Why was Roman suddenly over as f***?

[Fake Jesus]

Like, it's nice and all, but it doesn't make sense. Why was Roman suddenly, and randomly, ridiculously over as f*** in Philly? 

[saintpat]

He overcame the odds

[Deleted]

Because he was booked very well the night before, and paired up in segments and matches with characters who, even in a smarky/pro-heel city like Philly, were unlikely to be cheered.

[TWERKIN' MAGGLE]

People were ready to cheer him. A majority of this board was ready to as well. No one wanted goofy ass, testicle loving Roman Cena.

Badass Roman Reigns was always primed to be over.

[tms]

They've emptied the cupboard on pop-drawing segments for him. He's beat top heels, top faces, beat up longtime heel Triple H, and longtime heel Vince McMahon.

If you give someone that type of kayfabe resume, you'd have to be David Flair levels of talentless to NOT receive a pop.

[Milkman Norm]

Pretty much that.

[Deleted]

That was the 1st time since survivor series 2014 that someone overcame the dreaded authority & something actually happened that seemed important,plus I can't remember the last time they changed the wwe title on raw & Ronan's hair looked great.

[Deleted]

People cheer when you do things people want. We wanted a badass Reigns destroying stuff on people that's booked well. We got that so he's cheered.

[Push R Truth]

My personal view?

People have wanted to love Reigns a long time, the WWE just added so much "shit" to the character that it was hard to love. In my opinion that's why the "Roman Hate" was so much, it was hate stemmed from a love denied. If the crowd didn't love Roman the hate would have been apathy (see Alberto Del Rio).

You can work with lustful boos. That's a love/hate dynamic and invests the crowd. You can't work with "Who gives a shit" (see Alberto Del Rio)

[saintpat]

As the Narrative Turns ...

Not a week ago, there were dozens upon dozens of "People don't want to cheer Roman, they want to hate him, HE MUST TURN HEEL" threads and posts.

WWE puts him over as a face and it's "People have always wanted to cheer Roman, they just needed to book him as a badass."

I personally think the latter is true (not necessarily for the "I want my indy guy" IWC smarks but for the folks who go to shows and like the product) but the vast majority of posts about Roman on this forum were of the opinion that he could never get over as a babyface.

[Mayonnaise]

Because he wasn't hated (well at least by the majority), it was the booking, but for at least Sun. and Mon. they got the booking right and people reacted accordingly.

[thirteen3]

Philly smarks don't go to RAW tapings anymore. Mostly house shows and PPV's.

[Allie Kitsune]

No, they want Sheamus.

[Deleted]

Dec 16, 2015 12:38:07 GMT -5 tms said:

They've emptied the cupboard on pop-drawing segments for him. He's beat top heels, top faces, beat up longtime heel Triple H, and longtime heel Vince McMahon.

If you give someone that type of kayfabe resume, you'd have to be David Flair levels of talentless to NOT receive a pop.

Pretty much.

You could put a cardboard cut out of Bronson Pinchot from Beverly Hills Cop 2 in Roman's place it would have gotten a a decent reaction (and maybe cut a better promo).

But yeah, they pretty much poured Michael Bay levels of the wrestling equivalent of "'splosions" into two nights. They've pretty much got no where else to go with him after this as they've exhausted all their usual tricks (the same ones they've been using for 15+years) and I've seen nothing from WWE creatively in the past decade to make me think they really even know what to do from here on.

Vince was probably like, "We gotta get Reigns over. Do whatever it takes!"

"But Vince, if we do all this and he gets over for one night, then how do we KEEP him over?"

Vince: "Get Reigns his CDL and rent a beer truck. Also, find my old notes from 2001."

[rocket]

Dec 16, 2015 13:20:17 GMT -5 thirteen3 said:

Philly smarks don't go to RAW tapings anymore. Mostly house shows and PPV's.

I was thinking about this. If I'm not wrong there was at least one other Philly Raw the past few years where the crowd didn't seem as smarky.

[Lupin the Third]

Dec 16, 2015 13:20:24 GMT -5 Allie Kitsune said:

No, they want Sheamus.

F*** YOU, MCMAHON!!!!!!!



Sorry, involuntary reaction to that statement.

[Allie Kitsune]

Dec 16, 2015 13:20:17 GMT -5 thirteen3 said:

Philly smarks don't go to RAW tapings anymore. Mostly house shows and PPV's.

This is true. Now they basically get casuals/marks from the surrounding 2-Hour radius (including some of the dreaded stupid Hershey Marks).

[Chuck Conry]

Give it a week or two and people will dislike him again.

[DrBackflipsHoffman]

You could hear the atmosphere leave the building when everybody suddenly remembered Sheamus existed in the middle of that Vince promo. I'm just going to project my own feelings onto the situation here and say that on top the good will from being booked like a f***ing machine in the final ten minutes of a match that saw them destroy themselves to absolutely zero reaction in a match that nobody had any reason to care about, people straight out just do not f***ing want Sheamus on top or anywhere near it. Motherf***er just does not belong there. If your choices are Roman Reigns or Sheamus for guy who's going to be carrying the belt and the focus of the company, I think even the most hardened dyed in the wool smark is going to be cheering the guy who you don't have to add "wait, FOUR TITLE REIGNS ALREADY?!" to the end of.

Reigns has his flaws, but with championships he's new and faced with what the alternatives are I think people are going to take anything they can get. Like I can't remember ever being as excited by anything Sheamus has ever done compared to those ten minutes at the end of Sunday.

[Bang Bang Bart]

People wanted badass face to act like a badass and beat up bad people.