9 Ups And 11 Downs From WrestleMania 32

2. Ignoring The Crowd

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Vince McMahon likes to say in interviews that he tells his superstars that they need to win over the fans to reach the top of the mountain (and reach for the brass ring, don€™t forget that). But what he doesn€™t say is that if he€™s already identified a performer for the mountaintop, it doesn€™t matter what fans do or say.

Clearly, that is the case with Roman Reigns, who was booed consistently throughout his entrance, the entire 25-minute match and the celebration afterward. That€™s a half-hour of solid boos and jeers. Triple H, as the dastardly villain, was cheered every time he hit Roman. Fans chanted, €œRoman sucks!€ loud enough to clearly be heard on TV. They started doing the Fandango dance and singing €œOle! Ole! Ole!€ during the world title match.

Despite Triple H trying everything in his heel arsenal (Stephanie McMahon pulling the ref out to break a pinfall count, low blow, trying to use a sledgehammer), he still was cheered while Reigns couldn€™t move without being booed. When Roman won the title, the jeers that rained down were apparent, only drowned out by fireworks.

That is not the coronation you want for your new world champion. It€™s also amazing that WWE brass has simply chosen to turn a deaf ear to the fans on this one and is insisting they buy into Reigns as the champ. If they don€™t and tune out, it€™s not going to last, and WWE will have ruined Roman going forward.

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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.