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#1. Roman Reigns fumbles his lines in a promo war against WWE legend John Cena
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WWE made sure to completely leave out the fact that John Cena and Roman Reigns had faced off in 2017 before their blockbuster SummerSlam 2021 main event.
The landscape and context of their 2017 and 2021 feuds were entirely different. In 2017, the company was still trying to establish Reigns as the top babyface, but their attempts continued to fail because of a forced babyface push and fan rejection.
Look who just shut down all of Tony Khan's critics! More HERE.
The Tribal Chief wasn't ready to be the babyface that WWE wanted him to be, and this was exemplified none more so than during his promo battle against John Cena on RAW in 2017.
When Reigns was hitting back at Cena, there was a moment where he forgot his lines. Rather than covering it up, John Cena added to the tension of the moment by saying "I'll wait", and then "It's called a promo, if you want to be the big dog you're going to have to learn to do it".
TalkSport recounted the moment:
"[Roman] Reigns seems to forget his lines and doesn't say anything for around 30 seconds before calling Cena a "phony", a "yes man" and a "part-timer," while accusing him of "burying young talent to stay at the top of the mountain."
Overall, the segment gave a bad look to Roman Reigns while exposing how big a gap in levels there was between him and John Cena. It should be noted that at this point, Cena had been a part-timer for nearly two full years.
While Reigns was always going to get the victory at No Mercy 2017, the match didn't deliver, and the feud didn't do what the company hoped it would.
Luckily, they had the opportunity to re-do it in 2021, this time with Roman Reigns established as the top superstar. The dynamic was entirely different with him as a heel, and it felt more natural. Their bout in the main event of SummerSlam 2021 delivered as well.
