8 Times Vince McMahon used Roman Reigns to get another WWE Superstar cheered

#6. Finn Balor - RAW after Battleground 2016

The first RAW post-draft

This happened to be exactly one night after Battleground 2016. Just for context, the WWE Draft had happened a few days before on SmackDown, and NXT's Finn Balor was chosen as a surprise first-round pick, getting drafted ahead of the likes of Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns, John Cena, Randy Orton, etc.

It was clear that he was in a prime position from the start and that was made clear on his first night on RAW. When Stephanie McMahon and General Manager Mick Foley were in the ring addressing the roster about the Universal title, McMahon berated Reigns for losing the match for RAW at Battleground, giving Seth Rollins a direct slot at SummerSlam to compete for the Universal title.

Two Fatal-4-Way matches were set, with Reigns and the debuting Finn Balor winning their respective bouts. They would have a dream match in the main event of RAW, which turned out to be an underrated match in its own right.

For the third match in a RAW, Roman Reigns found himself taking a clean pin. It was clear that Vince McMahon used Reigns to get Balor over big time - and it worked.