much Vince tries to shove him down our throats as a baby face. For that reason alone WWE must turn him heel. His promos should stop being scripted.

Vince needs to loosen up and allow Roman to speak his mind freely without any constraints. Unfortunately that won't happen because Vince is a control freak. It's a hopeless scenario.

The only real change in WWE regarding how they handle their talent will happen after Vince dies. It's the sad truth.

 

[TheLoneCharles]

Reigns isn't a bad wrestler. His biggest problems are:

1) He is being booked like John Cena when he needs to be booked like Baron Corbin.

2) He is the only Shield guy to not undergo a makeover. He still has the shield music and outfit. It detracts from him.

3) Booking decisions from 2014 onward. But even in 2014 had Reigns won instead of Batista it would be much like how the 2017 Rumble winner is viewed. Ortons win was basically "at least it wasn't Reigns". 2014 was Daniel Bryans year and the fans shit on Batista being force fed. Reigns winning in 2014 would've been "at least it wasn't Batista" and would've been fun since the Shield was still together.

 

[ShinChan]

The main reason I can't support Roman Reigns as in can't cheer him is that WWE doesn't me any reason to support him. Why should I cheer him? Or why should I boo his opponent? No emotional connection.

He ruins a wedding celebration of Rusev and Lana. Am I expected to cheer him for this?

Let's take a recent example. Royal Rumble. The match with Kevin Owens was booked rightly. Roman was screwed out of the title by Braun Strowman. That encourages me to cheer Roman and boo Strowman. Right? And what WWE does is give another title opportunity to him via Royal Rumble. Now why should I support him? He got screwed and then got the same equal chance to get a title opportunity. That totally makes him getting screwed baseless.

In nutshell, give me a reason to cheer him. Or I shall continue to neither cheer him nor boo him.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

The main reason I can't support Roman Reigns as in can't cheer him is that WWE doesn't me any reason to support him. Why should I cheer him? Or why should I boo his opponent? No emotional connection.

He ruins a wedding celebration of Rusev and Lana. Am I expected to cheer him for this?

Let's take a recent example. Royal Rumble. The match with Kevin Owens was booked rightly. Roman was screwed out of the title by Braun Strowman. That encourages me to cheer Roman and boo Strowman. Right? And what WWE does is give another title opportunity to him via Royal Rumble. Now why should I support him? He got screwed and then got the same equal chance to get a title opportunity. That totally makes him getting screwed baseless.

In nutshell, give me a reason to cheer him. Or I shall continue to neither cheer him nor boo him.

I get your point but let maybe help you connect the dots on why you should cheer him.
It's basic old school booking in my opinion. Let's take your 2 exemples you gave

First the rusev wedding thing.this is classic good guy vs bad guy skit from the 80's. Bad guy gloat about something and good guy comes in to shut him up. You should really cares about him simply because you hate rusev who been gloating for a while of being better then the crowd.

Second, the royal rumble thing, the first part of your exemple is correct, what your missing is the second part that I think should have been better if they would have done a backstage skit to explain it to fans. But the point of him getting a spot in the rumble was done to especially because he got screwed in the title match. Has a fan, you should want to see your babyface to get a second chance at getting is revenge on the heel and that's why roman was in the rumble. They should have explain it better but that's pretty much why he was their.

The point is, wwe is trying to booked their babyface and heel like back in the days and go back to the black and white era because in the end, that's what the kids wants and in the end, that's kinda what it matters go vince, to make the casual wwe fans like kids and families happy. Reigns is a character that speak more to this demographic, just like goldberg, warrior and other one dimensional character like them. It might not work for everybody but in this day of age, it really hard to get a wrestler that everybody will like so reigns is doing pretty well considering this.

 

[ShinChan]

I get your point but let maybe help you connect the dots on why you should cheer him.
It's basic old school booking in my opinion. Let's take your 2 exemples you gave

First the rusev wedding thing.this is classic good guy vs bad guy skit from the 80's. Bad guy gloat about something and good guy comes in to shut him up. You should really cares about him simply because you hate rusev who been gloating for a while of being better then the crowd.

Second, the royal rumble thing, the first part of your exemple is correct, what your missing is the second part that I think should have been better if they would have done a backstage skit to explain it to fans. But the point of him getting a spot in the rumble was done to especially because he got screwed in the title match. Has a fan, you should want to see your babyface to get a second chance at getting is revenge on the heel and that's why roman was in the rumble. They should have explain it better but that's pretty much why he was their.

The point is, wwe is trying to booked their babyface and heel like back in the days and go back to the black and white era because in the end, that's what the kids wants and in the end, that's kinda what it matters go vince, to make the casual wwe fans like kids and families happy. Reigns is a character that speak more to this demographic, just like goldberg, warrior and other one dimensional character like them. It might not work for everybody but in this day of age, it really hard to get a wrestler that everybody will like so reigns is doing pretty well considering this.

I'll reply with respect to each paragraph.

I know Rusev is a heel so I should boo him. But why? Only because he uses heel tactics, right? He was doing nothing wrong by celebrating his wedding with Lana. In that case, a babyface screws up a heel and that's what makes Rusev the sympathetic face there and Reigns a heel.

So screw a guy you want people to sympathize with and then give him second chance at the same day? Why should then I sympathize with him? Is Raw's General Manager a face that will give him second opportunity? Nopes, she's Stephanie McMahon and we all know how much she likes Roman Reigns. And about face getting to avenge to a heel. Who screwed him? Braun Strowman. Did he come to take revenge from him? Jericho didn't screw him. That's what makes this baseless. There's no reason to support Roman Reigns. And that's why I will neither cheer him nor boo him.

I like Roman Reigns. He's been improving in the ring. And I always prefer in-ring work to like/love a particular wrestler. But as aforementioned, I can't connect emotionally with him. I know that he doesn't deserve the heaps of boos he gets. But WWE gives numerous chances to make people boo him.

 

[Navi]

I get your point but let maybe help you connect the dots on why you should cheer him.

The point is, wwe is trying to booked their babyface and heel like back in the days and go back to the black and white era because in the end, that's what the kids wants and in the end, that's kinda what it matters go vince, to make the casual wwe fans like kids and families happy. Reigns is a character that speak more to this demographic, just like goldberg, warrior and other one dimensional character like them. It might not work for everybody but in this day of age, it really hard to get a wrestler that everybody will like so reigns is doing pretty well considering this.

No you want everyone to cheer him because you like him and think everyone should also. Why is it so offensive to some fans that other's just might not like the guy they do? I've never understood this line of reasoning.

Fans have a ton of reason's why they're not fond of a particular wrestler. It could be that they don't like the look of his face, don't think he's great in the ring, don't like his promo's, no connection, or maybe they've met the wrestler in person and the guy or gal is a douche. There are numerous reasons to not want to support someone, lot's of others I didn't list there. Reigns puts on a good match, so what, so do a lot of other wrestler's, that's not a reason to like him. He's good looking, again so what, so are other's who are good looking. He's the Rock's cousin, so what, so are Tamina and the Uso's and Nia, it's a big family. Again not a reason to like him. Support who you want and allow others to support who they want. Is it so hard.

 

[That N Word]

I've been a Reigns supporter since his days in The Shield but I'm just not a fan and haven't been since 2015. His problem was his ring skills,then he started stealing the show. Then the problem was his mic skills, then he started to hold his own. Now his problem is booking and has been for a long time. I'm just sick of him to the point I feel sorry for him. I don't wish to see him on my TV screen any longer. Whether it be as a heel or face, he needs a hiatus. I don't dislike Roman Reigns,BUT I don't want to see Roman Reigns.