Roman Reigns didn't come from an indy background of working in front of fifty people in a gym, instead he came from a background of professional sports. He almost made it in the NFL. That counts for something with McMahon, he respects legitimacy and professionalism. As a genuine athlete, as someone who was training at top level college and national football facilities, Reigns is a wrestler who commands respect. As a legit physical sportsman he is somebody that the company can be proud of in a franchise position. The irony is, for some WWE fans, Reigns' background counts against him. Rather than sporting legitimacy making him respected, it makes it look like WWE was a plan B. Fan perception right now is that indy wrestling is how real talent get into WWE, which is completely at odds with McMahon's philosophy. He'll stick with his football guy over any of the ROH guys.
