What’s the story?
After defeating The Undertaker handily at Wrestlemania 33, Roman Reigns kicked off Raw the next night and was welcomed by a very raucous crowd.
The reaction that “The Big Dog” got has been a topic of discussion ever since, and yesterday, Bubba Ray Dudley took to Twitter to share his thoughts on the opening segment.
In case you didn’t know...
Reigns’ appearance was immediately met with a chorus of boos and disparaging chants when he entered the ring on Monday night.
After almost ten minutes of Roman standing in the ring and listening to the fans’ chants, not doing or saying anything (except mouthing “I have you right in the palm of my hand” halfway through), he delivered a five-word promo that sent the crowd into even more of a frenzy.
Also read: WWE News: Goldberg says that the hatred for Roman Reigns is misplaced
Roman said “This is my yard now.”, referring to his victory over The Undertaker from one night before at WrestleMania 33.
After Twitter blew up with reactions and responses to Roman’s claim, “The Big Dog” himself shared his thoughts on the segment by responding to a fan’s tweet about his feelings on the crowd’s reaction:
The heart of the matter
While the opinions of many fans did not resonate with Roman’s, several current and former Superstars agreed with his assessment, including Bubba Ray Dudley.
Dudley Tweeted out the following:
Almost immediately, fans began to respond to Bubba’s tweet, and most of them completely disagreed with him on his comments about the segment. Here’s one such response:
The former WWE Tag Team Champion had the perfect response to the fan:
What’s next?
There is no telling where Roman’s character development goes from here after Monday’s segment, but we can expect his feud with Braun Strowman to continue heading into Payback, where they may wrestle in the main event of the pay-per-view.
Author’s take
While it is definitely clear that some fans just absolutely despise Roman Reigns, it is also clear that most fans only vocalise it because it’s the cool thing to do at WWE shows now.
The fact that Roman can get the entire arena to react the way it did Monday night speaks volumes about the polarising character that he has become. While most fans will claim “No, we just hate that guy”, he still gets a reaction from fans worldwide.
In my opinion, Reigns has stepped his game up since being able to show other sides of himself, instead of simply being the true babyface that WWE had been presenting him as.
This past Monday night, he stood in the middle of the ring and worked the crowd. Reigns delivered his short, but sweet promo with perfect timing and didn’t seem overwhelmed by the moment, like he would just a few years ago.
Regardless of the reasoning behind the nuclear heat, there is no denying that “The Guy” has that heat and may finally be learning how to use it to his advantage.
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