How Roman Reigns Failed in WWE Before Becoming Their Biggest Star

Sportskeeda Wrestling

Uncover the untold journey of WWE's biggest star, Roman Reigns, as we delve into the moments that shaped his rise from perceived failure to becoming the undeniable face of the company.  In this exclusive video, we'll explore the early setbacks and struggles that Roman Reigns faced in his WWE career. From his initial days as a member of The Shield to his solo pursuits, witness the challenges he encountered that almost derailed his path to superstardom. Join us as we analyze the pivotal moments, character shifts, and key matches that propelled Roman Reigns from a perceived failure to the pinnacle of WWE. This is the ultimate retrospective on the journey of Roman Reigns, tracing his evolution into the Head of the Table and the face of the WWE.  Don't miss out on this deep dive into the fascinating career of Roman Reigns – a story of redemption, perseverance, and triumph in the world of professional wrestling. Like, share, and subscribe to stay updated on more exclusive content diving into the captivating stories behind your favorite WWE superstars ------- You can also visit our site: https://www.sportskeeda.com/wwe  #romanreigns #tribalchief #therock #smackdown #wwe #wrestling #sportskeedawrestling

Transcript

00:00 And that's just something I don't understand because the tribal chief don't lose.

00:03 Roman Reigns is the undisputed number one star of this generation.

00:07 There is nobody who WWE has invested more time and consequences into, and even if you

00:14 argue that someone like Seth Rollins is at number two, the gap between them is quite

00:19 big.

00:20 For over three years now, we've seen Roman Reigns portray one of the more over-characters

00:25 in modern WWE history.

00:27 He's meant his name as one of the all-time great villains, and arguably even above some

00:33 of them that you may think of that come into that conversation.

00:36 This period has been such a smashing success that many fans forgot about the disastrous

00:41 five or six years that led up to him becoming the most popular star now in WWE.

00:47 Let's take a look at the first time Roman Reigns tried to be the main event guy and

00:52 fell quite a bit short, or at least in the eyes of some he did.

00:56 We'll get into the nitty gritty here.

00:58 It's Sportskeeda Wrestling, I'm Kevin, let us know what you think in the comments below.

01:02 All the way back in his early days in pro wrestling, in WWE NXT, coming under the Anawahi

01:08 Wrestling Family legacy, Jim Ross described Roman Reigns as being a guy who had the "it

01:15 factor," but he probably wouldn't have expected it to take nearly a decade to really come

01:20 together.

01:21 During his days with the Shield, yeah, remember the most breakout faction of all time?

01:26 Roman didn't talk that much, played the cool-hand Luke Muscle type role, and it was the perfect

01:32 role for him to be the powerhouse.

01:34 They clearly played up his strengths because he wasn't really a defined talking personality

01:39 in WWE at the time.

01:41 It was always talked about that WWE had plans to push Roman Reigns as the breakout star

01:46 of the Shield.

01:47 Based on what CM Punk has gone on the record about, when he had to take on the entire faction,

01:51 in a handicap match on pay-per-view to "make Roman look really strong" during their

01:57 encounters.

01:58 He had a strong performance at the Survivor Series in 2014, and a runner-up role at the

02:03 2014 Royal Rumble.

02:05 They were perfect examples of this, that breakout period where they were trying to make him

02:10 the guy outside of the Shield.

02:13 He broke Kane's 13-year-old elimination record in the Rumble match, taking a whopping 12

02:18 superstars over the top rope, falling short of eliminating the winner of the match, Batista.

02:24 In the year that followed, WWE continued to push Roman as the next guy, the perfect candidate

02:30 to win the 2015 Royal Rumble.

02:32 But fans simply weren't buying it, and maybe WWE, or some people within the company, didn't

02:39 realize how wrong they were about putting him on that pedestal and saying, "Hey, this

02:44 guy.

02:45 This is the next guy."

02:46 Going back into that Shield breakup period, Seth Rollins was the one who immediately benefited

02:50 from joining the Authority faction, becoming the Golden Boy.

02:54 In reality, Roman Reigns was the company's Golden Boy, and that became an increasingly

02:58 apparent thing over the summer of 2014.

03:01 Brock Lesnar would defeat John Cena to win his first WWE Championship in over a decade,

03:06 and some fans quickly spotted that the plan was going to be the new Golden Boy, Roman

03:10 Reigns, against the Golden Beast in Brock Lesnar.

03:15 To complicate these problems even further, Roman Reigns was out of action due to a hernia,

03:20 and had to take the rest of the year off, but was still named the Superstar of the Year

03:24 anyway.

03:25 While Rollins was making his name and almost kind of being this generation's edge, Dean

03:31 Ambrose broke from the faction and was organically getting over on his own.

03:35 So where was Roman Reigns outside of the Shield?

03:38 Even though he was getting the biggest spotlight of the year, some people say it just wasn't

03:42 connecting with all of the fans, specifically the dudes.

03:46 The ladies and the kids showed up for the big dog, but the fellas like me were like,

03:52 "I don't like this guy."

03:54 The only problem was that WWE officials seemed to think that by making him, Roman Reigns,

03:59 John Cena's successor, that he had to be exactly like John Cena, be booked the exact

04:04 same way, wrestle the same pace of matches, and the almost exact same thing, and they

04:10 were wrong to go with that route.

04:12 The perfect example of this was the horrible "Sufferin' Suckatash" promo that SOMEONE

04:18 had to write for Roman Reigns, and it's been mocked and repeated for years.

04:22 It's become a meme within wrestling circles in its own right.

04:25 Remember that Royal Rumble issue we mentioned earlier?

04:31 Yeah, that was a Royal Rumble where the fans were going with Daniel Bryan, and WWE went

04:35 with someone else.

04:36 In 2015, the fans thought it was time for sure that WWE wouldn't make the same mistake

04:42 again, and FINALLY Daniel Bryan would get his Royal Rumble win and be rocketed back

04:47 into WrestleMania greatness.

04:49 Instead, he lasted a whopping 10 minutes before he was eliminated, and the crowd in Philadelphia,

04:55 a crowd that is known for turning on things, yes, this is a city that once threw snowballs

05:00 at Santa Claus at a football game, yeah, they caused an uproar.

05:05 Because they knew WWE was going with Roman Reigns in this match, and they weren't having

05:11 it.

05:12 And it was pretty obvious that the one winning the Rumble was going to be him, and they were

05:14 going to boo him.

05:15 And they did.

05:17 Even when The Rock made a surprise return to help his fellow Samoan family member get

05:22 the big W, they weren't buying it.

05:25 The expression on The Great One's face when he endorsed Roman Reigns showed how awkward

05:31 this experience was.

05:33 This was the start of the "shoving Roman Reigns down your throat" era, and the dreaded period

05:39 in WWE history played out.

05:40 There were great matches, but the storylines just lacked the connection emotionally with

05:44 the audience, at least in some circles.

05:47 Since Daniel Bryan was a clear fan favorite, WWE thought having Roman Reigns beat him clean

05:51 in the main event of the Fastlane show before Mania would earn him the respect.

05:56 It didn't.

05:57 It just didn't.

05:58 In an attempt to make Roman Reigns the next guy, they were going to cement him here at

06:01 the biggest show of the year, he got the role to take on WWE World Heavyweight Champion

06:06 Brock Lesnar in the main event of WrestleMania 31.

06:09 In an attempt to deal with the circumstances that WWE was in with the 50/50 responses to

06:16 Roman Reigns, they went with the cash-in of all cash-ins, the money-in-the-bank cash-in

06:21 of Seth Rollins, who stole the championship glory from his former faction member Roman

06:27 Reigns and Brock Lesnar.

06:29 For fans, this was a big relief, specifically fans who just weren't buying into Roman Reigns,

06:34 and for WWE's high brass, it seemed like it was only a small setback in their plans overall.

06:40 Rollins would continue to carry WWE on his shoulders with that world title before his

06:45 knee injury came up and really derailed his run there.

06:49 This forced Rollins to vacate the championship, and since they were already building Roman

06:53 Reigns back up organically, or at least trying to this time, he was put in the driver's seat

06:58 and won the title at their Survivor Series tournament.

07:01 Yeah, this was the first time in his career, and he beat Dean Ambrose to do it, who was

07:05 by far a little bit more popular.

07:08 His moment was quickly taken away by Sheamus, who once again cashed in the money-in-the-bank

07:13 contract on him to kickstart a feud against Roman Reigns.

07:16 Although his run only lasted 22 days, it surprisingly led to Roman Reigns getting cheered when he

07:21 won the WWE Championship in Philadelphia, yeah, that same place that booed him at the

07:26 Rumble.

07:27 Just to give a little bit more context here, Mr. McMahon decided to end his hiatus from

07:31 being on television for quite some time and personally return to feud with Roman and try

07:37 to turn him into another stone-cold or anti-authority figure.

07:41 In hindsight, it seemed like even McMahon was unaware of what it was that they wanted

07:46 out of Roman Reigns, the exact dialed-in thing.

07:49 It led to temporarily having a band-aid placed on Roman Reigns' situation, and once the year

07:55 began in 2016, the crowd quickly turned on the future Tribal Chief.

07:59 And that's right, he's not the Tribal Chief yet.

08:02 For one, Mr. McMahon announced for the second time in history that the WWE Championship

08:06 would be on the line in the Royal Rumble, making it the first time this had been done

08:11 since 1992.

08:13 In that instance, the title was vacant, but this was the first time a champion would defend

08:18 his title in the Rumble.

08:20 The odds certainly stacked against Roman Reigns, and the entire build-up was painful to watch

08:25 because it was clear as day that Roman Reigns was the central figure of it all, and all

08:30 the hype about his unique match solely resolved around one man.

08:35 Once again, Dean Ambrose was the sentimental favorite and the chosen one by the fans, but

08:42 it didn't matter because he wasn't chosen by the office.

08:45 Triple H, yes, who was very much an authority figure in WWE at the time, would make his

08:50 return as the last entrant and eliminate Roman Reigns, along with Dean Ambrose, to become

08:54 a 14-time world champion.

08:57 He would be the villain, Roman Reigns would be the hero, heading into WrestleMania 32.

09:03 And marching through all of that, a triple threat main event was booked for Fastlane,

09:07 where Brock Lesnar would face Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns in a triple threat to determine

09:11 the game's opponent for WrestleMania 32.

09:13 We all knew where this was going, right?

09:15 WWE fans made it clear that it was Dean Ambrose who they were behind, and they felt he deserved

09:21 the main event, which is why it was so underwhelming when he ate a pinfall at the hands of Roman

09:26 Reigns.

09:27 Another main event with Roman Reigns, another main event that fans were weary of, at least

09:33 the dudes like me.

09:34 It wasn't Roman Reigns' fault at all, but the force push he was receiving had completely

09:39 opposite effects than that of what WWE had really desired.

09:43 Looking back at it, this was a pretty infuriating time.

09:47 In front of the biggest crowd that WWE had ever pulled in history, there would be no

09:52 change of plans.

09:53 Roman Reigns would get his coronation, whether anybody liked it or not, and it was a match

09:59 that simply couldn't follow other matches on the card.

10:02 It was good, but the story just once again wasn't connecting like you think it should.

10:09 So what was WWE's solution to get around nearly 100,000 people turning on Roman Reigns winning

10:14 the title?

10:15 Well, some internet sleuths have accused, but cannot confirm, that WWE manipulated the

10:21 audio on the broadcast.

10:23 We can't confirm that for you either.

10:25 It's just a thing that people put out there.

10:27 It was quickly noticed, but admittedly, the post-WrestleMania 32 time was one of the better

10:32 times while WWE television was rated PG.

10:35 Roman Reigns became a three-time world champion in just the span of a few months, and had

10:39 really strong performances in back-to-back classics with AJ Styles, which were very underrated.

10:45 By this point, Rollins was ready to return, and given that he was sorely missed and was

10:50 cheered more than anybody else, surely WWE would turn him babyface.

10:55 Distance makes the Seth Rollins grow fonder, right?

10:59 Wrong.

11:00 They kept him as a villain and set up the story where he would pursue the title that

11:03 he never lost, the WWE World Championship.

11:06 That makes sense.

11:07 In what was a rather surprising move, though, Rollins defeated Roman Reigns clean to become

11:14 the next WWE champion.

11:16 Only this time, the moment was ironically ruined by a money-to-make cash-in, this time

11:21 from their shield brother, Dean Ambrose.

11:25 Roman Reigns' title loss was actually prompted by a failed drug test, violating the company's

11:31 30-day wellness policy, and leading to a shocking 30-day suspension.

11:35 Roman Reigns has argued that this was simply an issue with medication that came up wrong

11:41 on a drug test.

11:42 It was a big deal at the time, and WWE decided to once again keep him a bit on the down-low

11:47 for a few months.

11:49 Bad timing.

11:50 Roman Reigns, being called the Big Dog, was drafted to Raw to begin a challenge for the

11:55 Universal Championship that was introduced around this time, and fell short against Kevin

11:59 Owens multiple times due to all that outside interference.

12:04 But by the 2017 Royal Rumble, after losing to KO again, he would make one of the most

12:10 hated, despised, and argued moves yet.

12:13 In just a little context, the 2017 Rumble had a number 30 spot that people had huge

12:19 expectations for.

12:21 What?

12:22 The Royal Rumble?

12:23 People have unreasonable expectations for it?

12:25 Some people expected a Smojo to make his debut, while some thought Kenny Mega was going to

12:28 come over.

12:29 Yeah, or maybe The Rock is going to come back.

12:32 Please fulfill our widespread fantasy booking.

12:35 So imagine the reaction when over 50,000 people saw that it was Roman Reigns who entered at

12:41 number 30.

12:42 Yeah, they didn't like it.

12:43 It sucked the entire energy out of the arena, and Reigns was essentially used as a scapegoat

12:48 to be a runner-up to Randy Orton.

12:51 WWE, knowing how hated Roman Reigns was, felt they need to use him to get Randy Orton cheered.

12:57 Imagine the situation.

12:58 He was WWE's golden boy, the man they wanted to make the next Cena, and instead he was

13:04 being used to get circumstantial heat on the eventual Rumble winner.

13:09 Things changed.

13:10 This wouldn't be the last time he would be used in that type of spot.

13:14 But what he did at the 2017 Rumble was eliminate The Undertaker, and set up a WrestleMania

13:20 clash against him, where the only point of the story was the two men were going to prove

13:26 whose yard it was.

13:28 That's right.

13:29 Get off my lawn, get out of my yard, and we're going to fight at WrestleMania.

13:32 Rumors came together that Roman Reigns vs The Undertaker would actually close WrestleMania

13:37 33, a picture that painted how it would all play out, and it seemed like this was The

13:41 Undertaker's true last ride, and that Reigns would be the one to put him out.

13:47 Surely enough, that is how it played out.

13:49 Roman Reigns became the second man to defeat The Taker at Mania, and the end of the show

13:54 was meant to be a clear-cut farewell for The Phenom, or at least we thought so at the time.

13:59 It was a hard-to-watch match.

14:02 Undertaker had some physical issues, and would later return that year to squash John Cena

14:07 in less than three minutes at the next year's WrestleMania.

14:11 But as for Roman Reigns, he received an insurmountable level of heat.

14:16 He braced it.

14:17 Yeah, he surely thought this would be the moment.

14:20 Maybe they'd turn him into a villain, do something fresh and different.

14:24 You know the answer already.

14:25 The Raw after WrestleMania segment was certainly one to remember.

14:29 Roman received an extreme boilerplate level of heat, and he was eating it up, putting

14:36 it in the palm of his hand.

14:38 Unfortunately, it didn't lead to much or anything at all, apart from him repeatedly saying that

14:43 "I'm not a bad guy, I'm a good guy, I'm just the guy."

14:47 Yeah, he was literally playing up the perception around him being the guy put on the pedestal.

14:53 He spent the rest of the year in important storylines, and failed to win the Universal

14:57 Championship.

14:58 But after Brock Lesnar had defeated Goldberg at WrestleMania, and Reigns defeated Undertaker,

15:03 a rumor was quickly emerging that WWE planned to have a blockbuster Roman Reigns vs. Lesnar

15:09 match at WrestleMania 34 as the main event, attempting yet another coronation.

15:15 Roman Reigns had a feud against John Cena in the summer of that year.

15:19 Here we go, they're gonna make Cena make Reigns into the next Cena.

15:23 It was a pretty good match they had, and the build to it though kind of had some issues.

15:29 Yeah, with John Cena calling out Roman Reigns for not remembering certain lines in his promo.

15:37 That didn't mean that he was going to lose to Cena, and at no mercy the match was supposed

15:41 to be a passing of the torch moment.

15:44 And it just didn't completely hit the mark.

15:49 There was a brief Shield reunion that protected him from getting booed, but he was ultimately

15:53 replaced by Kurt Angle in their first match back together, which was a bit of a bummer,

15:58 but hey, at least he got to have that side of Kurt Angle in a bulletproof vest.

16:02 One of the big fundamental issues was that while Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose broke

16:06 out and created their own characters away from the Shield, Roman Reigns was still much

16:11 being treated as a one man shield.

16:14 He still had a modified version of the song, he came out wearing the bulletproof vest,

16:19 it was just not a fresh take.

16:21 Once again we find ourselves at the Royal Rumble, Roman Reigns was put in that runner

16:25 up heat spot, and this time it was against Shinsuke Nakamura, who eliminated him to a

16:31 loud positive response, with WWE once again playing on the crowd's 50/50 hatred of Roman

16:39 Reigns and simultaneously pushing a babyface.

16:42 But it wasn't Roman Reigns.

16:44 It obviously didn't stop him from headlining his fourth WrestleMania in a row, and this

16:47 one was a blockbuster clash with Lesnar that we told you about, and it was just a flop.

16:53 This was maybe one of the more underwhelming WrestleMania main events in quite some time.

16:58 Even with Reigns bleeding at a time when people thought WWE wasn't going to use blood, Lesnar

17:04 made his way backstage and felt so mad that he threw the championship.

17:08 In the direction of Vince McMahon.

17:12 By the way, Lesnar won that match.

17:15 Reigns would eventually beat Brock Lesnar four months later in the main event of Summerslam,

17:18 but this time it was cut short due to his sudden and unfortunate announcement that he

17:23 was battling leukemia for the second time in his life, with most people not even aware

17:27 that he had battled it before his wrestling career.

17:30 This was undoubtedly the biggest turning point in his career, and the perception of Roman

17:34 Reigns.

17:35 The announcement was shocking enough that virtually every fan was grounded.

17:39 For all those years of pent-up anger at someone portraying a pro wrestling character we didn't

17:44 like, it all vanished, and you worried about a guy named Joe Anoahe, a family man, and

17:49 the risks he was taking with his body as a wrestler now paled in comparison to the fight

17:53 he would have to defeat leukemia for the second time in his life.

17:57 It didn't even matter what the storylines were.

17:59 This was about the well-being of a person.

18:01 It was a humbling moment for any fans who were just booing this guy, and just living

18:05 in the cycle of internet hatred, and "how come they don't push the wrestlers we like?"

18:10 The fact that he was going through the battle made him likable and relatable.

18:13 As sad and ironic as it may sound, that single announcement did more to make fans like him

18:19 than they did in the five years of pushing him in storylines and scripted performances.

18:23 And that's just circumstantial.

18:24 Thankfully, it only took three months for him to return to Monday Night Raw, and the

18:28 announcement that he was in remission received a standing ovation.

18:32 Reigns had a fairly mild return to the ring, reuniting with The Shield a few more times

18:36 and facing Drew McIntyre at WrestleMania 35, ending his streak of consecutive WrestleMania

18:42 main events.

18:43 After Mania, The Shield's story together finally ended with Dean Ambrose leaving WWE for his

18:48 new home in All Elite Wrestling.

18:50 While Reigns' year in 2019 was quite unremarkable in terms of storylines, it even saw the god-awful

18:56 dog food moment with King Corbin.

19:02 Even when he wasn't getting the heat, he was once again used as the runner-up guy at the

19:08 2020 Royal Rumble as Drew McIntyre threw him out of the ring to win his first Rumble and

19:14 secure his spot at WrestleMania.

19:16 It looked like the tides were turning and Roman Reigns maybe wasn't going to be the

19:20 guy until he stepped up to the newly crowned Universal Champion Goldberg at WrestleMania

19:26 36, and that ended up being cancelled with the entire pandemic times that we were thrown

19:31 into and Roman Reigns pulled out of WrestleMania and WWE altogether.

19:35 This was an abrupt end, the last big bark of the big dog wasn't that big at all, and

19:41 as things were during those pandemic times, everyone kind of recalculated their lives,

19:47 and WWE recalculated some things with Roman Reigns.

19:52 Reportedly, Reigns put his foot down to WWE and Vince McMahon, and he and Paul Heyman

19:58 pitched an entirely new character, a new take, a new direction with him as still one of the

20:05 pivotal players in WWE, they would pitch the Tribal Chief.

20:10 And reportedly, once again reportedly, if McMahon didn't give his stamp of approval

20:14 on this new direction, Reigns could have very possibly left WWE altogether.

20:20 And over the next three years, we've seen him finally transform into THE character that

20:25 connected and was destined to be this entire time, a wrestling incarnation of a Darth Vader

20:32 villain, a villain so bad that they think they're good the entire time, Hubris Incarnate,

20:40 someone who truly believes they are entitled to everything they've manipulated their

20:46 way into being.

20:47 It's a captivating character, and all of the storylines with him have truly proven

20:53 that he is also one of the more dynamic character performers.

20:57 Think of the amount of compelling things he has said on a microphone in the past few years,

21:02 outside of just the matches.

21:03 A mixed direction babyface hero who turns into a villain organically and gets himself

21:08 over is a tried and tested formula that has nearly worked almost every time with the right

21:15 performers, especially top tier stars like say, I don't know, The Rock.

21:19 Yeah, he did this in reverse and became a fan favorite.

21:22 It should be said that despite the incredibly painful four or five years Roman Reigns had

21:28 under the big dog, it wasn't his fault.

21:30 It was simply the role he was slotted into, and he did as good a job as he could with

21:36 it.

21:37 Imagine how different the landscape of WWE would be if he never became the big dog.

21:43 He never got to be the tribal chief.

21:45 It's all a part of the journey.

21:47 What did you think of the big dog years of Roman Reigns?

21:50 What do you think of the tribal chief now?

21:52 Let us know in the comments below.

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