YMMV / Roman Reigns

• Alas, Poor Scrappy:
  • Even if fans see Reigns as Cena's Replacement Scrappy due to the executives' constant booking, they gave him some sympathy the moment they saw a photo of him having an emotional breakdown over The Undertaker's retirement. It doesn't help that Reigns did what Vince McMahon told him to do and The Undertaker agreed with it.
  • Brock Lesnar winning in his WrestleMania 34 rematch against Reigns is actually part of Lesnar and Vince's "secret Plan B" (though Reigns was informed about this before the PPV event itself) in case the aforementioned match didn't end well as planned (mainly due to Reigns' Broken Base reputation since 2015). Vince was right when the audience in New Orleans were booing the hell out of Reigns and Lesnar to the point of demanding Reigns to have more "attitude" and "ruthless aggression", which ultimately resulted with Lesnar extending his WWE contract through a new high-rated deal and squaring off with The Big Dog again, this time in a steel cage match at the Greatest Royal Rumble. The more rational fans see Reigns's loss to Lesnar in their WrestleMania 34 rematch as well as Samoa Joe's "The Reason You Suck" Speech on him the following night on RAW as his Moment of Weakness, as they feel sorry for his performer over the massive backlash he got.
  • His leukemia announcement garnered him a great deal of sympathy from everyone, including his detractors, to the point that it seems to have finally, at least for the time being, killed off the infamous X-Pac Heat he got (or at the very least a big chunk of it). The general sentiment among the latter seems to be "We might not like him, but we don't want him to die of cancer."
• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • Reigns was ridiculed somewhat in 2014 for his apparent apathy to Rollins's betrayal of the Shield. He continued somewhat unperturbed in his pursuit of the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, while Dean Ambrose became almost obsessed with revenge against Rollins. But some of his actions in 2015 - especially after The Reveal that Reigns was almost the Authority's handpicked guy if not for his honorable streak - may indicate that he saw Rollins as a pawn and his real intention was to run through Rollins (and anyone else) on his way to The Man Behind the Man, Triple H. Maybe making Rollins answer for his actions, while it would have been enjoyable, was less important to Reigns than removing the corrupting presence behind Rollins, and maybe he thought that if he could just get rid of Triple H's influence, that he could get his brother back.
  • One interpretation of his spearing of Triple H after the latter came out to congratulate him after his WWE World Heavyweight Championship win at Survivor Series 2015. He probably remembered that the last guy that Triple H came out to congratulate got sucker-Pedigreed and fed to one of Trips's buddies for an easy cash-in. (Not that it helped Reigns, who got nailed by a sneak Brogue Kick five seconds later and lost his title.)
  • Was he really trying to kill Braun Strowman with that ambulance? Given that wrestlers have repeatedly been (Kayfabe) shown surviving car crashes before, as well as falls off of buildings, direct hits from lightning, immolation and burial, on top of Braun having durability that is astonishing even by wrestler standards, this may not have been an attempt at murder so much as Roman realizing that a forced ambulance crash might have been the only thing that had any chance of even HURTING Braun.
  • Roman's Tribal Chief persona can be perceived as a way of him trying to feel like the man he was supposed to be, but that idea got warped by his experience. After years and years of being pushed to the top, he could be harboring a sense of self-importance coupled with some insecurity that he was massively rejected by the crowd, only receiving pity after revealing his leukemia diagnosis. He clings to the title as a means of establishing his worth to others, but still feels incomplete without being acknowledged so, so he needs Heyman to make sure he's got someone experienced on his side and his family to fall in line in order to feel accomplished.
• And You Thought It Would Fail: Specifically, the WWE and Vince McMahon. After over half a decade booking Reigns as babyface despite massive fan backlash, WWE finally relented and gave him a heel turn. Which has led to the single most successful run of Reigns' entire career and fans legitimately being so onboard with his "Tribal Chief" persona, they've supported a year long title reign that continued for 1,316 days before being dethroned by Cody Rhodes at Wrestlemania XL.
• Arc Fatigue: The Reigns/Lesnar feud has been lingering in the background since 2015 (which, as of this writing, was three years ago, one year longer than the infamous Cena/Rock feud). Even people who like Reigns are starting to get sick of it, especially since their last two one-on-one matches were considered lackluster. Not helping the matter is that most fans and critics can tell that the only reason why the feud hasn't ended yet is that Reigns isn't over enough with the crowd to officially take over as the next top face. It took Reigns's leukemia announcement and hiatus for them to stop pushing it; when Reigns returned in 2019, he spent most of the year in the midcard, and then was gone for a good portion of 2020 thanks to the COVID-19 Pandemic. The aforementioned pandemic also meant Lesnar was gone from the company for almost two years thanks to travel restrictions. After the crowds returned and the travel restrictions were loosened, they revisited the feud in 2021-2022, this time with Reigns as the heel and Lesnar as the face, and it seemed like the company recognized the rivalry itself was overplayed, so their WrestleMania 38 feud was structured as if the match was going to be their last together. Unfortunately, Reigns's slated opponent for the following SummerSlam, Randy Orton, suffered a back injury that would take him out for the rest of the year, so the company decided to go back to Lesnar as their backup plan — much to the frustration of the Internet.
  • Speaking of 2022, his seemingly endless title reign, and killing off of every single credible challenger. After Drew lost again at Clash at the Castle, audiences just generally gave up hope with it. Things have gotten better though, thanks to Sami Zayn's inclusion onto The Bloodline storyline breathing new life into the group, creating a fascinating new dynamic for the stable and allowing Roman and the Usos to become more developed and three-dimensional once again after months of being treated as nothing more than Invincible Villain.
  • Reached an absolute tipping point for fans after WrestleMania 39. After killing off Drew's and Sami's lightning in a bottle moments, they managed to convert Sami's momentum into another moment with Kevin Owens and The Usos as part of the grander story of the cracks in The Bloodline, with the additional caveat of helping to set up Cody Rhodes to "finish the story" of both his personal quest to capture the gold his father never had and of the fall of the Roman Empire. Yet, one night after Owens and Zayn capture the tag titles from The Usos, supposedly detonating the powder keg...Roman wins to retain the title the exact same way he always does, with The Bloodline numbers game working seamlessly against Cody despite Sami and Kevin being there to stop The Usos. This would lead fans to wonder what the actual point of investing in a Reigns title match was anymore. To make matters worse, the events that immediately followed this decision were Vince McMahon retaking full public power over WWE via the sale and merger to the UFC's parent company Endeavor, as well as WWE putting on what has widely been panned as the worst "Raw After WrestleMania" show in history. From there it's not a question of if the Bloodline eventually succumbed to this trope through baffling booking decisions, a repetitive story and match structure, and a lack of fan investment in Roman compared to the hot babyfaces he kept beating, but when. Many believe that, by the time Cody or anyone else actually gets to dethrone Reigns, the next-level "new champ energy" that WWE shot down on at least three occasions (including the one they were supposedly aiming for all along!) will be a distant memory at best.
  • Roman's title reign has become so long that WWE is forced to create a third world title for others to compete in, especially since Roman started to become a part-timer.
• Badass Decay:
  • Reigns' popularity exploded while he was one-third of The Shield. He was the power guy, he made the hot tag, he had some of the best spots (like spearing people through the barricade), and generally had an aura of capability, mystery, and power. He also had Ambrose and Rollins to talk for him and cover his weaknesses in the ring, and Luke Harper to sell his offense during the awesome Shield/Wyatt Family matches. Then he got a singles push, and without all these factors behind him, his flaws as a worker became readily apparent. With that said, his babyface character was still initially booked like like an anti-heroic juggernaut and was generally given material that fit his pre-established character, causing him to remain over with the fans for a while. However, after returning from hernia injury, his mystique fully fell apart when he was given awful, rambling, humor-driven promos. The "sufferin' succotash" guy is not nearly as cool as the human weapon that squashed Evolution. The creative team has caught wind of this and has tried to remedy the situation, by having Reigns defeat the League of Nations singlehandedly on two occasions. This backfired with his "tater-tots" promo, mentioned below, and served only to heap further heat onto Reigns and make the League of Nations look like dorks.
  • When Reigns violated the Wellness Policy, forcing the company to suspend him, it soon became clear that Vince McMahon was pissed at him, or at least someone very high up the ladder was. Prior to Money in the Bank 2016, Reigns had never been defeated clean. His last clean loss was under the "Leakee" name back in developmental, against Leo Kruger, aka the future Adam Rose. Not only did he lose clean at that PPV against Seth Rollins, but he also lost clean at his return match to Dean Ambrose, eating the pin for the Shield triple threat match. The following night on Raw, he lost clean again, this time against Finn Bálor, who, while a decorated wrestler in his own right and regarded as one of the best in the world, had just debuted on Raw on that night. Reigns went from being Super Cena 2.0 to eating clean pins like candy and the IWC couldn't be any happier.
  • While seemingly more ruthless during his heel run, many has noted that the Tribal gimmick doesn't seem to be as strong as the Big Dog, especially after his first year as Universal Championship. Other than becoming a part timer like Brock who only defended his tittle once every few months, fans also note than Roman can hardly win without using a low blow (which he usually does while kicking out of a pin) or having his cousins interfering for him. In fact, Roman hasn't won a match without outside interference since June 17, 2022. This is jarring since Roman, back when he was a face or during the Shield's initial run, was known to be a One-Man Army but has now become a typical Dirty Coward heel who needed others to bail him out. This ended up lowering Roman's credibility and hype as he his doesn't seem to be a badass Invincible Villain like Lesnar, whom at least doesn't need outside interference to win his matches.
• Base-Breaking Character: In the Babyface Roman Era, WWE's clear decision that they were absolutely intent on making Reigns the next main face of the WWE had caused this. On one hand, the harder they pushed in this direction the more they polarized the fans who already weren't crazy about him; on the other hand, much like with the case of John Cena, there were also fans who simply liked him without any problem. After the Heel Turn, however, not so much.
• Broken Base:
  • Far back in the latter years of the Vince McMahon Era, every time the WWE gave Reigns any sort of big win, the fans were sharply divided on whether it was necessary or not. For example, during his feud with Bray Wyatt, even some fans who actually liked Reigns himself just fine felt that losing the feud would be better for him in the long run and that recovering from a loss to someone who was able to beat him mentally would add depth and sympathy to the character.
    • Further elaborating on this, a large, significant contingent of fans felt during this era that Reigns MUST turn heel, in the peak of this era. Even "Stone Cold" Steve Austin back in Vince MacMahon's later years in running WWE stated that Reigns should turn heel. As he and many others pointed out, practically every major face around thirty years by that point in time were entertaining heels before they became faces, including Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Austin himself, Reigns' cousin The Rock, John Cena AKA Reigns' predecessor as "face of the company", Daniel Bryan AKA the guy everyone was cheering over Reigns, and even Reigns himself as part of The Shield. When they turned face, they retained all the heel characteristics that made them entertaining in the first place while doing more face-like things like being a Big Damn Hero. The logic in that line of thinking seemed to be that by turning him heel, it would have allowed him to make his character more believable and get the crowd firmly behind him so that way when he would eventually turn back to being a face after a long run as a heel (for example, Edge's heel run going more than six consecutive years), everyone would have finally accepted his Kayfabe character. In fact, many fans pointed out that they REALLY didn't want Reigns to be like Cena, but to be like Edge during the Ruthless Aggression and PG eras instead. As it would happen, these particular fans were eventually arguably vindicated when Roman finally did turn heel in 2020, rapidly winning over just about everyone who'd every doubted him with his new "Tribal Chief" character and coming to be considered the best thing in all of WWE... and with that, the effective end of his Broken Base baggage.
  • Perhaps not the character himself, but his title reign, which is approaching three years, with the most recent third with unified titles, is starting to get some of this. Some people feel like it's warranted because the Bloodline saga that revolves around him is consistently the best thing about WWE programming and arguably one of the best long-term wrestling storylines ever. Others note that it's slowed the momentum of other stars - to the point that WWE had to revive another title just so shows Roman wasn't on could have some semblance of a main event champion. Some even argue that the reign is simply the result upper management was trying to get over fan protests for years, just dressed up in a slightly more palatable package. Variables like Roman's part-time schedule ^note (does it make him feel like a bigger star or artificially extend his title run and make shows he doesn't work feel irrelevant by default?) and the nature of his match finishes ^note Fairly consistent pattern of ref bump -> Bloodline interference -> Spear -> win split the base even further.
• Catharsis Factor: One half of why Reigns got cheered at TLC 2015 is because the majority of the fans didn't want to hate him, seeing potential but being constantly pissed off with the company's booking making him into another John Cena (one is enough, for many) and having the entire roster, not just the smark favorites, being pushed aside just to put him over. Having him booked correctly was a relief to many. The other half is because, after having to endure two years of The Authority angle just refusing to die, watching him annihilate Triple H was downright therapeutic.
  • Has also ended up on the other end of this during his reign as the leader of The Bloodline, holding an iron grip on the company's top title for three years with the help of his allies, all the while gaslighting, intimidating, and bullying the very people upholding his title run for him. Suffice it to say, as the stable slowly fell apart in 2023, the moments where each of them turned on him have seen some of WWE's loudest pops in the modern era.
• Creator's Pet: His hatred with the fans is well-known, to the point that the mics are muted to quiet the boos. Still, Vince McMahon wants him to be the future of the company and pushes him into more and more while having as many people as possible talk him up. This, in turn, results in more dislike. Eventually it reached a point where Reigns was getting pushed in spite of the fact that business was suffering because of it. While it seemed that it stopped for a while after a violation of the Wellness Policy and subsequent suspension, that ultimately didn't end Reigns's push, as he eventually went on to eliminate the Undertaker from the 2017 Royal Rumble and retire him at WrestleMania 33.
• Critic-Proof: During the 2014-2019 era... kind of. Reigns was supposedly one of WWE's top merch sellers, and a lot of his defenders at the time claimed that this proves he really was popular with the non-smark fans to justify his megapush. This was disputed and we could list historic arguments and counter-arguments over whether the statement is accurate or not, but regardless, it was the argument that his defenders in the industry (including WWE's bookers) used for continuing this push... which only made it all the more ironic, once the Face–Heel Turn transpired in 2020, with Roman instead becoming the single most critically acclaimed wrestler in the WWE.
• Designated Hero: Following his Wellness Policy violation, Reigns was dropped down the card to feud with Rusev, one of the only heel wrestlers that would get a heel reaction working against him, in an attempt to reverse his standing with the fans. It didn't work, mainly because Reigns's face actions toward Rusev were absolutely deplorable. The feud started when Rusev and his valet and later also wife Lana held a renewal of their wedding vows on TV a week after their actual wedding. Reigns then came out to "congratulate" the two, but then did nothing but toss barb after barb toward the couple. When Rusev understandably had enough and attacked Reigns, Reigns shoved him into Lana, who went face-down into the wedding cake, and then laughed as she screamed that her special day was ruined. Later, when Rusev complained to General Manager Mick Foley about the disrespect Reigns had shown him, Mick punished Rusev by putting his United States Championship on the line in a match with Reigns. That match, at SummerSlam, never got off the ground: Rusev jumped Reigns before the bell, but Reigns fought back, an understandable heel/face dynamic, but Reigns then continued to beat up Rusev long after he wasn't putting up a fight anymore, brutalizing him with several chair shots and even returning to spear him through the barricade after medical staff were sent to check on Rusev (for context, a similar action later in the night toward Randy Orton and Shane McMahon was supposed to be Brock Lesnar's Moral Event Horizon). Then, the unexpected injury to Finn Bálor shot Reigns right back up to the top of the card for a Fatal 4-Way Match for the vacant title a week after SummerSlam with absolutely no better of a reaction than he had when he left it. You could almost hear the sigh of relief when he was eliminated from the title match, and when Rusev returned and cost him a chance to get another title shot, the fans closed out the show chanting Rusev's name.
• Draco in Leather Pants:
  • Inverted; at his lowest point, almost anyone who wrestled Roman became this. Roman wasn't a heel (despite all evidence to the contrary), but at the time he was arguably the greatest anti-face in wrestling history. He managed to get Wrestling Monster Braun Strowman cheered like a hero by having the big man beat him so brutally he was coughing up blood. Fortunately for him, this has died down after he was Rescued from the Scrappy Heap.
  • Ironically, he now plays this straight: Roman went from a widely-detested Face to a critically acclaimed Heel when he returned in 2020, and many have praised his subsequent growing Character Development and intense matches, despite his brutal No-Holds-Barred Beatdown against Jey Uso (and, at Hell in a Cell 2020, Jimmy Uso).
• Fan Nickname: "Samoan Joe" by some. This stems from his entry into the 2017 Royal Rumble as the Number 30 entrant, for many were expecting Samoa Joe (among others) to make his main roster debut and the fact that his name actually is Joe.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Many smarks, especially those in favor of Reigns turning heel, would've love to see him paired with Eva Marie before her release since they're both massively hated for the same reasons and the belief that the two could easily draw nuclear heat together.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: India is the one country that Roman is accepted as a top face in without any irony, even at the peak of his nuclear X-Pac Heat. After his temporary surge in popularity in December 2015 had evaporated, the Indian fans welcomed his entrance during WWE's tour like he was his far more beloved cousin Dwayne.
• Growing the Beard: Roman's heel turn in late 2020 saw him go from ping-ponging between breaking bases and X-Pac Heat to becoming one of the most acclaimed, well-rounded performers in the entire industry, amusingly right in line with Roman literally growing out a full warrior's beard.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The angle of Braun Strowman tipping over Roman Reigns in the ambulance and later telling Reigns that the next time they'll meet, "it will be [Reigns'] funeral". Too bad it had to happen a week before his brother Matthew "Rosey" Anoaʻi died.
  • The revelation that not only has Roman suffered from Leukemia and recovered before but that it's come back has caused some fans to feel this way about their mean-spirited comments towards him due to his divisive status.
  • For the first several years after Roman's Face–Heel Turn, many fans considered a match between him and his cousin The Rock to be a Dream Match to determine the "True" Head of the Table. When Rock finally returned in early 2024 to challenge Reigns for the Undisputed Title at WrestleMania XL, it ended up bringing back both men's old X-Pac Heat due to fans being pissed about Rock taking Cody Rhodes' Mania main event status he earned from winning the Royal Rumble, preferring to see Cody "finish the story" from the previous year's Mania main event with Roman rather than having two part-timers fight over the belt.
• He Really Can Act: Many fans were floored to see him voice acting for Elena of Avalor as a villain. Have a look.
  • His crocodile Tears of Remorse at Hell in a Cell had people wanting Reigns to get an Emmy.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • For detractors, at least. Rapper Monteasy Moore made a fan song about Reigns called "Heart of a Warrior" that has a lyric which says "Royal Rumble, I'm winnin', takin' the gold". In his six Rumble appearances thus far, Reigns was the last man eliminated by the winner in 2014, won the Rumble only to eat the pin in the main event at WrestleMania in 2015, lost the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in a failed title defense in the Rumble match in 2016, and was again the last man eliminated in the 2017, 2018, and 2020 Rumble match.
  • As noted on the main page, one of his primary enemies was Brock Lesnar, known for his Badass Boast t-shirts like "Eat, Sleep, Suplex, Repeat." Since his 2020 Face–Heel Turn, not only has Reigns taken on Lesnar's old manager, Paul Heyman, but also wears similar t-shirts, like "Show Up & Win" and "Wreck Everyone & Leave."
• Ho Yay: With Dean Ambrose. While it's not quite to the level of the Homoerotic Subtext between Ambrose and Seth Rollins, the two nonetheless share a very strong bond that remained completely unbroken through the Shield's initial dissolution to Ambrose's eventual departure from the company. Reigns is completely and utterly loyal to Ambrose, who is the one person he never has anything to say bad about, and later reveals that he's never forgiven Rollins for betraying them for The Authority.
• Hype Backlash: If there's a single trope that describes Roman Reigns during the face run of his solo career, it's this. The issue with Reigns was never his background or even his ability. Most objective watchers will agree that, even if he's not a great technician, he's a good athlete and very steady in the ring, which is more than can be said for a lot of the guys WWE has tried to push over the years. But the push was so unsubtle and manufactured that it came off as WWE trying to bully the audience into a certain reaction. So, of course, a huge segment of WWE fans (a large block of which are young adult male Americans that as a general rule don't like being told what to do) did the opposite of what WWE wanted out of sheer spite for the way it's been handled. WWE's initial attempt to push Reigns coinciding with the peak of Daniel Bryan's popularity only made things worse. It wasn't until the leukemia announcement did the backlash really stop (mostly out of guilt), and even then hints of it still lingered. As far as many are concerned, Roman didn't start living up to the hype until he turned heel and started turning out some of the best character work and in-ring performances of his career.
• I Knew It!: An interesting variant; for literal years people, including major industry figures such as "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, Rikishi and even Hulk Hogan, had insisted that Roman needed to turn heel to save his character (like his cousin The Rock had famously done when his "Rocky Maivia" character had gone nowhere), while WWE had insisted that they knew better and booked him as the most-hated babyface in wrestling history. In 2020, after almost everyone had given up hope of ever seeing a Roman heel turn, he came back from time away as a heel (a Paul Heyman guy no less) and, who could have guessed, his character was reinvigorated by the new "Tribal Chief" gimmick, he was given new purpose and new direction, and he instantly not only embarked on the best run of his WWE career (his time in The Shield included) but even got hailed as the best thing in the entire company. Cue every fan who'd insisted Roman needed a heel turn acting extremely smug.
• Iron Woobie: The leukemia revelation and the very fact that he had been working stoically for eleven years after seemingly beating it the first time around retroactively turned Joe Anoa'i into one. The grace and composure and awe-inspiring dignity he displayed during the announcement only hit home how much of a fighter the man truly is.
• It's Popular, Now It Sucks!:
  • Reigns was Ensemble Dark Horse with The Shield, but became a Base-Breaking Character since his main event push began.
  • As noted in X-Pac Heat below, this is mainly because, after The Shield broke up, Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose evolved their characters. Reigns, on the other hand, like the Trope Namer, kept all the Shield stuff — the theme, the flak vest, etc. basically changing nothing about himself at all. This was cemented when Reigns finally turned heel in 2020 and refreshed his character, including finally ditching the vest and wrestling shirtless. He's now more popular than he has been in years, and while WrestleMania proved that grown men are still on board to boo him and chant that he sucks, it's now full-on Love to Hate, as his heel work has successfully resonated to the point it transcends the now-all-too-familiar pitfall of Evil Is Cool.
• Jerkass Woobie: One interpretation of Reigns's "Tribal Chief" gimmick is that he's become the monster heel he is because of the years and years of rejection and abuse he experienced at the hands of the WWE crowds, and even though, in his own mind, he's only the bad guy because no one else has the guts to make the hard decisions he's had to make to stay on top, the crowd still rejects and boos him. (Out of character, of course, this is simply the result of his spectacular and effective heel work rather than the nuclear X-Pac Heat he used to get.)
• Like You Would Really Do It:
  • The idea of Reigns ever losing clean was seen as much in the vein of John Cena — never going to happen. And then Reigns violated the Wellness Policy. He ate three clean pins straight, the latter two in the space of 24 hours.
  • Likewise, the idea of turning him heel. When it finally did happen in 2020, it was easily the most shocking development that year (and that was the year of COVID-19, mind you).
• Memetic Mutation:
  • His hair, especially among the fangirls, since the man is pretty much a perpetual shampoo commercial.
  • Ever since he referred to Renee Young as "babygirl" in a backstage segment, the word is now associated with him.
  • His "sufferin' succotash" promo.
  • CM Punk's words that he had to "make him look strong".
  • Tater tots.
  • A Running Gag in the IWC is commenting on the numerous inanimate objects that are more over than Reigns. This list includes Mitch the potted plant, Dean Ambrose's Companion Cube when he hosted his Talk Show with Fists the Ambrose Asylum. Other items that Ambrose has managed to get more over than Reigns include a crowbar, Barbie the barbed-wire bat,^note although since Barbie was the weapon of the famous Mick Foley, who gave it to Ambrose himself as a "passing of the torch", that's not really that surprising and a chainsaw^note a la Terry Funk. Also on the list is Francesca (2), Xavier Woods's trombone, Chris Jericho's lite-brite jacket, and his scarf.
  • Dean stole Roman's cousins. ^explanationAfter the 2016 WWE draft, the Shield Triple Threat match at Battleground wasn't seen as just a way to determine who was the best of the former Hounds of Justice, but which brand would be host to the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, with Rollins and Reigns both representing Raw and Ambrose representing SmackDown. When Ambrose pinned Reigns to retain the championship, the SmackDown roster came out to celebrate, including the Usos — who hoisted Ambrose on their shoulders as a triumphant hero. While not entirely out of the blue since it's well-known that the Anoa'i clan are close with Ambrose through his friendship with Reigns both on and off the screen, given the emphasis on Reigns' family ties since his push first kicked into high gear and especially the Usos' zeal in helping Reigns in his title reign a couple of months earlier against AJ Styles, Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows? Many found the role that Reigns's cousins played in the celebration of the man who pinned him in the big championship match to be either hilarious or petty, depending on their sense of humor and/or perspective on Reigns following his Wellness suspension.
  • Don't do drugs, kids.^explanationAn inevitable comment when something indicating Reigns's fall from grace since the suspension happens, as the Spoof Aesop learned from his misfortunes.
    • Do drugs, kids. ^explanationDespite that, WWE started pushing Reigns again several months after the suspension and even had him defeat and retire The Undertaker at WrestleMania, making the previous de-push null.
  • Faithless fool. When your time on earth is done, enjoy nothing.^explanationAfter Roman tweeted out prayers for Hurricane Irma, one user attacked Roman for believing in God. Roman's response quickly grew memetic due to how much it makes him resemble a JRPG villain.
  • TREMENDA OBRA MAESTRA. 20/10 Y GOD.^explanationMeaning "TREMENDOUS MASTERPIECE. 20/10 AND GOD", it's a macro used in the Spanish-speaking wrestling community (particularly spread by Spanish wrestling YouTuber Falbak) that features Reigns as he appeared during the announcement that WrestleManias 36 to 38 would change locations, using to convey anything extremely positive. Not only would it expland outside wrestling fandom, but it would also have its opposite version, TREMENDA CAGADA. -10/10 Y ZZZ ("TREMENDOUS PIECE OF SHIT. -10/10 AND ZZZ" featuring Triple H, for some reason) and WWE even appeared to become aware of it to some extent, as not only Reigns would shortly after the meme's inception began to refer himself as being in "G.O.D. Mode" (as in "Greatness On a Different Level"), but WWE would also share a gif of the aforementioned announcement the meme is based on when celebrating Roman's birthday in 2022.
  • "Hey, I noticed you were stalking children at the public park." ^explanationA bizarre image macro that for some reason uses Roman's likeness to accuse the reader of being a predator. It's commonly used as a Take That! against media with fandoms that are perceived as exceptionally creepy, such as Super Smash Bros. or Genshin Impact. Sometimes he's swapped out for Linus Tech Tips or Saul Goodman instead.
  • The moment of him effortlessly catching a mic Brock threw to him before their match at Summerslam in 2022 followed by him winking in acknowledgement immediately went viral.
  • After his upset win against Cody Rhodes and the fanbase started to question who was left in the locker room that could unseat his 945+ day title reign, memes started to sprout up online of Roman beating increasingly absurd foes like Godzilla or photoshopping Roman as decades older and still the Undisputed Universal Champion.
    • Has a variation on TikTok where people react to the finals of various other sports such as the Formula 1 Driver's Championship or the World Cup final and being surprised by Roman somehow winning that too.
• Mis-blamed:
  • Instead of blaming him for the decrease in quality of the product, many began to see him as another victim of it. In hindsight, this shouldn't have been surprising — Seth Rollins got the same treatment after he was booked poorly as WWE World Heavyweight Champion. It's not just him who has to deal with this crap, but the entire roster. Case in point: ten months of being booked like John Cena got him tepid to mild reactions at best if he wasn't outright booed. Ten minutes of being booked like a legitimate badass managed to get him over with Philly the next night, and his promos on Raw were short and to the point, enough that little of his momentum from that moment was lost. That shows that Reigns himself was never the problem, it was management and their half-baked booking and over-scripting of promos. Gradual realization of this is why Reigns eventually lost a lot of his X-Pac Heat and why the company is in so much hot water with the fans right now — they don't want to hate him like that since he's supposed to be a face and not a heel, and thus can't convert that into heel heat, but the company's booking gave them little choice since the McMahons, the primary offenders that the fans know of, are currently heels and are supposed to be booed. Reigns effectively became The Scapegoat for the incompetence of management and creative, and the fans felt guilty he's had to face so much scorn for it. On the bright side, he also admitted it gave him a kick in the ass and the motivation to improve, which the fans were very appreciative of.
  • In CM Punk's infamous podcast, one of his grievances was being constantly told to "make Roman Reigns look strong", particularly in a 3-on-1 match where Punk was scripted to beat The Shield by himself. And that played a big hand in the backlash towards Reigns when Punk didn't seem angry at Reigns at all. It was the constant insistence by the higher-ups to tell him what to do when he actually told them that if they wanted to get Reigns over, they should've just have had Reigns beat him in a decisive manner.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Reigns retiring the Undertaker at WrestleMania 33. His X-Pac Heat has gone off the charts and his chances of ever getting over as a babyface have been obliterated.
  • Attempted to outright murder Braun Strowman by smashing an ambulance Strowman was in at speed into a parked truck is a very clear example (even worse than this was Reigns's reaction to losing their ambulance match). Of course, given Strowman's own brutality toward Reigns and many others, this one was arguably understandable via Pay Evil unto Evil.'
  • His match vs. Jey Uso at Clash of Champions 2020 crossed it after Roman, not satisfied with Jey just "taking the payday and laying down" and pinning him, decided to lay a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on his cousin until Jey verbally declared Roman as his "Tribal Chief". Jey refused to give up, forcing his injured brother Jimmy to limp down to the ring and literally beg Roman to stop before throwing in the towel for Jey and declare Roman as the "Tribal Chief". Even Paul Heyman, Roman's own "special council" who managed The Uso's dad in the 1990s, was disgusted over the beating. This also signified that the Roman Reigns of old, vest and all was gone.
    • In his rematch with Jey Uso at Hell In A Cell 2020, which was under “I Quit” stipulations, Roman subjected Jey to yet another No-Holds-Barred Beatdown that by the end of the match, Jey couldn’t even stand, yet once again he refused to submit. Having seen enough, Jimmy Uso called out Roman on what he was doing to his family and begged him to stop the match. For a moment, it appeared Roman was showing genuine remorse for his actions, to the point he broke down in tears...which turned out to be a ploy to sucker Jimmy into lowering his guard and force him in a guillotine chokehold, forcing Jey to say "I Quit" in order to save his brother. If the former didn't convince the rest of the doubters, this certainly did.
  • Even as a heel, Reigns is often so charismatic that he gets cheered regardless, and has a face-pop-on-command built into his promos^note (City name)... acknowledge me.. Then Royal Rumble 2023 happened, which ended with tens of thousands showering him with jeers of "FUCK YOU ROMAN!" All of the terrible things Roman has done, including gaslighting his cousins, nearly crippling Edge, and driving Daniel Bryan out of WWE, and the one thing that the fans cannot forgive is Roman forcing beloved underdog Sami Zayn to choose between the Bloodline and his best friend and when Sami chose Kevin, beating the both of them into unconsciousness.
• Narm:
  • His absurd promos in late 2014, often referencing Looney Tunes and fairy tales, including a drawn-out reciting of Jack and the Beanstalk. You know it was Vince writing them by that point.
  • "And I'm here right now to be the first man to degl—declare at the Royal Rumble match... *Stares into your soul* It is made more ridiculous by the fact that Daniel Bryan comes back and gives an incredible promo has the crowd in the palm of his hand.
  • The Tatering. Kind of explains Reigns's "shit, this isn't working" face on top of the ladder. He's trying to deliver this terribly written promo, kids are falling asleep in their seats, fans are leaving, Sheamus's music takes forever to hit (and Sheamus also thinking what Reigns was saying was racist)... Unbelievably bad.
• Never Live It Down:
  • Apparently Reigns has "lots of rough nights" keeping him away from making promotional interviews. ^explanation The day after setting the record for most eliminations in a single Royal Rumble, Reigns couldn't make it to a few Shield promotional interviews hyping up the upcoming night's episode of Raw in Cleveland. A few fans who saw videos of these interviews on YouTube would notice that when/if ever the interviewers asked about Reigns's absence, Ambrose would say that he "had a rough night", yet failed to connect other dots that they were all on the same day, such as Rollins's and Ambrose's outfits being the same in all of them, as well as clear mention of both Cleveland and the upcoming Raw. The "lots of rough nights" thing is the resulting impression those fans would usually come away with.
    • Thankfully downplayed if not averted, as it didn't catch on as a permanent meme in and of itself, let alone one with bad implications about his fidelity to his family; instead it became absorbed into a far more benign and playful meme about his general good looks. Seth Rollins has said he'll occasionally call Reigns "Fabio" whenever he's not around. Dean Ambrose also stated that, while each member of The Shield has their fangirls and each of them is somebody's type, Reigns is the one that seems to be everybody's type. Generally speaking on first glance, women make no secret of finding him attractive while men regard his appearance as badass. It's mostly kept in the realm of a very intense Mr. Fanservice, but it'll occasional tip over into this.
  • Ever since a certain podcast broke the internet, "making Roman Reigns look really really strong" has become this.
  • When Vince started personally writing Reigns' promos leading up to Royal Rumble 2015, two of the corniest phrases Vince made him say, "Sufferin' succotash, son!" and "You know who didn't have to remind people they were a giant? Andre the Giant." became endlessly mocked amongst smark fans as a reason why Reigns wasn't ready to be pushed.
  • His first violation of the Wellness Policy seems to be going down this way. Doesn't help that news of his suspension was met with widespread celebration (which was really saying something, as the majority of the IWC was already on cloud nine thanks to Rollins pinning Reigns semi-clean, Ambrose winning the Money in the Bank ladder match and cashing it in on the same night to finally win the title, and the fact that the long-awaited Shield Triple Threat match had finally been booked) and pretty much flushed his entire two-year-long push down the drain. The company itself seems to be making sure that Reigns and the rest of the locker room learns a lesson from it. You could call this one subverted, though, since once he'd eaten the initial few losses, his push came back again stronger than ever. It's possible that no-one in WWE history has ever been pushed as hard by management as Roman was in 2016/17, so he's apparently finished living it down already.
  • Again one that is not Reigns' fault and several fans forgave him for that, but there is no way anyone will EVER forget his retirement of The Undertaker. In fact, this was so badly-received that WWE saw the writing on the wall and decided to basically ignore it, with 'Taker coming back at WrestleMania 34 to squash John Cena and resume part-time activity. Ironically, the only aspect of the situation that the fans don't blame him for is the actual match itself, which everyone agrees was mediocre, but as a result of Taker's body breaking down at the wrong moment and proving he really could no longer perform at a high level anymore. Reigns did his best to carry Taker through the rest of the match, and general agreement is that no one else could've done any better in his place.
• No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: In the absolute pinnacle of the infamous X-Pac Heat Roman had received prior to his far, far better received Face–Heel Turn, no matter how much the crowd booed and insulted him, Vince continued to push him as a forced, cookie-cutter babyface, with Triple H all but stating in one interview that as long as Roman was getting a reaction, they were going to keep doing what were doing with him. A sentiment that had been sustained for five years straight.
• Older Than They Think: Roman's first reference to the being the "Head of the Table" came in 2014.
• Pandering to the Base: For a good few years beginning around 2016, WWE's then latest strategy in attempting to get Roman over seemed to be rooted in this. First, it was the attempted reunion of The Shield (unfortunately derailed by Dean Ambrose getting injured), then it was having him repeat smark complaints about Brock Lesnar never showing up to defend his Universal Championship (which would have worked better if Roman wasn't always the one getting the few shots at Lesnar that did happen and repeatedly coming up short). Then on his first Raw after finally winning the Universal Championship from Lesnar he declared his first act as champion would be to give a title shot to the inaugural Universal Champion who'd been injured while winning the belt and forced to relinquish it then never given a return shot- Finn Bálor (a repeated complaint for several years had been "Finn never got his rematch!"), which certainly went over well. They then reunited The Shield again (Ambrose having recuperated and returned) after Roman beat Finn to foil Braun Strowman's attempt to cash in the Money in the Bank briefcase on Roman. WWE seemed to be using Roman to pander to every smark complaint except for the ones about him... until, of course, came 2020, the year in which this trope would be played far straighter than anyone could have predicted: the year of Roman's Heel Turn as a Paul Heyman man. A Heel run that, up until the Arc Fatigue started setting in at Wrestlemania 39, has claimed nothing but critical acclaim.
• Replacement Scrappy:
  • Though it's not really his fault, his seemingly perpetual push as the new face of the WWE is more-or-less a reflection of the inherent nature of the booking of the company, which magnifies every single problem that fans, both smark and casual, have issues with. The need to push him and make him John Cena 2.0, who the fans got sick of years ago and didn't want as a nigh-unbeatable company hero in the first place, and deprive him of every single trait that got him over initially, all while pushing genuine fan favorites (Bryan, Wyatt, Ambrose) down the card and burying practically the entire roster to get him over, all so that corporate can please the network, sponsors, and shareholders — while the fans are forced to grin and bear it — has caused subs for the Network to take a hit each time he wins a pivotal match. After the 2015 Rumble, the number one trend worldwide on Twitter was #CancelWWENetwork, over 20,000 people had unsubscribed from the Network within the first few hours and the page to unsubscribe crashed from all the traffic, and fans outside the arena rioted. That's how badly it was received.
  • It doesn't help that his perpetual monster push invariably coincided with popular fan favorites being squashed and buried by a spiteful creative team after the fans failed to react as planned; perpetually beloved Daniel Bryan returning from potentially career ending injuries only to be humiliated repeatedly helped start the seemingly endless vitriolic backlash.
  • Intentionally or not, Reigns has become a heat magnet for the entire industry, and that stigma will likely follow him for the rest of his career; the only way he could ever rise above it is if he either became as popular as his cousin and Daniel Bryan in his current face persona (which is practically impossible with the terrible booking that everyone, not just him, has gone through), or he embraces it, turns heel, and carves out his own persona and gets over that way (which is eventually what he did).
  • Things have gotten so bad that he's become this for John Cena himself of all people. For all the hate Cena got for the "Superman" character they're doing with Reigns, he at least made an effort to make it bearable. When Cena took time off in late 2015 and Reigns got the spotlight completely unhindered, by Survivor Series the smarks actively began to miss Cena.
  • During the 2016 "Road to WrestleMania", a lot of fans perceived him as this for Dean Ambrose. It was absolutely no secret that most fans wanted Ambrose in the main event that year, which was only reinforced when Ambrose proved to be the MVP of those three months: he had three successful programs with Kevin Owens, Triple H, and Brock Lesnar (even if the payoff for that last one was a letdown) and a stellar performance at the Royal Rumble, winning a Last Man Standing match and then entering the Rumble match and lasting to the final two. The middle one, in particular, was pivotal, as that was when Reigns was out with a deviated septum and was gone for a couple of weeks, leaving Ambrose as the only full-time main event talent on the roster and thus the one who had to carry Raw.^note This is not a joke — when Reigns was out with injury, Ambrose really was the only one left. Cena, Orton, and Rollins were all out thanks to injury, while Daniel Bryan had to retire. Every other main eventer was a part-timer — part of why that program with Hunter even happened was because he was the only other main event talent that even showed up regularly. He even managed to get heat on Triple H, something that Reigns completely failed to do. Not helping matters was the fact that Ambrose's title match with Triple H at the WWE Network's Roadblock special was considered infinitely better than Reigns' title match with Triple at WrestleMania (it was considered one of the early forerunners for Match of the Year, perhaps the main forerunner until NXT TakeOver: Dallas). In fact, many speculate that one of the main reasons why Vince still went with Reigns in spite of all the fan support for Ambrose was because he was forced to relent to what the fans wanted for the last two years and wasn't going to budge this year.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • While not outright hated, Reigns was initially dismissed by the IWC, since they only cared about former indy stars Rollins and Ambrose debuting, and many suggested that he didn't deserve to be in the Shield and believed Kassius Ohno should have been in his spot instead. However, he became quite the IWC favorite during his Shield tenure after getting some much-needed experience in the ring. He fell back into Scrappy once it became clear that he's being groomed as Cena's replacement over IWC favorites.
  • The crowds have been gradually warming up to him since his loss at WrestleMania 31 and WWE gently easing him away from the title picture for now. For instance, he managed to receive cheers in a match that featured both Ambrose and Rollins, both traditionally more over than him. He still isn't exactly loved, but he isn't hated now either. His feud with Bray Wyatt has helped a lot. An amazing improvement on the mic, in the ring, and Dean Ambrose backing him up for the foreseeable future has endeared Reigns to a lot of people. It helps that the storyline, while developing into a war as the Wyatt Family vs Reigns and Ambrose (and later on, Orton), is, at its core, really a conflict between them, and they haven't forgotten it. It did such a great job of putting both men over that the two closed out Raw in what is considered to be the best main event (post-match brawl and all) in a while, and got to be the second Hell in a Cell match in a card that features 'Taker/Lesnar in the Cell.
  • He got even more sympathy after the Sheamus cash-in, right after finally winning the title. Not in the conventional sense, mind you — people hated it because it was basically a rehash of the Daniel Bryan storyline two years before, and Reigns had nowhere near the popularity or the underdog aura of final opponent Dean Ambrose, let alone Bryan, to make it conceivably work. However, that being said, the IWC wanted Sheamus to be champion even less than they wanted Reigns to be a face champion!
  • And then in TLC 2015 after Reigns lost the title match against Sheamus due to interference from Rusev and Alberto Del Rio from The League of Nations (King Barrett didn't interfere because of a nerve injury), Reigns had enough and started beating the trio senseless with a steel chair, to which Triple H and Stephanie McMahon of The Authority came out to stop Reigns, and then Reigns started to beat Triple H up as well. This got the crowd cheering for Reigns harder than Reigns' ever been cheered before in his singles run, and this same crowd chanted "We Want Cena/Cena Sucks" as a way to piss-take on the match. This was so successful that Reigns got a "Thank You Roman!" chant the following night on Raw in Philadelphia. The very same Philly who, earlier this very year, booed both him and The Rock straight out of the building. It was probably because A) it gave Reigns some much-needed character development, B) it showed shades of the badass character that got Reigns over initially, and C) people really hate The Authority. They even celebrated with him when he finally won the title that same night.
  • Unfortunately, the X-Pac Heat seems to have returned with a vengeance at the 2016 Royal Rumble. He was voraciously booed all throughout the match, and when the League of Nations came out to take him out of the match, they didn't receive a negative reaction. When Reigns made his return to the ring and got two eliminations in quick succession, the crowd booed him, and Triple H got one of the loudest pops of the night for eliminating him... yes, the same Triple H who was such a scrappy that Reigns finally got over by beating him up. The reason for this is because the above beatdown was never followed up on and the moment it got Reigns over, somebody up in management put the kibosh on it. Hence, the X-Pac Heat returned (though Reigns did remain somewhat over with casual fans). The fans didn't want him to return to being a Cena-knockoff — they wanted to watch him beat people up.
  • He seems to be heading towards Base-Breaking Character after WrestleMania 33, partly due to putting on great matches at Payback and Extreme Rules... and losing both. Though he still looked pretty strong, the failure to secure the wins took away a lot of his Invincible Hero status and allowed fans to appreciate him and his matches more objectively.
  • Reigns lost his scrappy status and X-Pac Heat permanently after he was forced to relinquish the Universal Title and go on hiatus to battle his leukemia. Part of it was because of sympathy, but another part of it was due to his speech. When Reigns made his speech, talking as his real self, Joe Anoa'i, he apologized that he couldn't stay and be their fighting champion, that he appreciated the fans for always reacting to him, and that this wasn't a retirement speech — after he was done beating leukemia, he was coming back home. Many fans noted that he sounded more like the face that they would support and cheer for than he had for most of his career being booked like John Cena. A few others noted that he never spoke about his battle with leukemia throughout his wrestling career, let alone used any of it for sympathy the entire time he was being hated for being booked like John Cena. To them, it was the final proof they needed that he really did deserve his spot as the company's top face.
    • About a month later, WWE released a WWE Chronicle episode for Dean Ambrose, documenting the events leading up to Ambrose's Face–Heel Turn (and thus Reigns' leukemia announcement). Reigns nearly hijacked the documentary with his hilarious backstage antics, so much so that people outright stated that if he had acted like this on-screen he would've been over with the crowd easily. It was only more proof of his talent, and that most of his issues getting over with the fans was management's fault.
  • After Reigns returned in 2019, having successfully fought off the leukemia again, it's confirmed that the X-Pac Heat is a thing of the past, at least until WWE manages to earn him some more (which they haven't managed to so far). It helps that they're not relentlessly pushing him as "the guy" any more, as he hasn't even sniffed near either the WWE Championship held by Kofi Kingston or the Universal Championship held by former Shield brother Seth Rollins, and they've managed to restrain themselves from playing his victory over his leukemia for cheap sympathy points. He was set to take the Universal Championship back from Goldberg at WrestleMania 36, which came dangerously close to renewing the audience distaste when Goldberg asked "Who's next?" and Roman walked out and basically said "Me", earning the title shot for no more apparent reason than "because he's Roman Reigns", but this died down when Roman pulled out of the match because of the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic (a decision pretty much everyone agreed with and respected him for) and also after Goldberg admitted that he'd returned to WWE again specifically because he'd wanted to work with Roman, so he's still in relatively good standing with the fans (if not the company). In fact, as the pandemic has stretched on longer and longer and Roman has continued to stay away from WWE, fans are starting to really miss him.
  • When he finally made his return at the 2020 SummerSlam, he did so by attacking both The Fiend and Braun Strowman after Strowman lost the Universal Championship to The Fiend, viciously declaring his own intentions to go after the championship whilst wearing a new shirt reading "Wreck Everyone & Leave". Due to the ambiguous face-heel status of both Strowman and The Fiend as well as the obvious aggression in Reigns' mannerisms, many actually wondered if Reigns was at last undergoing a Face–Heel Turn. Then came the revelation of Paul Heyman at his side, the last-minute contract signing to Show Up & Win the Universal title a week later at Payback after Strowman and The Fiend had already fought for ten minutes, and the retooling of his character as the "Tribal Chief" with Heyman as his "Special Counsel"; now Roman is widely regarded as the most interesting man in the entire industry, as many had called would happen if he ever turned heel.
  • By 2021, he had fans eating out of the palm of his hand while maintaining a decidedly antagonistic tone with them, goading grown men in the front row at WrestleMania to chant "Roman Sucks" at him while at the same time being viewed by the IWC as the greatest thing in wrestling in years. Forget just being the most interesting man in the biz, Roman Reigns is now cited by many as being one of only a handful of larger-than-life captivating superstars left in all of pro wrestling. And half of those will straight up say he is the article in question.
  • In short, between the occasional cheers in badass spots, the jarring leukemia revelation, and finally the fresh vision of dominance with none of The Shield training wheels still on, one can best conclude that all it took was less fast-tracking and micromanagement and more presentation of a seasoned Joe Anoa'i to take Roman Reigns from perpetually straddling the line of "get him off my TV" heat to being hailed as the best wrestler WWE has produced in a long time, and one of the best wrestlers in the world.
  • Roman's heel turn also rescued the WWE Universal Championship from the heap, with Roman's dominance making it feel like a true world championship and the title of SmackDown after years of being a complete joke, damaged by lackluster feuds, a pair of injury-based vacations (Finn Bálor injuring his shoulder during the inaugural match as well as Roman's leukemia fight during his first reign) and absenteeism by part-time title-holders. Hell, before Roman got his hands on it many were under the belief that the Universal Championship was cursed.
  • But then he fell right back into it after beating Cody Rhodes. The fans finally saw that Roman was being booked too protectively, and noticed that all of his matches had the same finish of a ref bump followed by an interference from either The Usos or Solo Sikoa allowing him to win. The case of Cody was perhaps the most egregious of all, as the grander story that had supposedly been told with Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens, Rhodes, and The Bloodline leading up to the match, including Zayn and Owens defeating The Usos for the tag team championships in the previous night's main event, had supposedly lit the fuse for both The Usos' ties with Reigns to at least strain when it mattered the most and for Cody to take the lead as a red hot top babyface in WWE's mold. When all three of Rikishi's sons intervened without fail to ultimately ensure Reigns defeated Rhodes in the same manner as every other challenger as though none of the above mattered, all of the love fans had for Reigns and The Bloodline disappeared almost immediately...
  • ...until the Bloodline's story continued in full steam later that year. It proved doubters that doubted the ending of WrestleMania 39 Night 2 wrong as not only the fans were drawn back to both Roman and The Bloodline's story, the crowd remains as hot as ever to both Roman and The Usos as fans (or at the very least, the smarks) slowly realized that the story of the Bloodline is far from over.
• Shocking Moments:
  • Anytime he spears someone through a barricade tends to come off as this. The one he did to Sheamus at Elimination Chamber 2013 was particularly epic-looking.
  • The one he did to Bray Wyatt through the announce table got "YES!" chants from what was a nominally dead crowd.
  • His beatdown of Triple H at the end of TLC 2015. Even Boston, who had been more concerned about getting themselves over during the majority of the main event match between Reigns and Sheamus, loved it and started up a "Thank You Roman!" chant.
  • His Spear to Stephanie McMahon during his WrestleMania 32 match with Triple H. This even managed to get him a very brief pop after getting loud boos from the crowd. Of course, they then resumed booing him immediately after.
  • The one to Rusev at the end of his mixed tag match with Sasha Banks where he leapt over her and Charlotte made for an impressive visual as well and got a huge pop, which is really saying something as Reigns was roundly booed throughout his time in the match right until that moment.
  • Being the second man after Brock Lesnar to beat the Undertaker at WrestleMania is already a huge one. Him retiring The Undertaker is an even bigger one. The crowd was stunned and dead silent after the whole match.
  • Reacting to his loss against Braun Strowman at Great Balls of Fire with attempted vehicular homicide. After being resolutely booked as a face for years no matter the audience's reactions, attempting to kill his opponent in cold blood was certainly something few expected.
  • After an entire year of people treating his inevitable victory over Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 34 for the Universal Championship as the latest in a long line of "coronations" as a literal Foregone Conclusion, he lost. In fact, Brock brutalised him, busting him open the hard way until he was wearing the crimson mask. And it still took six F5s to finally finish him!^note Which isn't to say people liked this result, as it made all the effort WWE had put into making the F5 look like an unstoppable finisher, including having both Braun Strowman and Samoa Joe be unable to kick out of a single one, look incredibly dumb.
  • The shocking announcement on October 22, 2018, that not only had he fought leukemia before, which he'd never mentioned anywhere before in any attempt to garner support or sympathy during all the fan-vitriol; but that he'd been working after beating it into remission for eleven years and that it had resurfaced blindsided everyone and reduced the crowd to Stunned Silence.
  • After being gone from WWE for five months in 2020 because of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Roman made a shocking return at SummerSlam, coming out at the end of the Universal Championship match between Bray Wyatt and Braun Strowman and beating up both men with a steel chair while shouting angry abuse at them. This was shocking enough and started discussions about whether this was actually Roman's long-awaited Face–Heel Turn (although this was countered by people pointing out that Roman had done far more heelish things in the past while still being booked as a face). However, an even bigger shock was in store the next week on SmackDown when Adam Pearce eventually tracked down Roman to get him to sign the contract for the championship match against Bray and Braun at Payback only to find him accompanied by his new advocate- PAUL. FREAKING. HEYMAN. So yeah, it's confirmed- after six years of playing the same character, Roman Reigns is now a heel!
• Signature Line: "My real name is Joe, and I've been living with leukemia for eleven years. And unfortunately, it's back."
• Suspiciously Similar Song: "Head of the Table" is a pretty much the Succession theme with the intro from O Fortuna all in the key of The Shield's theme.
• Take That, Scrappy!:
  • Was on the giving end of one in WrestleMania 32, where he speared Stephanie McMahon, and actually got the crowd to cheer for him. They then resumed booing him right after.
  • Everything about Reigns during his suspension and especially after his return from said suspension was regarded as this to Reigns, most likely in retaliation for said suspension. During his suspension, Rollins outright acknowledged on WWE television that Reigns' suspension was due to violating the Wellness Policy, heaping misery on him for it, though since Rollins is a heel, at the time it could also be understood as a proverbial Kick Them While They Are Down moment within kayfabe. However, at Battleground 2016, commentary acknowledges the negative reaction he's getting^note He's near-unanimously booed during his entrance and whenever he gets offense in the match despite this being his return to main programming, a sign in the front row next to the ramp follows up on a recent Reddit AMA comment by "Broken" Matt Hardy and states that Reigns must be DELETED,◊ "Roman Sucks" chants start before the match even does, etc. rather than trying to spin it as something else. He gets the shit beaten out of him by Ambrose and Rollins (keep in mind that 1) Until then, Ambrose had defended Reigns during his suspension against Rollins's rants, and 2) Ambrose and Rollins are perennial Arch-Enemies), culminating in them working together to do the Shield's signature powerbomb on him to put him through an announce table, the move that Reigns used to be the centerpiece of, and then Ambrose pins him clean with a Dirty Deeds to retain the title, right after Reigns got a spear on Rollins and was about to win it himself. For the final parting shot, Ambrose celebrates his win with the rest of the SmackDown roster, where Reigns' cousins The Usos, who just months earlier were pulling AJ Styles off a cover to keep the title on him, lift Ambrose up on their shoulders to end the PPV. The following night he was verbally eviscerated by Stephanie McMahon for costing Raw the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, in front of the entire Raw roster. Then, when it seems he has the chance to face Seth Rollins for the new WWE Universal Championship, he loses clean again, this time to the just-debuted Finn Balor. Reigns has clearly lost favor with someone in upper management thanks to that suspension, and they're making him pay for it dearly, while the IWC was left in absolute stitches.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring:
  • Part of why there was such a widespread apathy for the WWE product post-WrestleMania 32 is because the fans were conditioned to react as if Reigns were another John Cena who would only lose via shenanigans and would always win otherwise. That's why his title match with Seth Rollins at Money in the Bank 2016 had a dead atmosphere in the beginning — everyone figured that Rollins was going to lose the match since it was too early in Reigns' reign for him to lose it via shenanigans yet. Nobody expected Rollins to win, let alone clean, nor did they expect Ambrose to cash in and finally become champion since the company had him playing second fiddle to Reigns despite being a main-event talent in his own right and infinitely more popular than his best friend. When they suspended Reigns for his violation of the Wellness Policy and it was revealed that the company knew of the violation beforehand (hence the title change), many fans deflated in their enthusiasm, figuring that Ambrose was only a transitional champion and that Reigns would win the upcoming Triple Threat match against Rollins and Ambrose at Battleground 2016 clean — the best they could hope for was a dusty finish so they could split the world title for the upcoming brand extension. Thus, it was a shock to the fanbase when Ambrose was the one to win the Triple Threat, and clean to boot, by pinning Reigns.^note Though in hindsight, it becomes clear that Reigns was not going to win the match and the title back. Handing it back to him after he violated the Wellness Policy while he was both champion and the prospective face of the company would've been a PR nightmare, especially since a few weeks after Reigns' suspension, USADA revealed that Brock Lesnar had failed two drug tests in regards to his fight at UFC 200, and WWE, in turn, was forced to reveal that wrestlers that work part-time like Lesnar aren't subjected to the Wellness Policy, putting the company in the crosshairs of a potential drug scandal, the sort of black mark a publicly-traded company obviously can't have. Yet the fans, who had become incredibly jaded over the course of Reigns's push, were convinced that there was nothing that would stop the company from continuing to back Reigns. Even after Ambrose won the triple threat, many still figured that Reigns would be in the Universal Title match at SummerSlam (though it was less having to do with the apathy and more having to do with the fact that Reigns and Rollins were the only two certified main eventers on the show) and win that match — watching him get pinned clean by Finn Balor, on Bálor's first night on the main roster was the final push needed to convince the fans that Reigns was no longer the golden boy and reduce the apathy regarding him to almost nonexistent. However, this has returned with a vengeance after he eliminated the Undertaker from the 2017 Royal Rumble match and later retired him at WrestleMania 33 (even if Vince told Reigns to do it and The Undertaker approved it).
  • For once, Reigns was responsible for ending this, at least in regards to Lesnar's first Universal Championship reign, which was notoriously long (504 days, outstripping even CM Punk's historic 434 day-reign). Lesnar barely showed up for even a quarter of that, and by the time Reigns captured the title from him the fans' standards had dropped so low that they were willing to accept any champion that would show up regularly and have good matches with the rest of the roster. Reigns, having improved significantly as an in-ring performer compared to his initial main event push three years prior, easily ticked both boxes so the fans were willing to give him a chance and cheered when he won the title (it also helped that the The Shield re-formed around this time). And then he had to vacate it due to his leukemia two and a half months later, forcing the company to put the title back on Lesnar.
  • Reigns has run into this again to a degree with his title defenses after Wrestlemania 39. Many have complained that because WWE have all but telegraphed that the soonest Reigns would be losing the title is Wrestlemania 40, any matches that happen before that point aren't worth the emotional investment.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: In the sense that fans started hating the company and the character while sympathizing with the performer. After Survivor Series 2015, it became clear that management and creative had failed Reigns just like they have with everyone else on the roster, so many smarks on the Internet started using him as an example while detailing arguments as to why creative/Vince/whoever sucks while the hatred for Reigns went down to a noticeable degree. When Reigns got over briefly in December 2015 only to become The Scrappy once again a month later, only more sympathy was piled on to him. By that point, it was clear there was no one to really blame but management. Perhaps nothing speaks to this more than the fact that the character got over when it turned out his performer was a cancer survivor. The final nail in the coffin is when he finally got to turn heel and proceeded to become the most over performer in the company with his critically-acclaimed "Tribal Chief" gimmick, proving he really is the transcendent star the company had been touting him as. Many fans felt robbed that they missed out on six years of having this Reigns, all because the company refused to listen to the criticisms. What didn't help is later reports that Reigns was actually ready to walk away from the WWE before his 2020 return and was only willing to come back if the company let him make a Face–Heel Turn, showing that he shared the fans' frustration with management in regards to his character.
• Vindicated by History: Back in late 2014-2015, Reigns was considered a green Creator's Pet, undeserving of his main event push and future position as face of the company. These days, that opinion has shifted dramatically; while almost everyone still agrees that Reigns really was too green in 2015 to receive that level of push at the time, his "Tribal Chief" gimmick and subsequent run with the Universal Championship starting in late 2020 proves that he really is a generational talent who is every bit deserving of his top spot. As an extension of that, most feel he's actually one of the biggest victims of WWE's complacent, tone-deaf, and corporate-driven booking of the 2010s, being a natural heel who was forced to play a character that he didn't fit at all just because the company wanted someone to replace John Cena and thought his marketability would make him a fitting substitute.
• Win Back the Crowd:
  • Eleven months after the infamous booking that lead the crowds to booing him and even The Rock during the road to WrestleMania 31, Reigns finally managed to win back genuine cheers from the crowd when he destroyed Triple H at the TLC PPV, and again when he punched out Vince McMahon and won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship for good from Sheamus the following night on Raw. Even more egregiously, the arena in which he won the title was the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, the same arena that booed him and The Rock at the Royal Rumble. Subverted in that this goodwill eventually ended at the 2016 Royal Rumble, and shows no signs of coming back anytime soon. If The Shield mini-reunions at Payback 2015 and Survivor Series 2016 are any indication, they are sure-fire ways to have Reigns get cheered if only for a Triple Powerbomb spot. However, any chance of this trope happening to him have been all-but-obliterated with him retiring Undertaker at WrestleMania 33. The only possible chance now for him to get over is if he turns heel as he's going to be one in the eyes of the fans forever post-Mania 33 otherwise especially given he's still babyface.
  • However, even with all of the above having been said, this seems to be happening again as of late 2017. In the wake of WM33, the WWE significantly toned down Roman's frankly absurd Invincible Hero booking, having him lose repeatedly to Braun Strowman and then fail to dethrone Brock Lesnar at Summerslam 2017. Following on from this, Roman - despite being very close to the Heel in this particular instance - benefited from a well-promoted and well-executed feud with John Cena, which saw him significantly improve both on the mic and in the ring. A well-timed and much-anticipated reunion with The Shield gave Roman a further bounce, as did a lengthy hiatus from wrestling on account of a very real and very serious bout of viral meningitis.
  • His heel turn. Many regard it as the best thing to ever happen to Roman, as it refreshed his character, restored his popularity with the fans permanently, and saw him turn out some of the best performances of his career, both in character work and matches. The fact that Roman actually seems to be sincerely enjoying his new role is the cherry on the top.
• X-Pac Heat:
  • Received this since the buildup to WrestleMania 31 because WWE was clearly pushing him as the next top babyface despite him being too green, having terrible mic skills, and not having evolved his character in any way since The Shield disbanded^note He's still wearing the SWAT attire, uses a remixed version of the Shield's theme, still enters through the crowd, and uses a modified version of the Shield's catchphrase (Believe That!). Some fans have even called him the X-Pac of the Shield because of this. simply because of his look, size, and Anoa'i family ties. As a result, many of his fans turned against him since he won the 2015 Royal Rumble and wanted him to go away. His reception as a solo star went from cheers, to mixed reactions, to boos. He even received dead silence at times. Ratings for Raw were on a steady dip during Reign's title run, to the point that Pro Wrestling Torch's coverage of Money in the Bank 2016, where Dean Ambrose won the title after cashing in on Seth Rollins (who pinned Reigns clean in the main event), outright attributed Ambrose's title win to WWE needing to do something after the ratings for Raw. Sure enough, ratings for the Raw after Money in the Bank spiked, while Reigns's suspension for violating the Wellness Policy the night after was met with both wide celebration and massive disappointment. Celebration because he wouldn't be on Raw for a couple of weeks and disappointment because the company all but handed him everything in spite of the ardent hostility of the fans only for him to flush it all away. To illustrate just how much of a low point 2016 was for him, he won Pro Wrestling Illustrated's "Most Hated Wrestler of the Year" award, which is supposed to be granted to successful Heels. Roman is the only wrestler in the award's history, first inaugurated in 1972, to win it as a Face.
  • The heat he got on the Raw after WrestleMania 33 was beyond nuclear. The crowd was incredibly hostile to him, not letting him speak for 15 minutes while chanting things like "FUCK YOU ROMAN!", "ASSHOLE!", "SHUT THE FUCK UP!" (Keep in mind, Reigns has not said anything at that point) and "GO AWAY!" at him. At this point X-Pac Heat might as well be renamed "Roman Reigns Heat." Unfortunately, WWE remain utterly convinced that this is a good thing, sticking to their script that "Reigns is getting the biggest reaction so he's the biggest star in the company, even as a 'face' who everyone hates", and citing merchandise sales as proof that Reigns is their biggest attraction, so they clearly have absolutely no intention of changing anything. His hate has gone to the point where some people even wished Joe Anoa'i should have been the one who died when his brother Matt, AKA Rosey, died on April 17, 2017 at the age of 47.
  • Even X-Pac himself can't help but sympathize with Roman in regards to his X-Pac Heat.

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