Credit: WWE.com
My friend just messaged me saying they get, more and more, why I always say I don't believe in the word "deserve". See, Roman Reigns deserves better writing and booking than he gets, but here we are. I find it funny that here we are FIVE YEARS LATER and WWE hasn't learned SHIT. They're killing that dude the same exact way. This proves Vince McMahon is insane because insanity tries the same exact things expecting different results.
Part of the magic of wrestling is the foreshadowing. The long term storytelling years out. When Rollins and Ambrose lost to CM Punk but Reigns won, that meant something. When The Shield came out for Mania 29 and stood on platforms, Roman by himself and Rollins and Ambrose together, that meant something. When Roman set the record for Rumble eliminations, that all meant something. Everyone with two brain cells to rub together knew WWE was building toward Roman vs Brock in the Mania main event.
However, WWE decided to tell this "underdog babyface" story at the same time while not giving anyone who doesn't get off on reading into imagery and like predicting the future 2-3 years away ANY reason to invest into Roman beyond him being a rich man's Jason Momoa and "oh remember The Shield? He was in that but never stopped dressing like it or changed his entrance". WWE convinced dumb marks that a man who has held every belt they've had that they don't want to push him and they are holding him back. They just, you know, gave him a clean win over Super Cena in a PPV main event.
None of that mattered to these marks. Even though Bryan had won the main event of the previous Mania, they wanted him to win the Rumble and also beat the man who ended The Streak. If history repeats, it will not matter to these marks that he has defended the belt twice at Mania and won it once in the main event. I just cannot figure out for the life of me why WWE is actively building a sort of rejuvenation of the most popular form of the Daniel Bryan character. Before he started growing his beard and his hair, the short haired Daniel Bryan was the one that captured the hearts and minds of these marks.
Meanwhile, instead of making Roman the one to turn on The Shield to be the one to be presented as having the corporate seal of approval, or instead of being incensed at the betrayal to where you get that first feud... Roman was just there and had a meh match with Randy Orton. And ever since, this guy has had no positioning as a heroic babyface who is always there to protect the brand from some nefarious threat. They keep forcing him as a sympathetic underdog babyface that loses every time some faction of heels gangs up on him. He is The Big Dog but not one single pup in that locker room ever tries to help him. We are told it is his yard now and he is the locker room leader but no one ever runs in for him. He often comes out to help others who stay in the back chilling. Just last week he came out to help Kofi Kingston and Big E... Kofi said some words in a promo but was nowhere to be found either when Roman got dog food poured on him or when THE TAG TEAM THEY JUST WRESTLED CAME OUT TO HELP JUMP ROMAN.
Social proof tells me Roman is a loser no one in WWE cares about so I get why a lot of fans have no investment in seeing him succeed. If you don't know what social proof is, the best way I can explain it is: The difference between a girl liking a guy but no one else respects him or likes him or wants him, so eventually she wonders what it is she sees that no one else does... Versus a girl liking a guy that everyone shows respect and everyone seems to like. And at various levels. Like at work, when your peers AND superiors all gravitate towards you. At this point she wants to ingest his genitals IMMEDIATELY. Roman Reigns is one of those guys that is not presented as a badass that always beats the odds or as the underdog others would risk their neck to help beat the odds. He's just some guy.
I'm here writing these words because I am a masochist who has no realistic hope WWE can ever do right by Roman. And I don't believe in deserve because if I did it would drive me crazy to think this dude deserves much better than this and here we are. Five years later.