WWE’s annual extravaganza Royal Rumble is just two weeks away. The annual 30-man over the top rope battle royal is something that every WWE fan eagerly awaits each year.
The invigorating suspense, spectacular returns, impactful debuts, glory of the bounty and the multitude of possibilities surrounding the event make it a must-watch for every WWE fan.
While several superstars have found their doors to glory at the event, there is a superstar on the current roster for whom the event is nothing but a nightmare. For three years now, right around Royal Rumble, WWE Creative’s plans to push Vince’s top guy in WWE have been backfiring on them in spectacular fashion.
It is a wonder that WWE always manages to screw up their top priority’s booking year after year. Yes, you have guessed it right. That guy is Roman Reigns.
Roman Reigns and Royal Rumble have a history. This is the PPV which has been a constant thorn on the side of Roman Reigns for three years in a row now. And the fact that it is only three years since Roman actually wrestled on the PPV only makes it worse.
Before we discuss Roman’s bad run with the event, let’s refresh our memories with the history between him and the event.
Strike 1 – 2014
The very first Royal Rumble for Roman Reigns was, in fact, a good one. But what went wrong here is his booking.
If one recalls right, the entire arena was crying for Roman to win the Royal Rumble and go on to main event WrestleMania. The fact that he was the last guy to be eliminated just rubs salt in that wound.
But evidently, WWE had a whole different idea. Batista had returned to WWE after a long time and WWE was planning to make him win the match and headline WrestleMania, despite the protest of a majority of fans.
Also read: 5 opportunities to turn Roman Reigns heel that WWE wasted
Roman, who was on the rising stage off his career, was fed to The Animal and Batista won the match. The result created such a severe backlash from the fans that WWE had to alter their main event plans and appease the WWE Universe by adding Daniel Bryan into the match.
Sadly, no one can guess what Reigns’ career would have been now if he had indeed won the Royal Rumble at that time.
Strike 2 – 2015
2015, on the whole, was a nightmare of a year for Roman Reigns. And strangely enough, it all started at the Royal Rumble.
This year, WWE planned to go on with last year’s favourite. But the plan backfired on them spectacularly. Roman’s popularity with the ardent fans of wrestling declined rapidly and he is yet to win them over again.
The Rock came out to interfere on Roman’s behalf and helped him fight off The Authority. While this was a babyface moment, the catch here was that the WWE Universe already had a babyface in their mind and it was not Roman Reigns.
Daniel Bryan’s elimination from the match caused such an uproar that they even booed The Rock who came out to help his cousin.
Yet again, WWE miserably failed in booking Roman properly. And the heat that Roman received for the win would not even abate even after he won the then-famed Bryan’s seal of approval at Fastlane. WWE was forced to hastily readjust their WrestleMania plans and make Seth Rollins walk out of the event as a winner.
As if that heat wasn’t enough, CM Punk’s shoot interview completely damaged Roman Reigns in the minds of ardent fans forever.
Strike 3 – 2016
Last year, it was an entirely different ball game. Roman was, to state frankly, actually hot (as hot as a wrestler can get after his name being in the mud for almost a year), heading into the PPV.
He was the champion and he was feuding with the company’s top heel Vince McMahon. Week after week, he was overcoming the odds stacked against him.
But, it all went awry on the way to the PPV after Vince declared the infamous “One vs All” concept. Fans who were actually cheering for Roman became reluctant with the idea of Roman being the one. Yet, Roman was still hot heading into the match until the #3 entrant in the Rumble came out.
As we all know, AJ Styles entered at #3 and immediately fans were pinning for AJ to win the match instead.
When AJ was eliminated by Kevin Owens, the fans were disappointed. Not to mention the fact Reigns was backstage for at least half of the match after being attacked by The League of Nations, who were directed by Vince McMahon himself.
It didn’t do him any favours either. When Reigns returned near the end of the match, fans saw him only as the poster boy and not as a valiant champion returning to defend his title despite his injury.
Eventually, Triple H entered at #30 and won the match much to the delight of fans. At that point, the WWE Universe would have cheered for anyone but Roman Reigns. During the build-up to Mania, WWE adopted “the less the better” policy to protect Roman. It didn’t do him any favours either.
Yet again, WWE’s booking of Roman Reigns heavily backfired on them at Royal Rumble (Surprise! Surprise!).
The curse of Royal Rumble
When one looks at the history between Roman Reigns and Royal Rumble, it is inevitable to accept that the PPV was and is a nightmare to the Samoan Badass.
The Royal Rumble is an event that could be aptly stated as a curse in Roman’s career. From losing opportunities to gaining tremendous heat, Roman has suffered everything a Superstar could suffer bar injury at the event.
Roman Reigns was first perceived as the ideal guy WWE wants at this PPV only.
Ever since then, his popularity among the ardent fans of WWE has been on a heavy decline. While nothing could be laid at Roman’s feet for this issue, the screw up of his booking for over three years at this particular PPV has indeed had an effect on his career.
Despite the huge in-ring progress Roman has demonstrated over the last year, he is still received with mixed reactions whenever his music hits. He has become a polarising superstar in the WWE Universe thanks to Royal Rumble.
And if not for the continuous bad booking at Royal Rumble, one has to wonder what kind of reaction Roman could garner among the fans.
The current scenario
Heading into the PPV, the current scenario does not give much hope for Roman Reigns either. Roman is set to take on Kevin Owens for the WWE Universal Championship at Royal Rumble.
It would be an understatement to state that Kevin Owens is way more over than Roman among the fans. Roman is yet again doomed to enter with a mixed reaction that would contain mostly boos rather than cheers.
Several speculations suggest that Roman might indeed capture the championship at the event and free KO to feud with Y2J for the United States Championship. While the fans might welcome KO losing the title to start feuding with Jericho, they would surely not like Roman being the guy that KO lost the title to.
The most common perception will be that WWE is trying to shove Roman down the fans’ throats.
And God forbid if WWE goes ahead with a Braun Strowman vs Roman Reigns feud for Mania. I can vividly imagine WWE Creative’s thinking something akin to this. “Stalwart champion taking on the indomitable Monster among Men.”
While this may sound good on paper, Braun is still green and pairing him with Roman Reigns for a Mania match this soon would surely sour fans.
This scenario doesn’t give Roman much to capitalise on and win the fans over to his side. He may progress in his wrestling skills, but until WWE Creative books Roman Reigns like this, there is no hope for Roman to win the respect and love of the majority of WWE fans.
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