10 Times WWE Forced It Down Our Throats
4. Roman Reigns
WWE has tried and tried and tried with Roman Reigns, much to its detriment. Coronating the 'Big Dog' has been an annual tradition for half a decade now, and it took a health crisis to stop the same happening in 2020.
Has the Roman Reigns push been as bad as fans believe? Like most things in the world, the answer to that is both yes and no. Sure, Reigns has been given ample opportunities to establish himself as this generation’s transcendental star, but he is a great example of the company’s failings as opposed to his own. Reigns has consistently had great matches with opponents as varied as AJ Styles and Braun Strowman, but he has done so in an era where fans are wise to the inner-workings of the game. He never stood a chance.
Reigns also had the misfortune of coming into prominence while the Daniel Bryan phenomenon was in full flight, and the audience had no interest in cheering for a company-anointed hero over their own champion. Reigns breaking Kane’s Royal Rumble eliminations record was very well done, and if Reigns had won that match then his present may have been different. But he didn’t, and it isn’t.
WWE has spent half a decade obsessively trying to make Roman Reigns the biggest star in the company, oblivious to the damage caused by such a strategy.