Roman Reigns Has Left Open the Door for Finn Balor in the Post John Cena-Era

The WWE has been adamant to making Roman Reigns the new face of the company in the post-John Cena era; however, the correct answer is actually Finn Bálor.

Every WWE fan knows the company is not shy when it comes to making it clear who they want to be “The Guy” or “The Face of the Company”. As for the past decade, there is no debate who held those titles, his name, John Cena. He follows the likes of The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan in that role.

Fast forward to today, Cena is now busy in Hollywood and has been rumored to be taking another hiatus this year. While the company knows that this will become the new norm, there is now more pressure than ever to find his successor. They have not been shy on who they have selected for this role, either — Roman Reigns.

However, this decision has been brutally received by fans. Even though Dave Meltzer, said recently the WWE believes the booing is only active on televised shows.

The first attempt to crown Reigns came during the build up to WrestleMania 31. After winning the Royal Rumble, he was set up to take to the top belt from Brock Lesnar to close out the show. Instead, the company became aware of the backlash and decided to let Seth Rollins cash in the Money in the Bank and walk out with the title.

This, however, did not change the plans. Reigns later in the year was billed as the victim to The Authority. Time and time again, he was wrongly done, hoping the fans would feel bad for him.

The treatment Reigns received from The Authority was reminiscent to what Daniel Bryan received years before. The difference — fans loved Bryan.

Quite Frankly, that never came to reality. Reigns continued to be booed, especially after winning the title for the third time in a lackluster WrestleMania main event against Triple H. The Big Dog went on to lose the title in June to his former Shield partner, Seth Rollins, a move that surprised many wrestling experts. They expected Reigns to hold on to the belt until at least SummerSlam.

It was later learned the reason was due to Reigns failing a wellness test. He was immediately suspended for 30 days.

At this point, rumblings began that, maybe, they would move in another direction.

When the WWE announced they would move back to the brand split, the belt Reigns has carried was moved over to the opposite brand, Smackdown Live; Reigns was drafted to Raw. He then got demoted to the mid-card, now competing for the United States title.

When Raw introduced their new title, the Universal title, the first match featured Seth Rollins… and… newly brought on from NXT, Finn Bálor. The match took place at SummerSlam, making Bálor victorious. Unlike, when Reigns wins, this time the crowd was fully behind the move.

Bálor winning the top title so early on and having such a positive reaction made it seem he may be the best option to get the push Reigns received.

But the night after winning the title, Bálor was forced to relinquish it after suffering a right shoulder injury. He went on to miss months of action including WrestleMania 33.

During this time period, Reigns again was back in the main event picture. While never winning the title, he was protected as all his losses came via interference. Most from either Chris Jericho or Braun Strowman getting involved in helping the champion Kevin Owens retain.

Strowman was built up to be a monster, but only to lose cleanly to Reigns at Fastlane, but that wasn’t even the moment it was clear Reigns was still penciled in as the guy. For the third straight year, the former college football player was in the final match at WrestleMania.

This time, he defeated The Undertaker in a dominant fashion. Also to be believed as the final match of the legendary career of The Undertaker. Not to any surprise, the Orlando crowd booed heavily after the victory.

The next night on Raw, “The Big Dog” opened the show receiving his loudest disapproval yet. The crowd was vicious, as they changed things such as “Roman sucks”, “Boo”, “Go away” every time he tried to speak into the microphone.

Later in the night, newly crowned Universal Champion, Brock Lesnar, came out with his advocate, Paul Heyman, claiming that Lesnar is need of a challenger for his new belt.

As Heyman listed off some names to be a potential fit, he stopped at one in an obvious fashion, Roman Reigns. Of course, the fans reacted passionately. As expected the entire crowd once again began to boo.