8 times the WWE botched the booking of Roman Reigns

Roman Reigns has seen ups and downs in his relatively short career in the WWE.Few professional wrestlers have been talked about as much as Roman Reigns over the last couple years. Unfortunately, most of the talk surrounding Reigns among wrestling fans is negative, as portions of the WWE fanbase believe that he has gotten a better hand than he deserves at this stage of his career.In reality, though, the WWE has done him very few favors in the booking department. In fact, the booking – which for the sake of this list will include match scheduling and scripting alike – has helped lead to an almost unwinnable situation for the two-time World Heavyweight Champion.

#8 Taking a Rumble break

Roman Reigns took several beatdowns on his path to World Heavyweight Champion.

Unfortunately, Reigns’ poor booking related to the most recent Royal Rumble didn’t end once the match began. Reigns opened strong, tossing out No. 2 entrant Rusev before facing off against No. 3 AJ Styles, but before too long, The League of Nations came out to beat him down.

That led to Reigns being escorted to the back for medical attention, yet another obvious trick to get the fans on his side. It didn’t work, and they booed even harder when he returned to finish in the final four.

There has been speculation that the lengthy break was to determine a new ending to replace Reigns as the runner-up since the fans hadn’t received him well. But either way, the crowd wasn’t happy with the way things turned out.

#7 Defending his title in the Rumble

Roman Reigns won the World Heavyweight Championship twice in the last few months of 2015.

In the absence of Seth Rollins, Reigns became the choice to hold the World Heavyweight Championship twice at the end of 2015. And somewhat surprisingly, the booking was mostly done well enough to get Reigns a positive reaction from the WWE Universe.

Then the WWE made the curious decision to have Reigns defend the title in the 2016 edition of the Royal Rumble as the No. 1 entrant. The writers made it make sense in the storyline, but the move opened them and Reigns up to criticism from the fans who didn’t like the idea that Reigns might win the Rumble yet again and set more records in the process.

#6 \"Roman\'s sleeping\"

Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose squared off with Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper at SummerSlam in 2015.

As 2015 progressed, Reigns’ booking got better as he was moved to a program with Bray Wyatt. That included Wyatt’s family members, while Dean Ambrose aided his former Shield brother. Then came SummerSlam.

Even though Reigns had been improving rapidly in the ring, he was tossed over the announce table during a tag match at the major pay-per-view event and stayed there for a long enough period of time that fans began to chant “Roman’s Sleeping.” This wasn’t as egregious as some other problems on the list, but it definitely renewed claims that Reigns wasn’t gifted enough in the ring to be a major player.

#5 Reigns and Bryan ruin the tag division

Roman Reigns and Daniel Bryan had a complicated relationship leading up to FastLane 2015.

After the debacle that was the 2015 Royal Rumble, the WWE attempted to save their plans by giving Daniel Bryan a chance to take Reigns’ world title shot in a matchup at Fastlane. But because both of these men worked against The Authority, they had to be humbled and were put in a tag team turmoil match together on a Smackdown leading up the the event.

The storytelling was actually pretty good as the two men learned to work together and eventually had a pretty cool, if not cliche, moment looking at the Wrestlemania sign. The problem was that they were able to defeat several legitimate tag teams, including then-champions The Usos, while bickering. This really hurt the tag division’s perception and further established that the WWE was pulling out all the stops to get the fans to like Reigns.

#4 Royal Rumble 2015

Roman Reigns was joined in the ring by his cousin, The Rock, after winning the 2015 Royal Rumble.

A running theme of Reigns’ issues is that his Royal Rumble booking is often flawed for one reason or the other. Oddly enough, the worst example of this came in 2015, when he came out of the event victorious.

The WWE did a horrible job of making his victory a surprise, as the booking leading up to the event made it fairly obvious he was the choice. In addition, fan favorite Daniel Bryan was unceremoniously dumped from the match after less than 11 mintues in the ring, which caused the fans to boo nearly everyone for the rest of the night.

To make matters worse, Reigns was in the ring with Dean Ambrose, Big Show and Kane for a fake final four and then Rusev after the Bulgarian Brute hid outside the ring. None of those men were enough to provide the fans with suspense, and they didn’t react well, even as the Rock came out to help his cousin.

#3 Feuds with Big Show

Roman Reigns and Big Show are certainly no strangers in the WWE ring.

During two separate periods of Reigns’ ascension through the singles ranks, he found himself in feuds with the Big Show. Reigns got the best of the big man on both occasions, but those feuds may have done more damage than good.

There was a time when Big Show was one of the most intimidating figures in professional wrestling, but that simply isn’t the case now. What’s more is that using the 7-footer is an obvious ploy to make opponents look strong, when in reality his bulk and stiffness make his opponents’ moves much more difficult to deliver impressively.

#2 Straight to the title scene

Reigns worked with Sheamus against Kane during the World Heavyweight Championship ladder match at Money in the Bank 2014.

In early June, 2014, The Shield split up when Seth Rollins turned on his teammates and joined The Authority. While Dean Ambrose committed himself to ruining life for Rollins, Reigns went a different route, even though he had been Rollins’ tag partner.

He was pushed immediately to the WWE World Heavyweight Championship scene and even competed in the ladder match for the vacant title at Money in the Bank. The storytelling didn’t make sense, as Reigns wasn’t connected to the Shield feud much, if at all, and the fans’ perception that he was being pushed at the wrong time began.

#1 Royal Rumble 2014

Roman Reigns ended up finishing as runner-up to Batista in the 2014 Royal Rumble match.

Roman Reigns was certainly booked strongly in his Royal Rumble debut in 2014. Not only was Reigns the runner-up to Batista, but he set a record for most eliminations with 12 and had the crowd on his side.

But in hindsight, this was Reigns’ chance to “get over” with the crowd naturally. They had no real reason to be cheering for him, as The Shield was largely working as a heel faction, but as Reigns eliminated more and more wrestlers, including teammates Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins, the fans got louder and louder in his favor.

That should’ve been a clue that it was the right time for Reigns’ singles push, but that was put on hold for a few months, and the reaction wasn’t the same when it happened.