5 reasons why WWE fans should like Roman Reigns

With the exception of John Cena, no WWE Superstar has received such contrasting audience reactions over the last few years as Roman Reigns.

Whether he’s a smiling babyface against The Miz or a borderline heel against The Undertaker, the three-time WWE champion has divided opinion among fans ever since The Shield’s initial split in 2014.

Do fans have a right to boo every time he walks into an arena? Of course. But do the negatives with the Reigns character really outweigh the positives? It's debatable.

In this article, we look at the positive aspects of his persona and bring you five reasons why WWE fans should choose to cheer for “The Big Dog” rather than boo him.

#5 He has improved more than anyone on the mic

When The Shield split up in June 2014 and the trio had to speak on their own for the first time, Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose thrived in the singles spotlight and quickly established themselves as two of the company’s best talkers on the mic.

Roman Reigns, however, wasn’t quite so convincing. He would regularly mess up his lines, which were obviously from a word-by-word script, and his promos were among the least convincing you’re ever likely to hear from a top WWE Superstar.

But that was then and this is now, and it’s fair to say that the three-time WrestleMania main-eventer has come a long, long way from his days of stuttering through interviews and delivering lines like “sufferin’ succotash”.

He recently topped our list of Superstars whose promo ability improved the most in 2017, largely thanks to his battles with John Cena and his “This is my yard now” line, and it’s not an exaggeration to say that he’s now one of WWE’s most believable talkers whenever he gets on the mic.

#4 He’s involved in some of WWE’s best matches

Roman Reigns raised a few eyebrows when he claimed on WWE Network show ‘Straight To The Source’ in December 2017 that he is “the best in-ring performer in the world right now”, adding that fans can either call him an “idiot” for thinking that or they can say “man, he’s got a point”.

Viewers of NJPW’s Wrestle Kingdom 12 event will almost certainly put him in the “idiot” category, while the fans who primarily get their wrestling fix from WWE will probably admit that he is among the best performers that Vince McMahon’s company has.

After all, he featured in five of WWE’s top 25 matches of 2017 – only AJ Styles, with six, had more – with singles matches against Kevin Owens, Seth Rollins and Cesaro among those making the list.

For somebody who used to have “You can’t wrestle!” chanted at him, Reigns has done a pretty good job of silencing doubters of his in-ring ability over the last couple of years.

#3 He’s not a face or a heel

Roman Reigns wasn't a good guy or bad guy against Braun Strowman

Heel and babyface characters are the foundations on which wrestling is built. Without good guys and bad guys, fans would have nobody to cheer, nobody to jeer and matches would probably be met with silence or smatterings of applause.

Looking at Roman Reigns’ five years on WWE’s main roster, he has been both a heel and a babyface character, but he no longer belongs in either one of those categories. As the man himself said: “I’m not a bad guy, I’m not a good guy, I’m The Guy.”

While the Shield member was previously pushed in fans’ faces as an overbearing good guy, his character has altered significantly over the last 18 months and the WWE Universe is no longer being told to like or dislike him.

As proven by his battles with Braun Strowman and John Cena in 2017, WWE is now leaving it up to fans to choose whether or not to cheer for him, and it makes for a refreshing change to watch at least one match every week on Raw that’s not a generic babyface taking on a generic heel.

#2 He elevates his opponents

There was once a time when John Cena was the standard-bearer in WWE. If somebody had a match with him, whether they won or lost, their character was elevated for the simple reason that they were having a match against Cena.

Roman Reigns has taken over that role from the 16-time champion – now a part-time member of the WWE roster – and he’s shown over the last year that he can not only deliver in high-profile matches but he can also elevate lesser-known Superstars along the way.

The Intercontinental Championship Open Challenge, much like Cena’s 2015 United States Championship Open Challenge, has seen Reigns elevate stars like Elias and Jason Jordan on Raw over the last few weeks.

But the best example, of course, is Braun Strowman, whose character was elevated to such an extent following his long-running rivalry with Reigns that he has gone from the 48th pick in the 2016 WWE draft to one of the company’s most popular Superstars.

#1 He’s part of The Shield

Pre-October 2017: Roman Reigns is booed in and out of every building he’s in, simply because he’s Roman Reigns. Post-October 2017: Roman Reigns is cheered in and out of every building he’s in, simply because he’s part of The Shield.

WWE fans have long memories and many have never forgiven Reigns for his early promos, his 2015 Royal Rumble win or the fact that he kept three main gimmicks from his Shield days – the trio’s attire, music and catchphrases – while Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose didn’t.

However, all those things were forgotten when he reunited with his fellow “Hounds of Justice” again in October 2017, and the cheer/boo ratio when he walks into an arena has significantly improved in his favour in recent months.

Will it stay that way forever? Probably not, but "The Muscle of The Shield" is a pivotal member of the most popular three-man faction WWE has seen in years, and if that's not a good enough reason to like him, then we don't know what is!