On June 22nd we heard the shocking news of Roman Reigns’ suspension for violation of the WWE wellness policy, and on July 24th he made his return to WWE Television at annual pay per view event, Battleground.
2 months ago, Reigns was ‘the guy’, at the top of the WWE card, the fact of the show and most importantly, WWE World Heavyweight Champion. Now we enter August and on the first Raw of the month, Roman would interrupt United States Champion Rusev, opening up a potential feud between the two for said title.
Fans of Reigns may see this is a confusing move, a step down for the superstar who has spent the last year promoted as a champion, however, I don’t see it that way.
There’s no hiding the fact that Roman Reigns has his ‘haters’, mostly people that are under the impression that he’s been ‘handed’ every opportunity in WWE, (I know, it’s stupid right?). The general thought process for these people was that Vince McMahon was trying to shove the Samoan down everybody’s throats, forcing people to cheer for me, and obviously in this era of wrestling, fans love rebelling.
Reigns’ loss against Finn Balor on first post draft episode of Raw was a clear indication he wouldn’t be slotting straight into the main event scene straight away. I feel overall this was the best decision, as had he just continued where he left off then fans would have resented him even more, which would have had him even worse off.
We may not find out for the foreseeable future what exactly caused Reigns to violate WWE’s wellness policy, but the fact in black and white, is that he did. Now Vince and the company have a chance here, they can either drop Roman down the card completely, use him to put over other talent admit to the fans that he pushed the wrong guy, or use this opportunity to reset Reigns’ last year and book him in a way fans will get behind him.
A potential feud with Rusev is perfect, because fans don’t like Rusev, and are willing to get behind anyone that faces him (Jack Swagger, Mark Henry, Big Show).
Without demeaning the United States title, having Roman drop down and ‘earn his way up’ again would give him a chance to win the fans over again, a slow rebuild of his character.
Remember the 2014 Royal Rumble? Shield member Reigns was white hot with the Pennsylvania crowd, largely due to the fact that they were so against ‘chosen winner’ Batista winning, who eventually did win.
Fast forward a year to the 2015 Royal Rumble and the tables had completely turned, as it was Daniel Bryan the fans wanted to see, and not ‘chosen winner’ Reigns.
Now I find all of this ‘Reigns was handed his chances’ absolutely drivel, because I don’t think there’s a superstar on the entire roster who hasn’t had to work hard for where they are, and it’s quite frankly ignorant to accuse any WWE professional of not earning their spot.
There definitely is potential here, however, to let the fans get invested in Roman’s character again, and allow themselves to grow admiration for him naturally, rather than be under the impression they’re being force fed him.
Some of Roman’s best work has come over the last couple of months prior to his suspension, where he was starting to show signs of being a ‘tweener’, where he wouldn’t pander to the fans, he’d just go out and tell it like it is. I feel this character will earn him a lot of respect, because as with John Cena, fans prefer to see intenseness in it’s top superstars as opposed to weak, childish jokes.
It won’t be easy, Reigns has a lot of work to do to win over the majority of the fans that have been booing him, but I feel a public ‘downgrade’ of him will give him that chance to start over.
This isn’t to say there was anything wrong with Roman before, I was a big fan of his work and his character, but I think whilst he’s a superstar, he could be a megastar.
Hopefully working his way back up will earn him a lot of respect and credibility amongst his peers and WWE Universe.
Only time will tell on how long Reigns’ climb back to the top will take, but there’s absolutely no doubt he’ll get there deserving every moment of it, and you can believe that.
Will Roman Reigns climb back to the top of the WWE mountain?
Does he deserve another shot at the main event?
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