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Roman Reigns’ WWE SummerSlam 2016 Feud Begins Road to Redemption

By Rob Wolkenbrod

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Roman Reigns may have been downgraded, but this feud with Rusev should kick off a much-needed rebuild.

Roman Reigns has been a marked man in WWE for months, possibly years. Every venue he walks into, boos reign from the rafters. Fans hate him, whether it’s due to WWE pushing him as “The Guy” or a character no one can relate to. It’s been a tough road for Reigns in WWE, but the company had mostly stuck behind him.

The path only got worse for the Big Dog, as he failed a drug test, potentially for Adderall. This cost him 30 days and only made the target on his back even larger. Fans booed any mention of Roman on WWE programming during the absence, and worst of all for him, the company “punished” him multiple times. From the clean title losses at Money in the Bank and Battleground, to being called a “loser” by Stephanie McMahon on Raw, to later that night, losing to Finn Balor. This cost Reigns a spot in the Universal Championship match at SummerSlam.

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Once Balor pinned Reigns clean, the reboot button was officially hit on the latter man. He just won the WrestleMania 32 main event in the largest venue WWE had ever run for this show three months prior.. Triple H, a top company executive and wrestling legend, was defeated. Most WWE stars don’t receive an opportunity like this, but that’s all out the window.

Reigns went from a sure-fire WrestleMania main-eventer to questionable for the SummerSlam card. It was difficult to predict what he could do with all the top matches in place for the show. There was no clear-cut candidate.

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Then came the August 1 episode of Raw.

Seconds into Rusev getting on the microphone to boast about his U.S. title defense, Reigns’ music blasted through the Phillips Arena. It was a head-turning, “Wait, what is going on here?” moment.

He stood toe to toe with the Bulgarian Brute and stared down his title. After Superman punches were either attempted or connected, the champion fled the ring.

Then, a strange thing happened—there was a brief “Roman Reigns” chant. Yes, he played football at nearby Georgia Tech in the mid-2000’s, so the support may have been built in. The Atlanta crowd isn’t known to be harsh on the performers either, which nearly every city in America was to Reigns. However, the positive reaction from the crowd showed there was a step in the right direction for a rebuild.

A reason, again, for Reigns’ hatred for the crowd is the push WWE has given him for the past few years. Making him “The Guy” didn’t sit well with fans, so they booed him out of every arena and made vicious comments on the internet. So, what about testing him in a spot where he’s not on top of the company?

The Roman Reigns fans saw on August 1 was one result from what’s going to be a long test. He was downgraded to a role that hasn’t been seen for his character. It’s different from the spring of 2015 feud with Big Show or the four-month Bray Wyatt program. WWE’s plan was a little obvious, in that they wanted to rebuild Reigns into a main-eventer for WrestleMania 32 after WrestleMania 31 plans were altered. This saw Seth Rollins cash in Money in the Bank on Reigns and Brock Lesnar in the main event to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. So, the crowd reaction still wasn’t good as Reigns went through 2015 in this temporary upper mid-card position.

In August 2016, Reigns is back in the upper mid-card position. After the events of this summer, though, it’s not quite as temporary as 2015. Maybe it is, but it’s quite less predictable. Is he actually going to go from winning the world title at WrestleMania to winning the U.S. title at SummerSlam within four months?

An issue with the former Shield man has been fans knowing what’s going to happen with him every step of the way. His path to the WrestleMania 31 main event was obvious in the weeks leading to the Royal Rumble 2015 match. His path to the WrestleMania 32 main event was potentially, even more telling after the 2016 Royal Rumble match. The feud with AJ Styles, which came immediately after the Show of Shows, was predictable, too. Why would the man who just won the WrestleMania 32 main event lose the world title after a matter of weeks?

Is this all really Reigns’ fault, though? Or is this WWE’s for booking him in this position? Everything before the drug test may have been on the company, but everything afterward is on Reigns.

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As bizarre as it sounds, maybe this failed test was a blessing in disguise for the booking of the Reigns character. Yes, it’s a “punishment” of being moved to the U.S. title from the world title, but the former doesn’t get as much exposure on WWE TV. That was all too clear on Raw, as Reigns’ music hit, he walked down to the ring, hit Rusev a few times, and was gone from TV. There weren’t multiple segments for the three-time WWE Champion like the past two years. Instead, he’s pushed to a background role while others like Seth Rollins, Finn Balor, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, and Chris Jericho are viewed two or more times in three hours. Overexposure won’t be an issue, and when fans see certain Superstars is small doses that they can behind, it leads to a rising popular reaction.

Overexposure won’t be an issue, and when fans see certain Superstars is small doses that they can behind, it leads to a rising popular reaction. Contrary to what fans have chanted at him in the past, Reigns is not a sub-par worker. He may even arguably be above-average in the ring. If fans can remove the years of Reigns being “shoved down people’s throats”, and appreciate the work he does in the ring, which is about to occur further down the card, there’s potential for positive crowd reactions. That could be the first ingredient for a push back to the main event scene. Bleacher Report’s Ryan Dilbert shared a similar sentiment.

There’s the speaking aspect, too, which has been Roman’s weakness. If he acts like the wild Samoan he showed on Raw and just beats up Rusev every time they meet without saying anything, this could work. It’s something fans have called for from Reigns since he became a singles star. It’s what worked for him in The Shield for 18 months, but WWE has found it difficult to go back that way. Instead, they place a microphone in his hands, and it doesn’t go well. That’s not to say Reigns can’t speak, but it only needs to be a sentence, maybe two, if this rebuild is going to go swimmingly.

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This Roman Reigns project has only just begun. If WWE is going to rebuild him into a main-eventer for a consecutive year, fine, because it can work. This time around, it’s less predictable and has a higher success rate than the 2015-early 2016 debacle.

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