How much of a factor is Roman Reigns 2014 injury?

[radiantsilvergun]

Do you guys think Roman Reigns "coronation" at WM31 and his current crowd reaction would've worked better if he hadn't gotten injured near the end of 2014? Cause if you remember that year he had huge momentum riding off the feud with Shield and Evolution. Crowd loved him. If he had originally faced Rollins at Night of Champions then went on to captain the Survivor Series team against the Authority, would the fans be more receptive to this push? 


It seems very similar to the Naito situation, where over in NJPW he was gaining huge momentum until he got sidelined with injury. When he returned and got immediately pushed into the main event the crowd turned on him. 

[Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-]]

Nop, the injury had nothing to do with the subsequent push, but it seemed to be happening anyway. They gave him Superstar of the Year after being shelved Three Months. And the crowd shit on it.

That to me was the start of Reign's absolute downward spiral...

[Famous Rocking Chimes]

Feb 21, 2016 23:18:57 GMT -5 Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-] said:

Nop, the injury had nothing to do with the subsequent push, but it seemed to be happening anyway. They gave him Superstar of the Year after being shelved Three Months. And the crowd shit on it.

That to me was the start of Reign's absolute downward spiral...

Not to mention the constant 'live via satellite' interviews as well.

Bryan was more popular and had a more serious injury than Reigns did and we never heard anything from him. Yet we got updates from Reigns every month it seemed like.

The suffering succotash and magic beans promos really did him in though.

[TWERKIN' MAGGLE]

It hurt him a lot.

But it wasn't the most damaging thing to him.

[Reflecto]

I think the injury did hurt Reigns a lot.

IIRC, Meltzer said that if Roman Reigns didn't get his injury, then he would have been in Dolph Ziggler's place at Survivor Series 2013 as the one who destroyed the Authority and won the match for the heroes. I'd assume if Reigns DID get that spot, then Reigns would have a lot more positive momentum and would have been in a better position.

[Gravedigger's Biscuits]

No, not even slightly.

Two months out injured wasn't going to change jack shit. It certainly didn't in my mind.

[Rican]

I think they would have just started to turn on him sooner.

[radiantsilvergun]

Feb 21, 2016 23:22:28 GMT -5 TWERKIN' MAGGLE said:

It hurt him a lot.

But it wasn't the most damaging thing to him.

I wonder what the reaction would've been if he beat Rollins at the time at NoC. IIRC he beat him clean on a Raw or two during the build up so if he did it again the backlash could've started earlier than it did. 

[SenorCrest]

Lesnar is what hurt him the most. If we were to believe the stories, Lesnar signed at the last minute. WWE was under the impression that Lesnar was leaving so they wanted to have him lose to Roman so they sped up his push. When lesnar signed they went with plan b of rollins to protect both guys.

[Deleted]

He was in the middle of a house show circuit feud with Orton where the intention was for him to learn how to work 20 min main events, by the time he returned there wasn't time to resume that training...so terrible timing.

[Mayonnaise]

No, trying to force the WM moment has. He gets the fans behind him and instead of running with it, they push it all back so he can be crowded at Mania. Then you have to throw in how much people wanted Bryan to get back on top after Injury ruined his first chance but Vince made him face Roman so Roman would look strong and people will love him because he beat the vegan out of Bryan when the world don't work like that.

[Deleted]

I'd just like to throw out a note that for some reason this thread instantly crashes the tab any time I try to open it. No other thread on the board's doing that and I had to turn off images and Flash to get it to work.

[Oh Cry Me a Screwball]

It really didn't help that Roman had yet to do anything as a singles competitor that was worthy of a main event push when they handed him the brass ring. Since that time he's had some sideshow brawls with guys like Wyatt and Big Show that could have upped his credibility if they occurred before his push.

However, if the time spent away in the fall resembled what he was doing what he came back, with Looney Tunes promos and awful TV matches with Luke Harper, he still would have gotten booed anyway.