Over the past couple of years, no wrestler in the WWE has paralleled John Cena in being polarising the way Roman Reigns has. And much like Cena, the mix of boos and cheers that Reigns receives is not because of poor ability, but poor booking.
As a Samoan powerhouse, Reigns definitely has an impressive physique to go with his speed and strength. So why does he wear the tactical vest he has sported since the days of The Shield? As you can see from Reigns’ days in NXT, he didn’t always wear the vest...
When Roman was in The Shield it made complete sense, because it played into who he, Dean Ambrose, and Seth Rollins were. But it’s been nearly three years since Rollins turned his back on The Shield, and yet Roman still wears the vest. There are a few good theories as to why.
These theories range from surgical scars to comfort in the ring to merchandising to simple looks. The first theory deals with a surgery that Reigns had a couple of years ago.
In the fall of 2014, Reigns had to have emergency surgery to repair an incarcerated hernia. As a result, Reigns missed the Night Of Champions pay per view that month. It is possible that the nature of the emergency left a pretty noticeable scar that the WWE doesn’t want to have highlighted on one of its most pushed Superstars.
We all know that Vince McMahon sees dollar signs when it comes to Roman Reigns, which is why he has pushed him so hard. It is possible that Reigns wears the vest for two reasons – it gives WWE something to market, and it is a unique look that no other wrestler has.
Just like the kids who idolise John Cena buy everything their parents can get for them, it is possible that they want to keep the vest on Roman to market it and keep something unique for him.
Maybe it just all comes down to comfort for Roman. He has donned the vest since November 2012 and was the only member of The Shield to continue wearing it after the break-up. That’s over four years of wrestling with the vest on, and maybe to Roman it’s just something he’s grown so accustomed to that he wants to keep wearing it.
While these are all logical theories, there is no concrete evidence to support them. It is something that only Vince McMahon or Roman Reigns himself could answer. Someone just has to ask the question.
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