9 Times WWE Killed A Popular Star In Less Than 60 Days
6. Roman Reigns
Unusually on this list, Leati ‘Joe’ Anoa’i isn’t the victim of WWE’s infamous schizophrenic attitude to the push, or a talented star held down by The (Mc)Man. No, it’s actually Vince McMahon’s serious investment that caused all the problems for poor old Roman Reigns.
Paired with Colby ‘Seth Rollins’ Lopez and Jon ‘Dean Ambrose’ Good on their promotion to the main roster from developmental, Reigns would initially find himself the weak link in the team: he couldn’t work like Rollins or talk like Ambrose. Hey, let’s face it – he couldn’t work like Ambrose or talk like Rollins, either. But with the mercenary heel stable’s heavy booking protection and their main event spot meaning that they got to work with the biggest and best in the company, Anoa’i found himself improving at a rate of knots.
With his looks and size, it was assumed that Anoa’i would be the breakout character in The Shield when they finally split. WWE surprised everyone when they had Rollins betray his erstwhile compadres to join heel bosses The Authority. But Reigns was still marked for great things, and the stars aligned for him to win the 2015 Royal Rumble and face Brock Lesnar for the WWE title at WrestleMania 31.
With terrible scripted promos (rumoured to having been penned specifically for him by Vince McMahon himself) and a ring style with glaring weaknesses, fans reacted badly to Reigns' main event push. At the last moment, WWE got cold feet, and had Seth Rollins usurp Brock at the show leaving Reigns' push a complete waste.
Had the company just pulled the trigger then as planned, we'd have been spared three years of utter tedium as Reigns' chased his inevitable coronation over Brock. What's worse, he's still not popular.