Will the WWE have a strategy to protect Reigns tonight?

[#1druid]

Tonight WWE Raw hails from Pittsburg, PA, the same place where the 2014 royal rumble took place and where the Bootista movement started. Given the crowds love last year for Daniel Bryan and the negative atmosphere surrounding reigns especially when compared to Daniel Bryan do you think the wwe will do something to protect reigns from the crowd or at least try and keep him the face in the lesnar feud?
To those who may counter my argument with the crowd cheering for roman last year I would counter that reigns was simply the last person who wasn't Batista. A non-fan friend of mine who was interested in the elimination chamber concept from a commercial watched the event with me thought Alberto del rio was one of the promotions top stars from the reaction he got against Batista, to further drive Home my point.

 

[Prince Vee]

Well let me tell you something clearly.. The feud and buildup between Roman reigns and Brock Lesnar is going so worse than expected due to the issues with WWE and Brock. There isn't going to be any good reason for this feud. Brock and Roman doesn't even get face to face in the ring yet. So if Roman comes out and brags about winning the Royal rumble and winning against Daniel at Fast lane the crowd would go crazy and boo the hell out of him..

So the WWE should better get ready with some strategy to make him look strong.. But not in the way they used to..not like Paul Heyman coming out and rates Roman as a great wrestler or some other legend from Pittsburgh comes out and tries to make him look strong. That isn't gonna work..

This is the worst buildup for a Wrestlemania Main event I've ever witnessed... Give Brock what he wants and make him available for tonight!!

They need some new strategy not just for tonight but for the rest of the Raw till Wrestlemania and for Wrestlemania itself!!

Cheers!!

 

[CyberPunk]

Roman Reigns, as well as WWE, has his work cut out today. Lesnar is probably going to be there, but this is the same place where Batista was booed out of the building. Lesnar and Reigns have to come face to face, no sugar coated 'make Roman look like million bucks' promo would work here. If nothing else, a Lesnar calling out Reigns and Reigns responding and both ready to go in the middle of the ring, staring each other down, has to be there, though I feel there might be physical altercation as well between the two. Even if they do this, I still feel that Reigns is gonna get booed heavily.

 

[Hem]

The only way Reigns can stay the baby face of this feud and make people feel excited about the feud is if a huge brawl happens. We need to see something get added to this match up to make it interesting. Last week Paul Heyman had a great promo and that was about all thats been good about this whole feud.

I think that Reigns and Lesnar must brawl all around the arena on RAW tonight and it must be a brutal brawl. Weapons must be used. Chairs have to be crashed, tables broken and so on.

After a gruesome war this week the match should be made as a no DQ match at WM so that Reigns isn't made to look bad in the ring. Using weaponry can always make Reigns look strong and not showcase his lacking moveset.

 

[Mac]

Nothing they will do will work to "protect" Reigns imo. They might as well approach things like they do/did with Cena. Just keep the status quo. They put Reigns in this unnecessary position in the first place so now they must deal with the consequence. Your babyface Rumble winner should be over enough that he shouldn't need to be "protected" from the crowd. Such a damn shame.

 

[L@RISANO]

Rather than attempt to protect Reigns(which incites more and more hate) it would be much better if the WWE can really embrace the hate for Roman Reigns/Joe Anoa'i and play up the One vs All stuff even more which could help build Roman's character going forward.

 

[BillAlfonsos_Whistle]

Not that they will ever do this because they have absolutely ZERO balls anymore.
But if the writing is on the wall for Brock to leave the angle should be Roman calling him out about not caring about the WWE at all or wrestling in general. Call him a soulless mercenary, etc.

Would have worked a million times better with a squared circle lifer like Daniel Bryan but hey...that's not what Vince wanted. At least give Roman some teeth here.

 

[Navi]

Pittsburgh is a smarky crowd and it doesn't matter what the WWE does, if they are going to boo Reigns then they will. If the WWE tries to bring out Bryan to put him over again, they will boo Bryan so why bother.

Worst build to any main event I've ever seen, and I don't think one face to face with Lesnar is going to change it all. It will be interesting to see what happens, as the only way to stop them turning on Reigns is to keep him off the broadcast, but they can't have that, so we'll see.

Actually aren't the next couple of RAW's before Mania in smarky cities as well. So unless they plan on protecting Reigns up till the bell rings at the main event, now is the time he has to stand up and show what he can do.

 

[#1druid]

Pittsburgh is a smarky crowd and it doesn't matter what the WWE does, if they are going to boo Reigns then they will. If the WWE tries to bring out Bryan to put him over again, they will boo Bryan so why bother.

Worst build to any main event I've ever seen, and I don't think one face to face with Lesnar is going to change it all. It will be interesting to see what happens, as the only way to stop them turning on Reigns is to keep him off the broadcast, but they can't have that, so we'll see.

Actually aren't the next couple of RAW's before Mania in smarky cities as well. So unless they plan on protecting Reigns up till the bell rings at the main event, now is the time he has to stand up and show what he can do.

I'm concerned they'll do a beat down on bryan by lesnar so reigns can make the save or something like that. I agree nothing will win the crowd over to reigns but that they would have physical interaction between bryan and lesnar would seem insulting considering that's the match most people want.

I agree this build has been crap. I went to the last two manias but I'm not at all interested in this one. The next two raws are in Des Moines which idk which way they'll go and L.A. Which will probably prefer bryan.

 

[Navi]

I'm concerned they'll do a beat down on bryan by lesnar so reigns can make the save or something like that. I agree nothing will win the crowd over to reigns but that they would have physical interaction between bryan and lesnar would seem insulting considering that's the match most people want.

I agree this build has been crap. I went to the last two manias but I'm not at all interested in this one. The next two raws are in Des Moines which idk which way they'll go and L.A. Which will probably prefer bryan.

Considering Daniel Bryan is supposed to be in the ladder match at Mania, I can't see any reason why Lesnar would try a beat down on him at all. I just hope they don't bring him out to promote Reigns, that's been done already.

What Reigns has to do is get in Heyman's face to goad Lesnar into a confrontation. Although watching Lesnar at their last face to face at the cancelled RAW, Lesnar looked bored with the whole thing.

The biggest problem might be that Lesnar is also a UFC guy, and maybe he just doesn't see Reigns as a credible threat. Reigns is big and he's powerful, but he doesn't have a lot of moves and no real experience. If Rollins and Cena who are both much better in the ring than Reigns is, can't beat Lesnar in a 2 on 1, then you can only suspend your disbelief for so long. What chance does Reigns have. I know it's scripted, but come on.

 

[MartialHorror]

Considering Daniel Bryan is supposed to be in the ladder match at Mania, I can't see any reason why Lesnar would try a beat down on him at all. I just hope they don't bring him out to promote Reigns, that's been done already.

What Reigns has to do is get in Heyman's face to goad Lesnar into a confrontation. Although watching Lesnar at their last face to face at the cancelled RAW, Lesnar looked bored with the whole thing.

The biggest problem might be that Lesnar is also a UFC guy, and maybe he just doesn't see Reigns as a credible threat. Reigns is big and he's powerful, but he doesn't have a lot of moves and no real experience. If Rollins and Cena who are both much better in the ring than Reigns is, can't beat Lesnar in a 2 on 1, then you can only suspend your disbelief for so long. What chance does Reigns have. I know it's scripted, but come on.

There's always a way, but I doubt it will happen. Remember that one RAW where Lesnar beat up Jericho. It wasn't a set up for a feud, there was no foreshadowing to it outside of that night. It just happened. But I don't think it will happen to Bryan, whom I believe the WWE will want to protect more.

 

[Mudlup50]

Stop protecting Reigns, never has someone needed protecting this bad. The bottom line is you need to stop protecting him.

As someone else posted, let Reigns play up the One vs All on his shirt. Say last week he took down the entirety of the Authority alone, and if the fans want to boo him they should do it because at least he can show up every week. The crowd will probably boo that but at least some angst will be directed towards Lesnar.

Also, keep him away from Kane and Big Show. These 2 guys get such a little reaction sometimes that pitting them against Reigns would be suicide for this protection.

 

[wwesux]

Reigns the Convict will be met with jeers through RAW tonight from pittsburgh,PA where the 2014 royal rumble took place and where the Batista movement started and generated many jeers and this year won t be any different as the Jeers get louder for reigns and the cheers get louder for Brock Lesner tonight!

In February 2015, Triple H responded to comments that Reigns was "not ready" for the top spot by saying that no one is ever ready to be thrust into that position
In March 2015, wrestler Mikey Whipwreck commented that A'noai did not have the ability to either "protect his character and how it comes across" or "put his own spin on his character". Whipwreck predicted that Reigns would become "very polarizing" because WWE had the Reigns character "talking and kind of trying to be like John Sena" on televised shows which many fans despise john semen

 

[Mustang Sally]

I guess they did protect Roman Reigns last night, simply by shifting the focus of his match to Seth Rollins and Randy Orton. While I never expected the big blowout between Randy and Seth to come before WM31, when J&J Security was banned from ringside and only Randy was left to support Seth, it felt as if something was on tap, no?

So, all Roman had to do was wrestle his match, which I thought he did very well.....and step out of the way while Orton and Rollins handled their end.

Of course, it could be asked of WWE: "This close to WM31, do you really want to protect one of the guys appearing in the main event?".....and while that's a valid question, perhaps the company had the same idea as the OP....that allowing Roman to be the target of the Pittsburgh fans would be more damaging than featuring him.