We need to talk about Roman Reigns
The ‘Big Dog’ has become one of the most unpopular stars among WWE fans, but the signs are that his reign at the top is only just getting started.
In 2017 there is no louder sound heard in a WWE arena than the explosion of boos over the opening bars of Roman Reigns’ entrance music. For a casual viewer, or someone who was seeing Roman’s entrance for the first time, it would be easy to assume that this must be one of the ‘bad guys’ — but as Roman himself often tells the audience, he’s not a ‘bad guy’…he’s not a ‘good guy’…he’s ‘THE guy’. The problem for the fans booing is that he’s not ‘their’ guy, despite Vince McMahon’s best efforts in positioning him as the poster-boy of the modern WWE era.
On paper, Roman has pretty much everything that the WWE machine would want in their top star. He comes with the credibility of his Samoan lineage, with family ties to a list of former greats including The Wild Samoans, Yokozuna, Rikishi & The Rock. Having previously had a brief stint in the NFL & Canadian Football League before he decided to follow in his family’s footsteps, he also brings an athletic pedigree that WWE’s talent scouts often seek out when recruiting potential stars for the future. Combining this with an impressive look and natural charisma, it isn’t difficult to understand why he was quickly identified as a potential main-eventer during his developmental period with the company, as he was being groomed to debut on WWE TV.
Things couldn’t have gotten off to a better start when he arrived in 2012 as part of a new faction called “The Shield”, which quickly became the hottest act in ‘sports entertainment’. By the end of their run together they were universally loved by the audience, which gave Reigns the perfect platform to embark on a main event singles career and establish himself as the new number one ‘babyface’ of the company. But in today’s world, WWE’s curtain has been pulled back to the extent where the ‘smart’ fans (or ‘smarks’) can go online to find insider stories on the creative direction of it’s stars and storylines, so it didn’t take long for the audience to decide that Roman’s push to the top — at the expense of their beloved indie heroes such as Daniel Bryan — was undeserved.
Reigns quickly became public enemy number one, and despite being positioned as a traditional fan-favourite, he consistently gets more heat from the crowd than any ‘heel’ (bad guy) in the company. In years gone by, pro-wrestling booking 101 would normally call for an unpopular good guy to become a villain and embrace the crowd’s hostility, as promotions typically try to steer the audience in terms of who they should love and who they should hate. But in the age of the internet, telling the rebellious fans who they are ‘supposed’ to get behind is almost certain to result in a backlash, irrespective of the performer’s level of talent or ability.
This isn’t uncharted territory for WWE, as John Cena has experienced similar levels of hostility from large sections of the audience as the face of the company over the last decade. While Cena’s unpopularity with the smark audience (predominantly males aged 18–35) came from his child-friendly, squeaky clean, ‘Super-Cena’ character, the hatred towards Reigns can be more difficult to understand. Whether fans are willing to admit it or not, Roman has been one of the best in-ring performers in the company over the past three years, having stand-out pay per view matches with the likes of Daniel Bryan, Big Show, AJ Styles and Brock Lesnar. His detractors will point to his less than perfect promo skills, which are far from the level of other main event stars like Cena or The Rock, and this hasn’t been helped at times by some misjudged scripting from WWE’s creative team. But in recent months Roman has shown that a ‘less talking — more action’ approach to his brooding, bad-ass persona can hide those weaknesses and play to the strengths of his character. Yet despite all of this the boos seem to get louder each week, to the point where recent brutal on-screen attacks at the hands of villainous monster Braun Strowman have been greeted by loud cheering and chants of “YOU DESERVE IT!”. The audience’s negativity towards Reigns is losing it’s basis to the point where his only crime against them seems to be the fact that he is the company’s chosen one, which poses an interesting scenario for the powers behind the scenes.
Roman’s situation symbolises the dynamic between WWE’s creative decision-makers and the hardcore fanbase in the modern era. Vince McMahon has not been known to change direction at the whim of a disgruntled crowd, especially when deciding who his top stars will be and who will stay in the supporting roles. This in itself seems to be the main root of fans’ antipathy towards Reigns, as they increasingly refuse to be force-fed what they perceive to be a ‘company guy’ as their number one star. Scripting a TV show against the will of it’s fanbase, and having a passionate live audience attempt to hi-jack the direction of a storyline and rebel against the central character doesn’t sound like something that should work in theory. But sports entertainment feeds off the emotional reactions of it’s audience, and the atmosphere when Roman hits the ring is hotter than any other act currently on the show. WWE know that no matter how loudly they boo in the arenas, and how much they complain on social media, WWE’s hardcore fans will keep watching and keep buying tickets because they love to hate Roman Reigns.
Every creative decision WWE make is second-guessed by disgruntled viewers, many of whom feel that their opinions on the product are being ignored. But in the case of Roman Reigns, their opinions are being heard loud and clear. As long as Roman is generating such strong reactions, whether positive or negative, he will be positioned as a headline act on the show. Some argue that WWE should pull the trigger on a traditional ‘heel-turn’, but in reality, Roman already is a heel — only a heel in today’s landscape doesn’t necessarily mean a ‘heel’ in the traditional sense, just like the audience of today play a role in the product that is far from traditional in terms of the history of pro-wrestling.
Whether intentional or not, by sticking with Roman in the face of an increasingly furious crowd, WWE have developed a uniquely positioned superstar with nuclear levels of heat that most of his peers would die for. The night after he retired The Undertaker at Wrestlemania 33, Reigns stood silently in the ring for almost seven minutes soaking in the hostility of a rabid crowd, before declaring simply “this is my yard now”.
This five word promo was possibly his finest moment yet.Cul
