8 Times WWE Tried (And Failed) To Recreate Their Past Success

So it turns out Vince McMahon is really keen on having Roman Reigns be the top face in WWE. Seems hard to believe, but if you read between the lines and pick up the subtle cues from the commentary lavishing praise on him and the fact that he’s a constant main event presence, you’ll figure it out.

A year into the Roman Reigns experiment, WWE were trying whatever they could to have an angle or feud that would get him over as the company’s top face. The night after TLC 2015, they opted to pull out the big guns: Vinny Mac himself. Vince returned to TV after over a year and told Reigns that if he lost his match against Sheamus for the WWE title, he’d be fired. In the highly-rated main event, Reigns gave Vince a Superman Punch to a huge pop, and then defeated Sheamus to win back the title to a huge ovation in Philadelphia, the city that booed him out of the building earlier in the year at the Royal Rumble.

Vince McMahon did it: he finally got his golden boy over by placing himself and the Authority as Reigns’ antagonists. Mission accomplished, cake and coffee for everyone! ...but, of course, they went overboard.

Deciding to play up the “overcome the odds” narrative that had been prevalent since Steve Austin’s days, WWE raised the stakes for Reigns for weeks afterward. First, it was a match against Sheamus with Vince as the referee, then it was a “One vs. All” match where Reigns took on every heel in a handicap. Finally, he was forced to defend the WWE title in the Royal Rumble match, starting at #1. Surely, with all these odds the hero is forced to overcome, the crowd will really rally behind him.

Except this was the 2010s, and every wrestling fan had become way more jaded and in the know on how pushes worked. With Reigns, they didn’t see someone overcoming any odds against the Authority. They just saw the Authority (i.e. Vince) contrive a situation that’s manufactured to generate sympathy. The fans knew that Reigns was pegged to be “the guy,” and since they had already made it clear they didn’t want Reigns to be the guy, this “one vs. all” narrative felt like a big middle finger.

So by the Royal Rumble, Reigns was back at square one: hated by the vocal majority in the crowds. In Vince’s overbearing attempt at creating another Steve Austin, he just created an ongoing quagmire.