#3 Roman Reigns wins The WWE Championship at WrestleMania 32
Sometimes things happen, that are beyond your control and you have to change your plans accordingly. This is what happened with the Universal Championship picture earlier this year. On other occasions, you make a decision for the future, and you stick to that plan, no matter how much the people around you, voice their opposition to it.
And when you make that decision, the reaction is downright venomous.
Does all of this seem familiar to you? If so, then congratulations, you’ve gone into the mind of Vince McMahon during the build-up to WrestleMania 32.
It has been almost two years, and for that length of time, Vince has been determined to make us accept Roman Reigns as his hand-picked champion. That has not gone well at all. He was booed in almost every major match he has been in, mainly because wrestling fans (and well, most people in general) do NOT like to be told what to do, say, think, or like.
Despite the horrible reactions he was getting (and still gets), Vince made it obvious that Reigns was going to win at WrestleMania 32. Most people saw through his plans and rejected this altogether. Reigns was booed so heavily during his entrance, match, and celebration victory, that no amount of sound editing on the part of the production team could silence them.
Never in the history of WrestleMania has the winner of the main event been booed so terribly, that the bad guys in the match had to appease the fans after the show went off the air. But that’s what Triple H and Stephanie did; the supposed heels on the program tried to make fans happy, and it failed.
Given this reaction, it makes one wonder if Roman Reigns will ever touch the WWE Championship ever again. If he does, Vince had better expect the same reaction he got at WrestleMania, if not worse.
#2 Dolph Ziggler ends The Miz’s Intercontinental Championship reign
When the Brand Extension was still in its infancy, the Miz was the hottest act on SmackDown. Somehow, he had become an even bigger jerk of a character than before, and people just loved to hate him. He was an underhanded coward that used his wife to his advantage, receiving more boos than the supposed top heel on the roster, A.J. Styles.
WWE had something with him, and with each successful championship defence, his stock on the roster was growing. It was thought that finally, the Intercontinental Championship would regain a fragment of its former glory; that it would be perhaps more than another mid card belt.
And then he lost it to Dolph Ziggler.
While WWE did make a good effort in promoting the Miz/Ziggler confrontation as a big deal with Ziggler’s career on the line, they shot themselves in the foot by ending Miz’s reign. He was a much hotter star than Ziggler was and had a bigger chance of achieving greater heights with the IC title than Ziggler did.
There was an underlying story with Miz as champion that Dolph couldn’t replicate. Miz’s feud with Daniel Bryan was fresh, exciting, and open to endless possibilities. WWE could’ve gone in virtually any direction to find a top babyface to end Miz’s reign, and they went with the perpetual mid carder Dolph Ziggler.
They did this instead of, for example, having Miz hold the title until WrestleMania, only for Bryan to bring in his real-life friend Shinsuke Nakamura to challenge for it, on the biggest stage. THAT would’ve sold tickets.
Ziggler, meanwhile, represented the status quo. Once again, he had the belt (as if his previous reigns did him any favours) and barely did anything with it. Worse yet, Ziggler lost the belt BACK TO THE MIZ after less than 40 days as champion. This, of course, begs the question, what was the point of Miz losing the belt in the first place?
Shame on you WWE. You had a golden opportunity to make something out of one of your most historic championships, and you squandered it for a cheap win for Ziggler that won’t be remembered in six months’ time.
