Well, it happened again on Monday. The crowd at Monday Night Raw that had lost their minds three hours earlier for the returning Shane McMahon were just as vocal for Roman Reigns at the end. And by that, I mean they took great delight in watching the decidedly-nefarious Triple H brutalize Reigns into a bloody mess. You'd think this was the same Triple H that heroically returned in 2002 from his torn quadriceps injury, based on the reaction he received for mauling stubbornly-pushed hero Reigns. Had this taken place in front of 17,000 NXT diehard fans, the roof may have literally blown off of Joe Louis Arena. It's no secret that Reigns is quite possibly the biggest flop as a pushed babyface star since the days of "All American" Lex Luger, and smiling, carefree Diesel of two decades ago. Every trick in the book has been employed to try and swing fan sentiment behind "The Juggernaut", but over the last year and a half, it hasn't taken. It just hasn't. While more often than not fans react negatively to Reigns, this article will cherry-pick fifteen specific times in which the crowd memorably resisted Reigns with vocal hostility. All entries are presented in chronological order.
15. SummerSlam 2014 (Los Angeles)
Though not as caustic as the negativity would later become, Reigns wasn't exactly hailed as an up-and-coming hero in his semi-main event match against Randy Orton. Orton was clearly the heel, still aligned with The Authority. The Shield was at its peak popularity at the time of their dissolution in early-June, so you'd think Reigns would be cheered considerably here. Instead, the crowd was lukewarm for the Reigns-Orton match, reacting more when Orton began turning the tide late in the bout. Wedged between Nikki Bella's heel turn and Brock Lesnar's mauling of John Cena, the match barely stood a chance. Instead of shining with a clean victory, Reigns won a decent match that didn't do much for the crowd. In fact, Orton was more popular with the savvier SummerSlam audience.
Justin has been a wrestling fan since 1989, and has been writing about it since 2009. Since 2014, Justin has been a features writer and interviewer for Fighting Spirit Magazine. Justin also writes for History of Wrestling, and is a contributing author to James Dixon's Titan series.
