Reading that Wiki article about the Big Dog Reigns superpush

[HIM]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persona_and_reception_of_Roman_Reigns

Have yall read through this recently? I decided to peep this again randomly tonight. It was a super rough time for us. Here's some pieces.

At the 2015 Royal Rumble on January 25, Reigns was booed heavily after his victory despite portraying a heroic character.[44][45] In February on WWE Raw, Paul Heyman praised Reigns as better than "any other guy in history", which garnered negative reactions as Heyman stated esteemed wrestling figures, including Bruno Sammartino, Hulk Hogan, André the Giant, Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock and John Cena, were inferior to Reigns.[46] By March, Anoaʻi altered his character's physical appearance by wearing contact lenses in order to have blue eyes.[47][48] From late 2014 to early 2015, various critics raised concerns that Reigns, despite being "not fully ready", was "being pushed too hard, too soon" while WWE tried to make him their next "flagship star", "no matter how fans reacted".[49][37][50][51] Anoaʻi reacted by saying that he only entertained criticism of his wrestling by people that were involved with wrestling, discounting negative opinion by critics that "weren't wrestlers" and who wouldn't understand how to "lock up".[12] Going into WrestleMania in 2015, Dave Meltzer said that Reigns was the least over WrestleMania main eventer ever.[52]

In 2016, Reigns main evented the first seven WWE pay-per-view events (before the brand split started)[72] and was booed in all of them: Royal Rumble,[73] Fastlane,[74] WrestleMania 32 (which ended with a chorus of boos when Reigns won his third world title),[75] Payback,[76] Extreme Rules,[77] Money in the Bank[78] and Battleground.[79] CNET described a "fan rebellion" against WWE "moving heaven and earth" to make Reigns "the face of the company ... for the next decade"; while "many fans are aware" that former Shield member Dean Ambrose "is the true dark horse, both on camera and behind the scenes".[80] ESPN described that "WWE started building Roman Reigns as the next great hero of the company about 18 months ago", but Reigns instead became "the most despised wrestler WWE has had since it turned Sgt. Slaughter into an Iraq-sympathizing traitor in 1990".[2]

As a result of his achievements in 2016, despite topping Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) annual PWI 500[102] which is mainly about kayfabe results,[103] Reigns was voted by Pro Wrestling Illustrated readers as Most Hated Wrestler of the Year, a first for a heroic character since the award was devised in 1972.[6][7] Wrestling Observer Newsletter readers instead awarded Reigns the 2016 Most Overrated award.[104] Reigns had finished in second place for Most Overrated in both 2014 and 2015.[49][105] In January 2017, Pro Wrestling Torch began their weekly "Monday Night Reigns-o-meter", which monitored his "ability to beat the odds and come out on top".[106]

At No Mercy, Reigns defeated John Cena, seemingly ending Cena's full-time wrestling career as this was seen as a "passing of the torch" moment in which Reigns had indeed replaced Cena as the face of the company.[159] During the match, Reigns was booked to kick out of four Attitude Adjustments (one of which was off the top rope) and then defeated Cena with two spears.[160] In October 2017, Reigns was revealed as the highest rated wrestler in the WWE 2K18 game.[161] GamesRadar+ wrote that "this is likely a call made by WWE ... rather than [game] developer 2K" and that by ranking Reigns higher than historic wrestlers "in their prime" like the 1997 version of the Stone Cold Steve Austin character, Reigns is being treated as the "greatest wrestler of all-time".[162]

[Fade]

It was terrible. But as a character arc it’s what absolutely helped make the heel turn that much better.

[fw91]

Nov 26, 2023 23:18:54 GMT -5 Fade said:

It was terrible. But as a character arc it’s what absolutely helped make the heel turn that much better.

this

[Stu]

Either my display automatically adjusted, or that Wiki page's brightness is turned up to 11.

[UN PLOMBIER NIGHTMARE #blm]

god i f***ing hated that entire time. this is the exact stuff i was talking about earlier with how antagonistic WWE used to be towards the viewers, it was just terrible television for everyone involved

[Renslayer]

I have no recollection of that era, and reading all of that is such a mind trip. It's no wonder roman dipped in 2020 and came back with more control as the Tribal Chief.

[Jindrak Mark]

Wrestlemania 32 was the worst.

HHH/Ambrose had a great mini-feud. HHH/Wyatt teased a match and the crowd erupted. HHH/Ziggler even had a great match on TV. At that point almost anyone other option would have been better than HHH/Reigns for Mania.

Even if they did it a year or two earlier it could have been fine. The week after Shield split Reigns and Ambrose cut their promo with Ambrose saying he was going after Rollins and Reigns saying he would target HHH. Sounds like a decent enough plan but then they didn't even do the match at Summerslam like seemed to be the plan and by the time they go back to it 2 years later Roman is dead in the water as a face.

[Germansuplex]

"During the match, Reigns was booked to kick out of four Attitude Adjustments (one of which was off the top rope)"

lol I forgot about that stuff.

Incredible how Roman reinvented himself as this amazing crime boss heel character.

[Gerard Gerard]

They'd almost salvaged him in late-2015 and even had Philly cheering for him to win the title, only to dip back immediately into the booking that saw the crowd turn on him in the first place.

[Cvslfc123]

Remember in late 2017 when they had the likes of Braun Strowman and Samoa Joe get pinned after one F5 so that Roman could kick out of multiple ones at WrestleMania 34?

[Futureraven: Beelzebruv]

Nov 27, 2023 6:35:52 GMT -5 Gerard Gerard said:

They'd almost salvaged him in late-2015 and even had Philly cheering for him to win the title, only to dip back immediately into the booking that saw the crowd turn on him in the first place.

After he was screwed by Sheamus with Money in The Bank, then the next night Roman just silently demolished the Authority to roaring cheers. I really thought they'd worked it out at that point but it didn't last a week.

[theironyuppie]

Nov 27, 2023 7:29:16 GMT -5 Cvslfc123 said:

Remember in late 2017 when they had the likes of Braun Strowman and Samoa Joe get pinned after one F5 so that Roman could kick out of multiple ones at WrestleMania 34?

And then despite all the belief that WM 34 was going to be a 'coronation', he lost to Brock anyway. Vince's last few years sure had some mystifying decisions that benefited no one. Even the 2015 Rumble might have had a slightly better chance at working if they just had Roman actually overcome Big Show/Kane, rather than the two start randomly arguing so Roman can push them both out like a heel. 

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

A lot of this stuff is very funny to look back on. But at the time, it was f***ing unwatchable at times.

As much fun as it is to dunk on stupid shit on this forum or social media, the show being actively rejected by the live crowd was just. f***ing depressing

[XaviersSS2015hair]

I'd been watching WWF/E religiously since 1990. Super Roman is what finally ran me off for good. I spent $1,300 on a 12th row floor seat to Wrestlemania 32. The whole show felt like a giant middle finger to everybody watching. That was the beginning of the end of my fandom. From what everyone says it's much better now, but I still can't bring myself to care. All because of Super Roman. In fairness, Super Charlotte was a huge part of it too.

[Rise]

I watched Survivor Series this weekend and that's been my first interaction with WWE since Mania or perhaps backlash. A large part of why I'm not watching is Reigns, I sat through his whole push and never enjoyed it, I even stopped watching his matches as I no longer cared. I've maybe seen 4 or 5 of his matches in 6 years and whilst the majority may be enjoying it, I'm not.

I'm so far removed from it, I didn't know bloodline or Reigns weren't on the Survivor Series card

[Vice honcho room temperature]

Nov 27, 2023 0:12:24 GMT -5 Jindrak Mark said:

Wrestlemania 32 was the worst.

HHH/Ambrose had a great mini-feud. HHH/Wyatt teased a match and the crowd erupted. HHH/Ziggler even had a great match on TV. At that point almost anyone other option would have been better than HHH/Reigns for Mania.

Even if they did it a year or two earlier it could have been fine. The week after Shield split Reigns and Ambrose cut their promo with Ambrose saying he was going after Rollins and Reigns saying he would target HHH. Sounds like a decent enough plan but then they didn't even do the match at Summerslam like seemed to be the plan and by the time they go back to it 2 years later Roman is dead in the water as a face.

HHH didn't need to win the title to have that Reigns match. People would have not shit all over Reigns getting revenge on HHH if the title wasn't involved because you are just running back the damned story they kinda did with Vince to end the year before. Plus you got a 2nd feud to have more juice cause its for the title.

[HIM]

After thinking about it, that's been the most painful period I've ever had as a fan. Never have I been so invested in wrestling and they just straight up shut all our favorites down like that.

[DichEvans]

Nov 26, 2023 23:18:54 GMT -5 Fade said:

It was terrible. But as a character arc it’s what absolutely helped make the heel turn that much better.

100% 


That entire era felt like it was VKM versus the audience. It took AEW being competitive for WWE to actually start trying again. Triple H coming in as a fresh booker also helped.

[UN PLOMBIER NIGHTMARE #blm]

you know what's really funny about all this?

vince finally gets his wish and an environment where the crowd doesn't matter/aren't there and THAT is when he finally turns this motherf***er heel lmao.

[ben:friendship frog]

I never understood why Vince was so determined to make it work. It's like he learned nothing from "DIE ROCKY DIE" all those years ago.

I guess zero competition just meant he would do what he wanted even if he was the only person on the planet who liked it.

But, in a sense he was right that Roman is a megastar, just the presentation was all wrong.