10 Things WWE Wants You To Forget About The Bloodline
8. The Royal Rumble Handcuff Debacle
"Protect Roman Reigns at all costs" felt like it was written on a whiteboard backstage right next to the instructions about not going near announce tables or which matches work legs and arms for about two years.
The character was mostly indestructible, its cool was undeniable and its credibility was paramount at the expense of just about everything else. WWE were once again persisting with an unrelenting Roman Reigns push, but now that he was a heel, there was a chance that the philosophy might have actually been for the benefit of the show rather than to its detriment.
It's why a prop issue at the Royal Rumble 2021 lingers long in the memory, and in a way WWE would rather folk forget. Midway through an entertaining Last Man Standing match with Kevin Owens, Reigns found himself cuffed to part of the set and potentially down for the literal count. He opportunistically took out the referee to buy himself some time, but quite how much he needed made for excruciating viewing.
Reigns and Paul Heyman scrambled for minutes (a lifetime as the live action played out), forcing Owens to oversell his own injuries and brawl screeched to the kind of halt that all-but killed the contest. With no crowd to kill in The ThunderDome, they were at least insulated from the IRL groans, but the delay butchered a vibe they'd otherwise worked hard to achieve.