Roman Reigns has been the heir to the “Face of WWE” throne for a while now, despite the fact that he’s been openly rejected by the fans on multiple occasions. As we move towards a likely rematch between Roman and Brock Lesnar at next year’s WrestleMania, now seems like a good time to look back on the few occasions when the company sided with the WWE Universe when it comes to The Big Dog.
By sided with, of course, we mean that they punished him in order to appease the crowd and avoid riots, but still. For a lot of people who watch WWE on a weekly basis, they almost live to see Roman fail, with a few people even thriving on it. In Vince’s mind, he probably just thinks they’re saying that because it’s “the cool thing to do”.
But we all know that not to be true, and we also know that Reigns isn’t perfect. He’s had his fair of screw ups as is the case with the majority of WWE superstars both young and old, which is good to bring up to the fans out there who think the booing isn’t warranted.
So with that being said, here are five times Roman Reigns was punished by WWE.
#1 Suspension
This is the most obvious of the five entries, but there are no excuses guys – he owns it. In case you’ve been living under a rock for the last twelve months, Roman Reigns was suspended back in the summer of 2016 due to his first violation of WWE’s wellness policy. He apologised for the incident over Twitter, but the company obviously had to take action.
Therefore Roman was suspended, and it’ll come as a surprise to nobody that quite a few of the things we’re going to list came as a direct result of The Big Dog being a naughty boy. WWE seemed to forget about the issue relatively quickly, considering that Reigns ended up going on to main event WrestleMania 33, but still.
Let's wind the clock back a month or so.
#2 MITB 2016
Before his suspension, Roman was set to defend his WWE World Heavyweight Championship against former Shield-brother Seth Rollins at Money in the Bank. With The Architect still portraying his heel character, it seemed likely that the only way he’d come out on top would be if he cheated to grab the victory.
Alas, that didn’t happen, with Seth pinning Reigns clean in the middle of the ring to recapture the belt. A few days later, it was revealed that Reigns had been suspended, with WWE being fully aware of his indiscretion before the match – which is likely why he was booked so poorly in defeat.
Never say the words Demon King, or Roman may cry.
#3 Balor loss
There aren’t too many superstars who have been booked as strongly as Finn Balor was during the first few weeks of his main roster career, with the former NXT Champion capturing the Universal Championship at SummerSlam not long after his Raw debut. Before that, though, he had to face Roman Reigns in order to qualify for the match at the biggest party of the summer.
As we all know, Finn came out on top, with Reigns being forced to lick his wounds once again after another clean loss. Many fans felt that this would be the catalyst for a long-awaited Reigns heel turn, but to this day, he’s still being portrayed as the heroic babyface that we all know he isn’t. Shame.
The match we waited two years to see...
Also read: An open letter to “The Big Dog” Roman Reigns
#4 Shield Triple Threat
Roman Reigns vs Dean Ambrose vs. Seth Rollins is a match that the WWE Universe had been clamouring to see for a long, long time. The former Shield brothers facing off was set to be a momentous occasion, however, for some reason, it was decided that the bout would take place at Battleground as opposed to WrestleMania or SummerSlam.
With that ridiculous decision in place, many were wondering how WWE would handle Roman’s return from suspension – and we soon found out the answer. In the Triple Threat, which was a tad underwhelming at times, Dean Ambrose pinned Roman (clean once again) to retain the WWE Championship and take it over to SmackDown Live.
Poor Roman.
#5 WrestleMania 31
Some people may not see this as much of a punishment, but we’re choosing to believe that the reason behind it was Reigns not being able to get over with the crowd. Sure that sounds harsh, and a lot of the blame should probably be thrust onto the shoulders of Vince McMahon, but we all know that isn’t how he operates.
At WrestleMania 31, Reigns was all set to be crowned the new face of WWE by toppling the Beast Incarnate Brock Lesnar. Unfortunately, the crowd wasn’t exactly receptive to this idea, and instead, plans were changed at the last minute to allow for Seth Rollins to cash in his Money In The Bank briefcase and walk out of Levi’s Stadium as champion.
Send us news tips at [email protected]
