5 Reasons Roman Reigns is pushed despite all the criticism
On April 2nd, 2017, Roman Reigns will be wrestling in one of the biggest matches of his career. The most hated man will be facing The Undertaker, a man that’s so popular and respected in the wrestling business that, if pro wrestling were to become an organised religion, The Undertaker would be its God.
In booking this match, WWE has backed themselves into a corner. Roman Reigns is going into this match as the same clear-cut babyface he has portrayed over the past few years. He’ll be stepping into the ring with the Undertaker, a man that simply cannot be booed.
If this is some kind of plan for WWE to finally turn Roman Reigns heel, then I for one am all for it. Reigns has failed as John Cena 2.0 in that he’s failing to really attract new fans to WWE that are over the age of 9.
However, the biggest likelihood about this match is that not only will Roman Reigns win the match and continue his unending march back to the top of WWE, but he’ll do it as the same smiling babyface the whole way up. Roman Reigns is going to be pushed into the top spot in WWE, despite all of the hatred that he gets and will continue to get.
Looking at this direction from a critical perspective, it’s easy to think Vince McMahon has lost his mind (it wouldn’t be the first time). But actually, there’s an underlying intelligence to Vince McMahon’s continued insistence on pushing Reigns despite all the negativity about the character.
We’ll look at the five most important reasons why Vince still pushes Roman Reigns in spite of many fans rejecting the character.
#5 There’s Money To Be Made
Roman Reigns is being pushed because he’s intended to become the next John Cena. What this means is, WWE wants to use the same formula they used with Cena to make a merchandise empire off of Reigns.
They’ve already had some degree of success with this. Despite being booed very noticeably on weekly TV and PPV broadcasts, Reigns is popular with children and apparently women as well. This former group is WWE’s key demographic because they’re the ones that’ll convince their parents to buy Reigns’ merchandise for them. And since kids like to cheer for ‘superhero’ characters that are clearly distinguishable as overt ‘good guys’, Reigns needs to be established as such.
While Reigns might be on the receiving end of fan hatred, this rejection of his isn’t as widespread as it’s made out to be. In Germany, for example, Reigns got more cheers than boos, and on several recent occasions, Reigns got loud cheers when he won his matches, only for the boos to become louder afterwards.
This is a sign that Reigns still has a degree of sustained popularity despite the negative feedback, and that popularity translates into dollar signs for Vince McMahon.