The King of Old School Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 14 minutes ago, Shane O' Mac Version 2 said: Wait, what? How on Earth did WWE jerk him around? He's been earmarked as THE GUY from day dot. He's always been main event/top of the card, usually with some title in tow. Only times he hasn't been the top champ really is when Brock had the belt, and really Roman was still The Guy back then because he was actually the one on TV every week. All I can think of is Seth cashing in at Mania 31. And that only happened because the fans were rejecting Roman, I wouldn't call that WWE jerking him around. Wrestlemania 34 was the big one. That was a huge mess with him losing to Brock again, and then beating him in a Summerslam match nobody really remembers a few months after. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane O' Mac Version 2 Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 2 minutes ago, The King of Old School said: Wrestlemania 34 was the big one. That was a huge mess with him losing to Brock again, and then beating him in a Summerslam match nobody really remembers a few months after. Ah yeah, all I really remember about that was Reigns pissing out a lot of blood at Mania. But I completely forgot who won- I'm guessing my thought process at the time was, "well, he's obviously getting it back at some point", and well, he did. Was genuinely racking my brains at air_raid's post, so I looked up Reigns' history with the big belts. Late 2015/2016 saw him win and lose the title in a little attempt at a Daniel Bryan thing, having him face The Authority- and he won at Mania against Triple H. Then he dropped the title due to violating the Wellness Policy- his fault, not WWE's. Then after he won the Universal Championship, he got diagnosed with leukemia- no one's fault, that, and certainly not WWE's. Then he was set to take the Universal Title back at WM36- and COVID happened. That brings us back to his mega reign that he's currently in. I don't know, one Mania loss that was avenged at Summerslam doesn't sound like a guy who's been hard done by by WWE. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members tiger_rick Posted March 25 Paid Members Share Posted March 25 (edited) 1 hour ago, Shane O' Mac Version 2 said: Wait, what? How on Earth did WWE jerk him around? He's been earmarked as THE GUY from day dot. He's always been main event/top of the card, usually with some title in tow. Only times he hasn't been the top champ really is when Brock had the belt, and really Roman was still The Guy back then because he was actually the one on TV every week. All I can think of is Seth cashing in at Mania 31. And that only happened because the fans were rejecting Roman, I wouldn't call that WWE jerking him around. The booking of him and around him was atrocious for years. Their usual fetish with babyfaces who smile a lot, not striking while the iron was hot and then striking once it was stone cold, making him look like an absolute loser compared to that nerd Seth Rollins and a 67 year old Triple H, not turning him heel after he beat The Undertaker which would have been the hottest thing they'd done in years and then turning him heel in front of zero fans. He was a guy who beat cancer, came back and cut one of the most brilliant, heartfelt promos we'll ever see and they had fans booing him within months. As absolutely unforgivable as doing your most interesting possible heel-turn in the middle of the Thunderdome era was, they finally got the presentation of him spot-on from that point. Having him just win all the time as a heel, having him be the only World Champion (ahem), having him steamroll everyone isn't engaging week to week TV, but it's absolutely the way to make a star and re-establish your title and your hierarchy which they're benefitting from for the last 18 months or so, muddy-Rock waters aside. (Full disclosure, I've hardly seen any of the heel run but you know that already.) Edited March 25 by tiger_rick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted March 25 Paid Members Share Posted March 25 27 minutes ago, Shane O' Mac Version 2 said: Wait, what? How on Earth did WWE jerk him around? He's been earmarked as THE GUY from day dot. He's always been main event/top of the card, usually with some title in tow. Only times he hasn't been the top champ really is when Brock had the belt, and really Roman was still The Guy back then because he was actually the one on TV every week. All I can think of is Seth cashing in at Mania 31. And that only happened because the fans were rejecting Roman, I wouldn't call that WWE jerking him around. This reads like you weren’t really watching between Mania 31 and SummerSlam 2020. If you need a potted history of how often they Lugered him between Mania 31 and 32 and made him look stupid or a loser, then made him twiddle his thumbs for nearly 2 years between losing the title to Rollins and winning it at SummerSlam 18 (including multiple defeats to Lesnar and spending near a year wasting time with Strowman which also involved multiple losses), then after he came back from cancer making him scratch his arse for ANOTHER year mostly fucking around with losers like Corbin before he was supposed to win the U belt from Goldberg…. well, I’ve summarised it, but don’t feel like I should have had to. They decided he was going to be the man mid 2014 then spent 6 years mostly holding off or beating him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedRooster Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 59 minutes ago, Supremo said: I hope Roman sticks around. It took him so long to find a character that actually clicked with the audience, I’d like him to go long enough that we forget the blue contact lenses and dreadful Wrestlemania main events where the production crew had to turn the crowd volume down. The dark days. The idea of continuing the Bloodline saga though? Fuck that. It’s already about six months to a year past its sell by date. nWo territory. We’ve already had the Bloodline Wolfpack vs. Bloodline Hollywood. Give it a natural, satisfying conclusion already. It would be a shame if we didn't get to see a 'proper' Roman Reigns babyface run - one in which he's not immediately handicapped by Vince McMahon. I love the idea of The Rock remaining 'the final boss', and a babyface Reigns vs. heel Rock match at some point in the future. As far as The Bloodline goes, I'm OK with them prolonging it slightly; with Rock leading the group after ditching Reigns. Maybe they introduce a few new members to freshen it up - people like Tama Tonga. I don't mind the conclusion to this saga being Rock/Reigns, but I can completely understand why people might be against the idea of keeping even a refreshed version of that stable alive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidB6937 Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 I genuinely remember more about The Shield than I do about Roman's solo stuff between that and his current run. Either it was incredibly forgettable or just so bad I've buried it down deep with the other bad stuff in my life. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Lorne Malvo Posted March 25 Paid Members Share Posted March 25 16 minutes ago, air_raid said: then made him twiddle his thumbs for nearly 2 years between losing the title to Rollins and winning it at SummerSlam 18 (including multiple defeats to Lesnar and spending near a year wasting time with Strowman which also involved multiple losses), This period involved him losing the IC title clean to The Miz on Raw 25 too, which was maybe the nadir of them half-arsing Reigns push. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members tiger_rick Posted March 25 Paid Members Share Posted March 25 2 minutes ago, Lorne Malvo said: This period involved him losing the IC title clean to The Miz on Raw 25 too, which was maybe the nadir of them half-arsing Reigns push. File that in things you'd completely forgotten happened. That whole period existed because someone obviously thought the issue with John Cena all those years was that he won all the time. So they made Roman an absolute loser, presumably imagining it would get him sympathy. Just another terrible read of the audience in a good decade-long period of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Supremo Posted March 25 Paid Members Share Posted March 25 The zenith of the failed babyface push for Roman Reigns will always be that Summerslam when he faced Brock and they teased Strowman was going to cash in afterwards, in order to stop the fans from hijacking the match. Then the moment Roman won the belt, they cut the feed, rushing off air.  No cash in after all, suckers! Like a Montreal Screwjob only on your own audience. Vince probably ran and jumped in Earl Hebner’s car straight afterwards. Weird time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted March 25 Paid Members Share Posted March 25 42 minutes ago, Lorne Malvo said: This period involved him losing the IC title clean to The Miz on Raw 25 too, which was maybe the nadir of them half-arsing Reigns push. He lost to fucking everyone! In the years since his first ascent to champ he put over Balor, Joe, Owens, Jericho, Strowman half a dozen times… the guy lost more on TV during his “top guy” era more than Hogan, Steve Austin and John Cena combined! And people wonder why nobody got into him as the hero! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dart Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 (edited) 30 minutes ago, air_raid said: He lost to fucking everyone! In the years since his first ascent to champ he put over Balor, Joe, Owens, Jericho, Strowman half a dozen times… the guy lost more on TV during his “top guy” era more than Hogan, Steve Austin and John Cena combined! And people wonder why nobody got into him as the hero! Yet if you looked at the average wrestling forum (not this one) people's main complaint about Roman Reigns back then was that he always wins, despite it not close to being true. Edited March 25 by The Dart Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FUM Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 5 hours ago, Supremo said: The zenith of the failed babyface push for Roman Reigns will always be that Summerslam when he faced Brock and they teased Strowman was going to cash in afterwards, in order to stop the fans from hijacking the match. Then the moment Roman won the belt, they cut the feed, rushing off air.  No cash in after all, suckers! Like a Montreal Screwjob only on your own audience. Vince probably ran and jumped in Earl Hebner’s car straight afterwards. Weird time. My favourite was him winning the Rumble in Philly and them thinking bringing The Rock out would save the day. Only for The Rock to piss off for years deeply unhappy because he was booed by association. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted March 25 Paid Members Share Posted March 25 4 minutes ago, FUM said: Â Only for The Rock to piss off for years deeply unhappy because he was booed by association. To be fair, he showed his face at Mania to join Ronda in squaring up to Hunter & Steph. So it wasn't years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr_Danger Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 If it hasn’t been said already let me just say SUFFERIN’ SUCCOTASH! If it has been said then it bears repeating. No one who ever muttered that phrase should be as cool and sexy as Roman is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane O' Mac Version 2 Posted March 26 Share Posted March 26 (edited) 17 hours ago, air_raid said: This reads like you weren’t really watching between Mania 31 and SummerSlam 2020. If you need a potted history of how often they Lugered him between Mania 31 and 32 and made him look stupid or a loser, then made him twiddle his thumbs for nearly 2 years between losing the title to Rollins and winning it at SummerSlam 18 (including multiple defeats to Lesnar and spending near a year wasting time with Strowman which also involved multiple losses), then after he came back from cancer making him scratch his arse for ANOTHER year mostly fucking around with losers like Corbin before he was supposed to win the U belt from Goldberg…. well, I’ve summarised it, but don’t feel like I should have had to. They decided he was going to be the man mid 2014 then spent 6 years mostly holding off or beating him. No, I was watching the whole time. My memory was a little hazy on all the wins and losses, I'm guessing my brain tuned out anything I didn't consider particularly high quality. I know a lot of 2017-2019 I was kinda watching along out of habit, hoping for it to get better. I definitely felt like we were turning a corner coming into 2020 before COVID happened. But there was never a point, whether he had the title or not, that I didn't consider Roman Reigns the face of the company. In 2017 he was the main event of WrestleMania, simply because he was Roman Reigns. In 2018, they did a similar thing at Backlash, where Roman Reigns vs. Samoa Joe was the main event because... reasons. Can barely remember who the actual WWE/Universal Champions were around that period. AJ and Shinsuke were kicking each other in the balls over the WWE title, right? Never considered Roman to be twiddling his thumbs, or looking stupid or being a loser. He was often the main event guy while Brock took one of the titles hostage. I looked back at his actual title history, and it goes with winning at Survivor Series, then they had the Sheamus cash-in and a faux-Authority storyline to try and get Roman cheered. Beats HHH at Mania, then has to drop the title because he violated the Wellness Policy. Not WWE's fault. Then after he returned from the Wellness Policy suspension, obviously they're not going to be quick to put a big title back on him. But he was still main event/title picture the whole time between. Then he wins the Universal Title in 2018. Lost it due to his leukemia. Not WWE's fault. I guess his 2019 wasn't too great looking back at it. He still seemed like the top guy though. It sure as shit wasn't Kofi Kingston. Edited March 26 by Shane O' Mac Version 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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