Reigns

[Thunderlips]

So i was over thinking this Reigns situation and was wonding is RR over because hes getting A reaction regardless if the reactions are boos and is RR being booked like this good for the business because its a massive talking point and getting the product discussed so much??

 

[Stopspot]

There's a saying among wrestlers that any reaction is better than no reaction. Any smart booker would jump on the opportunity to play off of the fact that Roman gets his fair share of boos and actually make him a heel.
Look at what they did in NXT with guys like Bo Dallas, he got massive heat for his corny babyface gimmick, and they played off of that and make him a delusional heel, suddenly the act made more sense and he was booed for the right reasons instead. By the end of his run in NXT he was legitimately over.
New Day are another good example of this. And they are doing it with Eva Marie now in NXT as well, playing up that she is a bad wrestler/untrained for boos. Granted it will probably take longer to get the desired results with her than the new day or Bo.

Hell, the Rock is the best example of this. Debuted as the whitest of white meat babyfaces, to the point of crowds chanting "Die Rocky Die!". Turned heel, ended up becoming the biggest mainstream wrestling star ever.

 

[edge4ever]

There's a saying among wrestlers that any reaction is better than no reaction. Any smart booker would jump on the opportunity to play off of the fact that Roman gets his fair share of boos and actually make him a heel.
Look at what they did in NXT with guys like Bo Dallas, he got massive heat for his corny babyface gimmick, and they played off of that and make him a delusional heel, suddenly the act made more sense and he was booed for the right reasons instead. By the end of his run in NXT he was legitimately over.
New Day are another good example of this. And they are doing it with Eva Marie now in NXT as well, playing up that she is a bad wrestler/untrained for boos. Granted it will probably take longer to get the desired results with her than the new day or Bo.

Hell, the Rock is the best example of this. Debuted as the whitest of white meat babyfaces, to the point of crowds chanting "Die Rocky Die!". Turned heel, ended up becoming the biggest mainstream wrestling star ever.

I like what you're saying but WWE won't turn reigns heel and that's the issue

 

[Thunderlips]

Also it wasnt really an answer to the question

 

[Roadster]

RR over because hes getting A reaction regardless if the reactions are boos

Roman Reigns isn't really over. He's supposed to be a babyface and being a babyface anywhere else in the world means you're the hero, and you're the guy that the people are rallying behind. Regardless of Reigns' fans, there are more that dislike him than that like him. Which is a clear point that he isn't over. He isn't popular is a better way to put it, and being popular is very important for a babyface to achieve. However, WWE likes to spin it around and say that he's over because he garners a reaction - so does Johnny Ace. In my opinion, if you're not being cheered as a babyface, no matter how loud the crowd is, you're not being pushed right or you're not doing your job right. Cena is doing his job right, but he isn't being pushed right. He needs to fade away from the main event; which he has done.

RR being booked like this good for the business

Well you can't really say whether he's good for business or not since we haven't seen a long enough reign to see how Reigns does. His longest reign lasted around a month and didn't even get a PPV defense. He sells merch, clearly from the immense amount of merchandise he has. How much of that has to do with his title reign? Almost none. His record at the gate and overall buys, are yet to be determined. But some might say the extremely low ratings in late 2015, may be due to Reigns and Sheamus, which might just be because of the NFL season. In basic English, his record for business is yet to be determined.

good for the business because its a massive talking point and getting the product discussed so much??

People talk about the WWE ALL THE TIME. Regardless of who's where and or who's holding the belt. The attention WWE receives has nothing to do with Roman Reigns.

 

[seabs]

Roman Reigns isn't really over. He's supposed to be a babyface and being a babyface anywhere else in the world means you're the hero, and you're the guy that the people are rallying behind.

He is over, just not over as a babyface if that makes sense. Cena has gotten "the wrong" reaction for years whilst still being their biggest star, was he not over either?

 

[Red Rain]

The reactions, themselves, don't matter. Numbers matter.
The only things that will get Vince McMahon's attention are the financial reports and spreadsheets showing just how profitable each cog of the company is.
Reigns is here to stay. If the numbers drop after a year or so, he will simply become a #1 heel that hardly ever loses.
The most important thing is that McMahon believes in him. They are building his name value which something WWE can do better than anybody.

He's done nothing wrong. It's the fans that are heels in my opinion. These are the same fans who throw objects at superstars, jump guard rails and 'escort' WWE champions to the ring.

 

[Roadster]

He is over, just not over as a babyface if that makes sense. Cena has gotten "the wrong" reaction for years whilst still being their biggest star, was he not over either?

That's what I was saying. He isn't really over in the way he's supposed to be.

 

[Snowman1]

WWE clearly cares about getting Roman more heat. If they didn't, why would he be defending his belt against a guy who's coming off a feud based on how much everyone loves and keeps chanting for him?

I'm not backstage. I don't know about merch sales or how well old PPVs did and don't think this had much to do with the insanely good Mania buy rate and 90,000+ tickets sold. Mania sells itself, but certain some tickets were sold to boo Roman... But with the Cena era, there were MANY matches that felt white hot because we hate Cena so much. Without all of Cena's heat, Punk/Bryan/Lesnar/Rock/so many others wouldn't have had the sometimes white-hot feuds they had.... We were invested, and being the opposite of this ultra-corporate dickbag gave you lots of star power.

The thing is... I'm not sure if it's the same with Reigns. Ya know?

EDIT: An old wrestling promoter once said that he ran a poll to ask the fans which wrestlers they'd want to see fight. Whenever they booked that fight, it never drew as well as face vs heel does. If we always get what we want, we wind up not wanting it. Not an IWC thing, this goes back to the territory days.

And maybe pushing one of the very few that we don't like who can feud with so many that we do may be the best idea after all? (If it didn't coincide with the worst run of ratings ever)

 

[Mr. Roman Empire]

The funny thing about all the hate for Roman is its hardly even his fault. People hate on him because really they are hating on the desicions of Vince McMahon and the upper WWE officials for not listening to the fans and putting over who they want. I think WWE is making the right choices now since they are gonna turn Reigns heel, or at least it seems like that's what they are doing with this new feud with AJ

 

[edge4ever]

He is over, just not over as a babyface if that makes sense. Cena has gotten "the wrong" reaction for years whilst still being their biggest star, was he not over either?

Not the same thing. Cena is a RARE exception. He's loved by kids and sells crazy merchandise... Meanwhile he can have a crowd boo him all night and still sell out an arena. He's truly unique. Reigns isn't in this league....they want him to be and are pushing for it.

 

[Stopspot]

I like what you're saying but WWE won't turn reigns heel and that's the issue

What do you think they are doing now? Seems quite a bit like a slow burn heel turn if you ask me

 

[Mr. Roman Empire]

What do you think they are doing now? Seems quite a bit like a slow burn heel turn if you ask me

I hope Payback is gonna be the big turn. It's in Chicago so the crowd is gonna be grilling Reigns and I see him getting a dirty victory over AJ and then insulting the crowd somehow. That would be sweet ooh:

 

[Prince Bálor]

WWE clearly cares about getting Roman more heat. If they didn't, why would he be defending his belt against a guy who's coming off a feud based on how much everyone loves and keeps chanting for him?

A heel turn is in order.

Besides Anderson and Gallows helping Styles win (thus forming Bulletproof Club/*insert name here* Club) or Reigns mauling Styles to trigger the heel turn (in a similar fashion ADR did to DZ a few years back), there's really no other scenario I see happening. I think the latter is more likely to happen.

 

[seabs]

Not the same thing. Cena is a RARE exception. He's loved by kids and sells crazy merchandise... Meanwhile he can have a crowd boo him all night and still sell out an arena. He's truly unique. Reigns isn't in this league....they want him to be and are pushing for it.

Eh, not the point. Reigns get a similar reaction to Cena so is over. That's all there is to to it. Plus he sells a shit ton of merch by all accounts, I can only find an article from 2014 which shows him as the second top seller behind Cena, dude is over.

Top merchandise sellers for WWE in the late summer/early fall at live events, in order, includes John Cena, Roman Reigns, The Usos, The Wyatt Family, Brock Lesnar, Sting, Sheamus, Daniel Bryan, Dean Ambrose and Hulk Hogan. Cena’s merchandise sales were described as “greatly outdistancing everyone else” when fully broken down.

For orders through WWE Shop, the top 10 best sellers were Cena, Ambrose, Reigns, Lesnar, Steve Austin, AJ Lee, Bryan, Brie Bella, Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior.

The Top WWE Merchandise Sellers Revealed - Details - ProWrestling.com