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!).
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