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#3 Roman Reigns vs Sheamus - RAW December 14th, 2015
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At Royal Rumble 2015, Roman Reigns punched his ticket to WrestleMania 31 and was booed right out of the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Eleven months later, in the same town, in the same building, those same fans that were demanding Roman Reigns' head were screaming and jumping for joy when he won the WWE Championship.
At the Royal Rumble, The Rock couldn't get Roman Reigns cheered. The Rock. The Brahma Bull. The Most Electrifying Man in Sports Entertainment couldn't get a crowd to cheer Roman. But who could?
No, seriously, Sheamus. At Survivor Series 2015 Sheamus cashed in on an exhausted Roman Reigns, who'd just beaten Alberto Del Rio and Jon Moxley in the same night to become the new WWE World Heavyweight Champion. Sheamus would then go onto parody "Austin 3:16" with "Sheamus 5:15" which was the amount of time Roman's first world title reign lasted.
Sheamus and the League of Nations aligned with The Authority. Fans were already sick of the group a year prior, setting Roman Reigns up for the greatest pop of his career. After WWE TLC, where Reigns was again screwed out of the title by the League of Nations and The Authority, Reigns had one final chance to win the gold.
It was a one-on-one match against Sheamus, and if Roman Reigns lost he would be forced to retire. Of course, the deck was stacked against Reigns as Vince McMahon himself was ringside to make sure everything was called "right down the middle."
Reigns had Sheamus beaten, but Vince pulled the referee out of the ring. A bleeding Reigns stared down the Chairman while Sheamus attacked from behind, nearly picking up the win with the White Noise. McMahon then demanded that the ref make a quick count. After shrugging off an assault from the League of Nations, Reigns knocked out McMahon with a Superman Punch, and the crowd shot to their feet.
At that point, the crowd that less than a year before hated Reigns with all their heart were begging to see Reigns come out on top, and that's exactly what they got. Reigns countered the Brogue Kick with a spear, and when the ref counted three, the Wells Fargo Center came unglued.
It was already a great match, with two underappreciated bruisers at the time. Add in the heightened drama of the Authority and League of Nations trying to screw Reigns out of everything he'd worked for, and WWE turned him into the greatest babyface since Daniel Bryan.
...it's a shame they blew it immediately after that, but don't worry, we're not gonna be talking about 2016.
