7 Ups And 10 Downs From WWE Royal Rumble 2017

2. Roman’s Unwelcome Return

Undertaker Roman Reigns
WWE.com

Wow, WWE will not rest until Roman Reigns is officially The Man in the company, right?

After receiving an overall negative reaction during his WWE Universal Championship match (which he lost) Reigns made a splash as the #30 entrant into the Rumble – and the fans booed it pretty well. He immediately squared off against the Undertaker, with the Deadman clearly the favorite. So when Roman tossed Taker from the Rumble, let’s just say he wasn’t given a tickertape parade.

If WWE is planning on turning Reigns heel and having his attitude reflect that, then this booking could be forgivable. But as it stands we were treated to Roman showing up twice on PPV and very nearly winning the Rumble for the second time in three years. (Not-so-fun fact: Reigns has now been in four straight final fours.)

It’s a mind-boggling decision that simply doesn’t reflect the fans’ reaction. And wanna bet that he’s still in the conversation to get a title match at WrestleMania, if he doesn’t face Undertaker after eliminating him?

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Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.