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When did people start hating Roman?

8K views 100 replies 75 participants last post by  CJ 
#1 ·
I have been watching a lot of old episodes of Raw on the Network and I notice in 2014 he was one of the most over guys on the roster. But then he had to have emergency hernia surgery and then came the CM punk podcast on Art Of Wrestling and Roman returns and the entire WWE Universe hated him.

So was it because he knocked Ambrose out of the top guy spot while he was absent from his injury? Or was it that part of the Punk podcast where he stresses how all the agents kept asking him to make Roman look strong during his 3 on 1 match with the shield in late 2013?
 
#2 ·
It really all started at the 2015 Royal Rumble match. No one was really booing Reigns at that point. Yeah he had hate but not real boos.

But that Rumble match, as soon as they made it obvious Bryan wasn’t winning, they turned on him fast and hard. That was one of the worst booked matches I’ve ever seen. Bryan, Ambrose, Ziggler, Wyatt, Rusev, all great talents were made to look like shit so at the end it could be Reigns overcoming all the odds.

WWE even tried to save face with The Rock but even that failed. They shot themselves in the foot that night and really hindered him. He was going to get some boos that night, that was unavoidable. But they booked that match so horribly they all went against him, and that still lasts to this very day.
 
#6 ·
WWE even tried to save face with The Rock but even that failed. They shot themselves in the foot that night and really hindered him. He was going to get some boos that night, that was unavoidable. But they booked that match so horribly they all went against him, and that still lasts to this very day.
Man that part was embarrassing for the Rock I bet, you could even see the look in his eyes like "seriously?" when those loud boos came in.
 
#3 ·
None of those.

Some people thought he didn't deserve the push cz he wasn't an indie guy, some thought he didn't deserve it cz he wasn't thier favourite, some thought he just wasn't fit enough(cardio wise), some thought he sucked on the mic to be a top guy and some just didn't like him.

Put all those elements together and have the wwe try to push you down people's throats and be unbeatable and people will take a disliking towards you.
 
#53 ·
None of those.

Some people thought he didn't deserve the push cz he wasn't an indie guy, some thought he didn't deserve it cz he wasn't thier favourite, some thought he just wasn't fit enough(cardio wise)
Please give legitimate reasons and not crap like this please.
 
#4 ·
He was over in 2014 due to the fact that he was fresh off his Shield run where he was booked to his strengths and had Rollins and Ambrose there to help mask his weaknesses. He was a badass in that faction and people loved him because he essentially just kicked ass. People were willing to look past his shortcomings in terms of promos etc (They were even worse then than they are now, just watch his promo after a handicap match against Rybaxel before his match against Orton, that was something special).

People turned on him because not only was he clearly getting pushed over his ex Shield partners, but he was also being pushed far too quickly and being put into spots that he just wasn't suited for. Roman didn't have the tools to be the next John Cena, the joke cracking babyface who could widely appeal to the younger generation etc. and as his singles run went on his flaws became more obvious, both in ring and on the mic.

WWE didn't help him either, as they went back and forth on his booking, they tried to book him in about 3 or 4 different ways, and there was really no reason to get invested in him because he became one of, if not the, most predictable guy on the roster. His overtime improvements were really for nought, as WWE had already made their mind up that he was their guy, and nothing was ever going to change their mind on that.
 
#7 ·
A lot of things contributed the the Roman hate.

Put Roman against the popularity of Daniel Bryan and stubbornness of Daniel Bryan/WWE fans...he wasn't going to win in that scenario. Add to true WWE booking style, they made Roman untouchable. It was pretty obvious Roman was going to be the next big star for Vince. But as soon as the Shield split and his flaws were revealed, fans turned on him.
 
#14 ·
It was around that one Royal Rumble. He clearly wasn't ready for big singles matches. But they started pushing him with insane booking. The guy never lost any matches.

The last straw was when they had him beat Daniel Bryan to Main Event Wrestlemania. At that point the writing just felt like it was antagonizing and trolling the fans..
 
#17 · (Edited)
He was never really over on his own. After The Shield breakup, he was still riding that Shield heartbreak betrayal momentum. His injury actually helped him because the fans would have turned on him by November 2014 guaranteed. In his absence Ambrose and Ziggler caught fire plus the Daniel Bryan factor and Reigns was nowhere near the most popular superstar.
 
#19 ·
People have hated him since The Shield days. The amount of hate just fluctuated, depending on the booking.

I can remember the days of The Shield threads and how everyone knew Rollins and Ambrose were there to prop Reigns, and that's when the hate really started. It grew when they pretended, out of nowhere, he was the leader, and then it skyrocketed when he was put on his own and became a Shield tribute band with all his weaknesses exposed.
 
#21 · (Edited)
The hate became popular when it was believed he "took" DB's spot (like that's even possible), CM Punk's broadcast created a meme about it, DB couldn't come back so there were months filled with weird conspiracy theories that it was Roman's fault, basically anyone who was pushed after Bryan, who the fans mistakenly believed they'd forced, was going to be shit on.

WWE sacrificed Roman b/c they had other guys that could go over, but as it happened Seth injured his knee and Roman was the only one left with any cred. Cena was gone so he had to look like a top baby, which he never was, and wasn't believable. This was during the time of the most paranoia about DBry, so Roman got killed.
 
#23 ·



I was & still am a fan of Reigns, and I like that he won the Rumble, but some of the 2015 Royal Rumble booking was fucked up.

Ironically, he did actually get some favorable cheers during his feud with Bryan though. But the boos came right back afterwards.

I still love this....

 
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#24 ·
I think alot of the hate originally came via proxy. The majority of the fans wanted Daniel Bryan to be pushed as the face of the company and word got around that Vince was very high on Reigns and not Bryan and then the shit hit the fan. The hate became immediate and damn near deafening. The fans have never forgave him for being the guy instead of Bryan in Vince's eyes even though it was no fault of Reigns.

The same thing pretty much happened to Batista a year before. If you'll recall the crowd was NUTS for Reigns in the Rumble match when it was he and Batista as the final two. Roman was over as fuck at that moment. But everyone knew Batista was winning that Rumble and they hated him for it simply because it wasn't Bryan or maybe because it was simply too obvious.
 
#27 ·
The thing is, the Roman hate isn't just one big continuous mess. Yeah it started at the Rumble (or when it came out that he was winning the Rumble), but that's not totally why it continues today.

So he started getting hate after the dirtsheets said he was winning, then the Rumble crowd went off a chain reaction. Technically the hate died down towards the end of May 2015, and didn't rise till after Rollins got injured. That hate only lasted 2 months and ended after TLC. The current hate is based off this year's RTWM storyline.

People honestly give crowds too much credit. Most people attending probably don't actually have anything against him which is why they'll boo him to he does something special and then cheer. Wrestling crowds are very impressionable and booing Roman has become the thing to do. The hate in general isn't as organic as most of his haters pretend it is. Most people can't logically explain why they hate him so much without flat out lying. Some even have some weird ass fetish over it.

That has become obvious once you look in different places online and see comments like "off to #RAW to boo Roman Reigns", "so glad Roman Reigns got booed", "booing Roman Reigns is the only thing about WWE that makes me happy", etc. Once you separate the bandwagoners and the certifiable crazies, Roman doesn't have THAT much hate. If he did, he wouldn't sell a dime, but he does.
 
#29 · (Edited)
The shit thing about the Daniel Bryan issue is, instead of fans now realizing the motherfucker was far too injury prone to wrestle and was cynically attempting to work them so he could get back in the ring, he made them delusional enough to think that was a good idea.

All his marks that were crying over how he was being forced away from WWE so he didn't ruin Roman still need to find issues why they weren't wrong.
 
#33 · (Edited)
In Spring 2014, shortly before The Shield split, Roman had a very small minority of online haters who realized he would be The Guy instead of Ambrose. Rollins was not even in the discussion. He had the least amount of activity in his discussion thread, and the majority assumed he'd be just another flippy guy in the mid card. Ambrose and Bryan were the guys who the hardcore fans wanted WWE to push. Bryan was injured, so they all jumped on Ambrose's bandwagon. Once the dirtsheet reports put out rumors that Roman would be breaking CM Punk's title reign, the hate began to slowly fester. Fast forward to December 2014 with Daniel Bryan's return, and the online hate started leaking into arenas with mild boos on the shows leading up to the Royal Rumble. From the Rumble through the RTWM, all of the vocal haters attended events and booed Roman. They faded during Spring '15, came back in the fall, and stopped again after Roman went off on Triple H. Roman went from badass to goofball within a month, so they started booing him again, and now it's just a gimmick, because he hasn't done anything wrong since then. You could see during the Jericho match where the crowd would pop for Roman doing something cool and then remember to boo him because it's Roman.
 
#36 ·
The tide against him was slowly turning before he got injured with his hernia.

The Royal rumble cemented it and it wasn't just do to with Bryan, that whole match was booked to bury any other faces that had popularity in order to make Reigns the guy.

His hernia injury turned out to be a massive deal as because he was out Ambrose took his place in his feud Rollins and Ambrose became massively over, so much so imo that they then killed his overness in that god awful feud with Bray. Also Ziggler replaced Reigns as they guy to beat the authority which then got ziggler massively over. Those two were then killed off to clear the path for reigns which pissed off two more groups of fans.

This all culminated with that Royal Rumble, they were just too quick and rushed everything.
 
#37 · (Edited)
When the dirtsheets started reporting that Reigns would be the next FOTC and he would beat Brock at Wrestlemania. This was back in June 2014. The live audience were digging Reigns, but that's when the IWC turned on him. That immediately irked the smarks as back then, Reigns was viewed as the guy who was carried by Rollins and Ambrose. It was frequently said that Reigns couldn't talk, couldn't wrestle, and only had the look going for him. The streak was pretty much broken for Reigns, so that pissed off the IWC.

So in the summer of 2014, Reigns was getting outperformed by Ambrose, but Reigns was winning his matches, and Ambrose was losing his. When Ambrose got kayfabe injured, Reigns took his spot in the feud against Rollins which again annoyed the IWC as they thought WWE was shoehorning him into the feud because Reigns' own were doing poorly. He then had an underwhelming match against Randy at Summerslam.

He then ended up getting hernia surgery and he was getting vignettes every few weeks reminding us of his presence. That annoyed the smarks as they thought he was being shoved down their throat. Then the Punk podcast came out where Punk mentioned how high the company is on Roman, so that made the smarks sour on him even more.

So, when Bryan came back from his injury and said he'd be in the Rumble it put the IWC on high alert. Before Rumble 2015 there was actually twitter pages and forums who were telling the live audience that they had to boo Reigns. Well, WWE went on to book the worst rumble ever and that episode has left a 'company guy' stench on Reigns, which will never wash away.

I joined the forum during these events, so I have a a good memory of them. If you don't believe me, just look at the threads about him over the summer of 2014.
 
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