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.

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Vince is a businessman first and foremost, which means he values profit above all else.

#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.

When people complain about Reigns online, it actually brings him more money.

#4 Any Publicity Is Good Publicity

Vince McMahon is of the mind that any kind of reaction to what is put on is better than no reaction whatsoever. Even if wrestling fans boo a man out of the building, to Vince, that’s better than them sitting on their hands.

He has believed this for a very long time and isn’t likely to change. As proof, consider the original version of the Goldust character. Initially, Goldust was an androgynous character whose purpose was to make people from different walks of life uncomfortable. Vince didn’t care about those negative reactions whatsoever; it was publicity, and it was bringing him money.

He takes the same approach with Roman Reigns now, albeit as long as there isn’t the same type of controversy as there was with Goldust. Fans are reacting to Roman Reigns in such a negative way that there are countless websites and blogs out there that denounce Reigns and criticise him.

This, in turn, actually generates more curiosity and interest in Reigns. If he really is that bad, some people might just want to see that for themselves, which in turn elevates the overall response towards him.

It’s just like the ‘We hate Cena’ T-shirt: fans buy the shirt to show their dislike for John Cena, while at the same time they put more money in his and WWE’s pockets.

“Oh, you people boo what I give you and mess up my plans? Just you wait and see what I have in store for you!” -Vince.

#3 Vince McMahon Is Spiteful

Vince’s stubbornness is very pronounced, but he actually possesses a far worse character trait: spitefulness. Vince doesn’t like to be told he’s wrong, and if someone messes up his plans, he’ll do whatever he can to get the last laugh.

Consider the following: Vince had obvious plans for the 2014 and 2015 Royal Rumble matches as well as the main events for both WrestleMania XXX and 31. Fan rejection of his plans was so profound that he had no choice but to change WrestleMania XXX around entirely and had to bring out Seth Rollins at the end of WrestleMania 31to prevent both shows from ending badly.

He made these decisions, but he damn sure didn’t like them. The very thought of fans screwing up his plans and hijacking the shows he controls irks him to no end. So he got his revenge on those fans by booking WrestleMania 32 in the way he did. While WrestleManias XXX and 31 appeared to be geared towards satisfying these vocal fans by having their chosen favourites win, WrestleMania 32 was the opposite. It was Vince McMahon getting what he wanted at the fans expense.

Of course, it also helped his cause that, despite the overwhelmingly negative response to WrestleMania 32 and its main event, it was still the highest-grossing WWE live event of all time. So Vince must’ve heard these boos on one hand and then he saw how much he made off the show. This means that he will continue to adhere to the following mentality…

“You people are going to like what I tell you to like!”

#2 Vince McMahon Doesn’t Listen To Fans

On several occasions, Vince has said one of the following two sentences in some variation or another. He has either said, “I don’t give a damn what you [the fans] want!” or “The only person I listen to is me, Vincent Kennedy McMahon!” These are not just random one-liners designed to get cheap heat from the audience; this is the real-life Vince McMahon telling fans what he thinks of their opinions.

Vince doesn’t listen to his fans because he thinks he knows what they want better than they do. He’s of the mind that his audience, especially the louder critics, can’t decide what they want. This is actually partially true. Last year, Vince finally gave the WWE Universe what he heard they’d wanted and made Dean Ambrose WWE Champion. However, they turned on him very soon afterwards.

So he went back to what he wanted to do. Because he tried to placate a loud audience by giving them what they wanted, so badly, and they rejected it anyway.

With each year that passes, Vince McMahon becomes more set in his ways and tries his best to prove everyone else wrong. This is partly because others keep trying to tell him what’s best for business, only for them to change their minds just as much as he does.

So he does what he wants and in the case of Roman Reigns, his decision is met with a chorus of boos. But that’s ok, because…

People left WrestleMania 32 angry, yet still watched Raw. What do you think that tells you about the WWE fans?

#1 Fans Will Tune In No Matter What

At the end of the day, all the people that boo Roman Reigns and spend all this time spewing hatred at him will still tune into Raw the following week to watch him wrestle. Vince has realised that he can put on a lower-quality product and spend less time catering to these die-hard fans because that’s exactly what they are: die-hard. They’ll tune into Raw regardless of the nonsense Vince puts on TV, even if that means a continued push for Roman Reigns.

As much as fans decry Vince McMahon for being out-of-touch and stubborn, especially vis-à-vis Roman Reigns, he’s still a shrewd businessman that understands his audience. He knows that, no matter how much hate Reigns gets, WWE doesn’t have to worry about a significant decrease in network subscriptions or reduction in merchandise sales.

At worst, a handful of people will cancel their subscriptions to the WWE Network and stop watching Raw. But that doesn’t matter to Vince McMahon because WWE’s expanding its content strategy and entering new markets.

To that end, it’s time to face the facts: Roman Reigns is going to keep getting pushed because fans will keep tuning in. They don’t have much of a choice; it’s too much of a hassle for the average fan to sign up for NJPW, follow the independent circuit, or get invested in Impact Wrestling. WWE is convenient to them, so they’ll either watch WWE and Roman Reigns as its centrepiece, or they’ll not watch at all.

So if you’re tired of seeing Reigns being forced down your throat, your best action is to change the channel (or watch SmackDown instead). Maybe, if enough people do that, Vince might change his mind.

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