9 Wrestling Gimmicks That Took YEARS To Get Over

Throughout The Shield's run as the main roster's 'Hounds of Justice', it was painfully clear exactly who WWE felt was their undisputed top guy of tomorrow.

And for a while, fans were quite happy to back Roman Reigns during his days of wrecking The Wyatt Family and Evolution. However, once the unit dramatically split in 2014, fans quickly grew tired of the 'Big Dog' character and simply would not accept the new chosen one as their top babyface in the years that followed.

Even after announcing that his leukaemia was back in remission, that respectful period of support for the Joe beneath the tactical vest eventually evaporated as Roman once again settled back into being a bland weekly attraction during his awful war with Baron Corbin towards the end of 2019.

But his decision to step away from the ring again in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic finally set the stage for the character tweak that would finally turn him into the undisputed biggest star in the industry WWE had wanted him to be all along.

Gone were the cheesy one-liners, cringey hand gestures, and lazy Shield-esque presentation.

'The Tribal Chief' that appeared at SummerSlam 2020 quickly established himself as a badass heel force you couldn't help but get behind during the ThunderDome era, even when he was battering his own family, bulldozing fan-favourite legends, and annihilating other popular full-time babyfaces.

And after years of wanting nothing to do with him, fans now couldn't wait to acknowledge Reigns when they finally returned in 2021.