7 WWE Good Guys The Fans Hated
Roman Reigns is not the first WWE babyface to get booed.
WWE fan reactions are a hot topic among wrestling fans with the suggestion that WWE’s blue-eyed superhero Roman Reigns should be turned to the dark side because of the loud booing he encounters on every trip to the squared circle.
Over the years WWE, under Vince McMahon, has encountered numerous occurrences where the crowd didn’t react as planned and some hand-picked favourites have found themselves on the wrong end of a live crowd’s ire.
Whether it be a rabid Madison Square Garden or a fanbase disillusioned with repeated main event pushes for the same worker with limited skills, there have been plenty of occasions where the WWE Universe has rebelled against Vince McMahon’s wishes. Who can forget WrestleMania XXX when McMahon planned to put his newly minted unified world championship on the broad shoulders of Batista. A plan the fans hated from the first moment it was teased and instead sided with Daniel Bryan. A man Vince himself had written off as a talented midcarder with a look that didn’t suit the main event scene.
This list looks at seven times that Vince McMahon’s chosen babyface hero was not met with rapturous applause in WWE arenas.
7. Roman Reigns
If you watch WWE with any regularity it can’t have escaped your attention that Roman Reigns is not the most widely liked and accepted WWE Superstar of his generation. Roman Reigns doesn’t need to be widely liked though because the one man that matters likes him. That man is Vincent Kennedy McMahon.
At some point Vince looked at Roman and decided the 6’3” tall Samoan grappler was going to be the face of his company. At no point did the WWE’s audience look at Roman Reigns the same way. A former professional footballer in the CFL and member of the world famous Anoa’i family, Reigns had a head start on a lot of wannabe professional wrestlers. Already experienced in front of live crowds and trained by his father, WWE Hall of Famer Sika, he was halfway to being a star before signing for WWE.
Roman made his WWE debut in 2010, as part of then developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling, the precursor to NXT. When he was called up in 2012 it was as part of the Shield with fellow developmental talents Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins, two wrestlers who had fought their way through the Indies and spent years working on their in-ring style.
The feeling was that they could hide the inexperienced Reigns within their ranks until he was ready to break out. The spot was originally, according to CM Punk, for Chris Hero. Punk had pitched Hero, Ambrose and Rollins as a three-man group but WWE wanted Roman in there. They saw big things in him and Reigns was always going to be the big star of the team. While Roman has progressed as an in-ring performer there’s a nagging suggestion that he’s been over-pushed.
“We do have our finger on the pulse of the marketplace, if for no other reason than having all these live events and listening to our audience all the time.” – Vince McMahon
If Vince McMahon is listening to his audience, he’s choosing to ignore their responses. This is nothing new. Vince McMahon has a history of being entirely convinced he’s right and pushing ahead regardless of how audiences have responded. To understand where this mentality comes from with have to start our journey with Hulk Hogan.