As it stands, Roman Reigns is still the Universal Champion. In his near year long reign, he has conquered challenger after challenger. Nobody (except Kevin Owens who was obviously screwed) has come close to beating the Big Dog. It looks like nobody but the Rock could beat him at this point (and lets face it, the Rock is coming in to put Roman Over). Over pushed again, Roman Reigns is the epitome of WWE and Vince McMahon’s failures of booking wrestling.
Since 2014, nobody has been pushed as fast and as hard as Roman Reigns. In the Shield, he was adored. He was many peoples favourite in the legendary faction, in fact. And when you team with Dean Ambrose (AEW’s Jon Moxley) and Seth Rollins, that is no mean feat.
His quiet, brooding attitude outside of the ring complimented his absolute strength as a powerhouse inside of it. He was the ultimate hot tag, laying waste to anyone WWE could throw at him in six-man tag main events.
At the 2014 Royal Rumble, he broke Kane’s record for most eliminations in a single rumble. Fans didn’t really pay attention to that, however, because Daniel Bryan was not in the match. Fans did cheer for Roman Reigns in that match, as he reached the final two.
But that was mainly because he was up against Batista.
At that time, Batista had just returned from years outside the ring. It was just before his Hollywood career took off with the release of Guardians of the Galaxy, so he had little goodwill from fans regarding that.
Fans knew that he was going to win the rumble. He was symbolic of the on-screen and off-screen role of the Authority, the powers that be that cast aside fan favourites like Daniel Bryan and Dolph Ziggler, instead opting for friends of management like Batista and Sheamus.
Fan cheered Reigns because he wasn’t Batista, because he wasn’t the companies chosen man. If it couldn’t be Bryan, at least it could be a fuck you to Vince and Triple H.
But obviously, Batista won. The Yes Movement happened, and Daniel Bryan won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at Wrestlemania 30.
Reigns went back to being loved as the heavy in the Shield, going up against a literal representation of Triple H – Triple H. The Shield went back to back in victories against Evolution, the team comprised of Triple H, Randy Orton and Batista.
Then, after their final victory over Evolution, Seth Rollins turned on his team mates and joined Triple H and the authority.
Here is where Roman Reigns, and the entirety of WWE television, fell apart.
Vince McMahon pushed Roman as the new top star of WWE.
And he pushed. And he pushed.
The people said “No thanks, we like him but he’s no Dean Ambrose or Daniel Bryan”.
Then Vince McMahon said “What’s that? He should beat them both? And everybody else constantly? Great idea”
Since that day, it took Roman many, many years to ever lose a match clean. He would go on to main event multiple Wrestlemania’s, and be forced down the throat of fans, by the expense of every other wrestler on the show not named Brock Lesnar.
Roman Reigns is Vince McMahon’s biggest failure.