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On 18 November 2012, CM Punk successfully defended his WWE Championship in the main event of Survivor Series against John Cena and Ryback.
However, the pay-per-view is best remembered for the debut of three up-and-comers from NXT who rushed through the crowd, dragged Ryback out of the ring and sent him crashing through an announce table with a thunderous Triple Powerbomb.
The three men were revealed to be Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose, later known as The Shield, and they would go on to become one of the most dominant and popular factions in WWE history.
Also read: 5 years of The Shield: Dean Ambrose's best and worst moments in WWE
To mark their five-year anniversary on the main roster, we decided to look back at the five best and five worst moments that each Superstar has had during their time in WWE.
In this article, we focus on Reigns – a man first known to us as “The Muscle of The Shield” who is now a three-time WrestleMania main-eventer and three-time WWE champion.
Also read: 5 years of The Shield: Seth Rollins' best and worst moments in WWE
#1 Best: Royal Rumble 2014
Entering at number 15, Roman Reigns jogged his way down to the ring in Pittsburgh as a Royal Rumble debutant and left it as a Royal Rumble record-breaker.
It’s an event that Reigns would go on to become synonymous with, and that all began in 2014 when he eliminated 12 men – Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, Kofi Kingston, Goldust, Dolph Ziggler, Kevin Nash, The Great Khali, Sheamus, El Torito, Cesaro, Luke Harper and JBL – to break Kane’s long-standing record of 11 eliminations.
#2 Worst: The CM Punk comment
In November 2014, CM Punk revealed on the infamous episode of Colt Cabana’s ‘Art of Wrestling’ podcast how he had been repeatedly told that he had to “make Roman look strong” when he competed against The Shield in a handicap match at the previous year’s TLC PPV.
Punk’s comments certainly didn’t endear any fans to WWE’s next top star, especially as this was during a time when many people were beginning to turn against him, and the phrase about everybody backstage wanting the Shield member to look “strong” is something that is often repeated today by Reigns’ detractors.
#3 Worst: The early promos
Before he was “The Big Dog” who wasn’t a good guy or bad guy but simply “The Guy”, Roman Reigns underwent a few personality changes in his early post-Shield days.
He’d gone from being a serious badass in the most dominant three-man faction WWE had seen in years, to a comedy character who appeared awkward every time he spoke. Thankfully, he’s 100x more bearable on the mic these days, but his January 2015 promo with Seth Rollins, where he uttered his famous “suffering succotash” line, was probably his most cringe-worthy of the lot.
#4 Worst: Royal Rumble 2015
It seemed impossible that a ‘good guy’ would receive more boos at a Royal Rumble than Batista, the controversial 2014 winner, but the crowd hostility reached new heights when Roman Reigns won the 2015 Rumble in Philadelphia.
Even a lending hand from WWE legend The Rock didn’t sway the crowd, who jeered Reigns in and out of the building. It also didn’t help that the WrestleMania main-eventer who, still very much a babyface at this point, said in a media interview that people who booed him only did so “because they’re haters who hate their lives”.
#5 Worst: 2015 Bray Wyatt feud
The boos continued for Roman Reigns throughout 2015, including during the WrestleMania 31 main event against Brock Lesnar, and just when he needed a captivating storyline to get fans back on his side, or at least make casual watchers interested in his rivalries, he feuded with Bray Wyatt for the best part of five months.
This 2015 story is best forgotten and is arguably the worst of Reigns’ five years in WWE. Bray would say “anyone but you, Roman” week after week, without any real meaning behind it, and the two were seemingly feuding over absolutely nothing. The only positive during that time was the addition of Braun Strowman to the Wyatt Family.
#6 Best: WWE title win on Raw
Love him or hate him, Roman Reigns’ WWE title win in December 2015 is one of the best we’ve seen in recent years. He had been crowned WWE champion at the previous month’s Survivor Series PPV, only for Sheamus to cash in his Money In The Bank contract after just 5 minutes, 15 seconds. Reigns then lost the rematch at TLC due to the League of Nations.
He was given one more shot at the title on the 14 December episode of Raw, where he overcame the odds to defeat the Irishman and even gave a Superman Punch to Vince McMahon. To make it all the sweeter, the match took place in the same building that he had been booed out of at the Royal Rumble earlier in the year – only this time the support for him was deafening.
#7 Worst: 2016 Suspension
Of all the WWE suspensions we’ve seen over the years, news that Roman Reigns would be gone from our screens for 30 days for violating the company’s Wellness Policy was probably the most shocking.
We still don’t know exactly what he did to receive the suspension in June 2016, but he was just two months into a reign with the WWE Championship when it happened and the timing couldn’t have been much worse. The title was quickly shifted to Seth Rollins, then Dean Ambrose, and Roman still hasn’t recaptured the gold.
#8 Best: WrestleMania 33
We don’t know for sure whether Roman Reigns officially retired The Undertaker or not, at WrestleMania 33. Either way, just to be one of two people who ‘Taker has lost to at WWE’s biggest event of the year is something pretty special.
The following night, he received one of the most vociferous crowd reactions in Raw history, and unlike two years prior, when Reigns the performer, not just the character, didn’t react well to fans’ disapproval of him as “The Guy” in WWE, you could see he was clearly having fun with the hostile reception he was given.
#9 Best: 2017 Braun Strowman feud
If WWE brings back the Slammy Awards for 2017, then the Braun Strowman vs. Roman Reigns feud will be most people’s choice for Rivalry of the Year. The two had three PPV matches, with Braun winning 2-1, and countless more memorable moments throughout the year on Raw.
The on-off story lasted eight months in total, which is rare in modern-day WWE, and really helped legitimise “The Monster Among Men” as a star of the present and future of the company.
#10 Best: Defeating John Cena
It’s one thing calling yourself “The Guy”, it’s another thing beating the previous “Guy” to well and truly cement your legacy as the next megastar of WWE – and that’s exactly what Roman Reigns did when he defeated John Cena in a WrestleMania-worthy match at No Mercy 2017.
The heated promos in the build to the encounter were some of the best we’ve seen this year, sometimes blurring the lines between storyline and reality, and the candid post-match interview with Cena on Raw Talk really drove home how much Reigns has improved and accomplished in his time in WWE.
