5 worst moments for Roman Reigns on the mic

Roman Reigns punched his way to the World Heavyweight Championship, but not without bumps on the road.Anyone who follows WWE programming knows all about Roman Reigns. He’s the current World Heavyweight Champion, set to defend the title at the Royal Rumble, and he’s been a clear choice for the next main event star for more than a year now.What people also know about Roman Reigns is that he doesn’t exactly have the gift on the microphone that his cousin, The Rock, has. In fact, Reigns has been downright awful on the microphone a few times, and that’s the first thing his detractors point out.Here are a few such times.

#5 Climbing the Ladder

There was no need to climb a ladder to deliver the promo Reigns delivered in December.

In the lead-up to Reigns’ match against Sheamus at TLC in 2015, much was made about the obstacles he had overcome to be World Heavyweight Champion. The pinnacle of that story came on Dec. 7, the last Raw before the event.

Reigns came out for the show’s final segment and decided to tell that same tale of climbing and fighting as he actually climbed a ladder. Most will remember that night for the drawn-out exchange between the two men that included Reigns comparing Sheamus’ manhood to tater tots, but it was the forced metaphor that truly made the promo a bad one.

#4 A bad \'Believe That\'

It’s disappointing that some of Reigns’ worst moments aren’t easy to find online.

This bad mic moment happened, but nailing down a date or video for it has proven difficult. It happened, though, sometime towards the beginning of his singles career.

Now, as Roman went from a member of the Shield to being a competitor on his own, he did the least re-branding of the three men, keeping mostly the same attire, entrance and music. But his “Believe in the Shield” catchphrase was replaced with “Believe That.”

One of the first times he delivered that phrase, what would later become a part of his Samoan Badass character came off more like a Mad TV hairdresser or Madea tryout effort.

#3 Roman and the Beanstalk

Roman has often not looked comfortable with the microphone in his hand.

What Roman seems to be the worst at is long monologues that most wrestlers don’t even do, to be fair. One such occurrence came during what turned out to be a rollercoaster month for Reigns – January 2015.

On Jan. 12, Reigns was addressing the Big Show and his booking as a giant, which led him to tell the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, except replacing Jack with his own name. Magic beans and all.

It wasn’t Reigns’ brightest moment on the mic, but it wasn’t even his worst that month, unfortunately.

#2 TLC 2014

Reigns may have looked confident, but it wasn’t because he knew what to say.

Reigns returned at the 2014 edition of Tables, Ladders, Chairs (and Stairs) to take out Big Show and Seth Rollins and help John Cena win a Tables Match. After that, he delivered a promo backstage, but it’s unclear if he knew the said promo was coming.

Reigns stumbled a bit with the phrasing, which included smack talk about his most recent victims and a declaration for the pending Royal Rumble. Then he looked dead in the camera and quite obviously forgot what he was going to say for seconds that felt like hours.

#1 Sufferin\' succotash

Roman Reigns probably wished he hadn’t come down to the ring to interrupt Seth Rollins.

January 9, 2015, marked the last time Smackdown aired on Friday night. That show also included what may be the worst promo ever cut by Roman Reigns, bad enough that even his fans were cringing that night.

Now, it may never be known who was behind the horribly cheesy insult that included the phrase “Sufferin’ Succotash,” – Reigns or the writing staff. What is known is that promo was woefully bad, and even Roman stepping out of character for a wink at the camera couldn’t save it.