5 reasons why Roman Reigns is losing his fan base

Last year, The Shield was one of the hottest most popular things in WWE as they began cementing themselves as one of the greatest factions ever while Roman Reigns was pushed as the powerhouse of the group.At the 2014 Royal Rumble, Reigns was cheered heavily but was eliminated by Batista who won the match through a chorus of heavy boos. At this year’s rumble however we saw the tables turned as the fans rejected Reigns by booing him out of the building as he won.Reigns has slowly but surely been losing his fan base so let’s take a look now at 5 possible reasons why.

#1 Lack of development

Since the disbandment of The Shield last year, both Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose have undergone significant character adaptions. They’ve both been given new music, new unique attires and have developed new attitudes. Ambrose is now playing up the ‘lunatic’ part of his character much more while Rollins has evolved into the company’s top slimy heel.

However in comparison, Reigns hasn’t undergone these important developments. He still essentially has the exact same attire, still uses The Shield’s old entrance music, is still basically the same ‘silent powerhouse lone wolf’ character and still even uses The Shield’s old signature entrance through the crowd.

Reigns has demonstrated absolutely no growth as a character since the destruction of The Shield. It’s somewhat understandable that WWE would want to incorporate (and keep) a few signature features due to the Shield massive popularity but this is just ridiculous and as a result, is partly responsible for the fans rejection of Reigns.

#2 Doubts about delivering

Whether you like it or not, Roman Reigns is headed to the main event of Wrestlemania 31 in a clash against Brock Lesnar for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship which he is highly likely to win.

Many fans may have accepted this by now, but there are still numerous lingering doubts as to whether Reigns will be able to deliver a solid performance on the grandest stage of them all.

When Reigns won the rumble, he was yet to have a singles PPV main event. His only significant singles PPV match was an only average encounter with Randy Orton at Summerslam, leaving many fans in doubt as to whether he has what it takes.

He was given an opportunity in the main event of Fastlane and performed very well. Take into account though he was working with one of the best in ring performers in WWE today and the bout still probably wasn’t Wrestlemania main event calibre worthy.

#3 Poor promo skills

One of the biggest criticisms of Reigns is his promo skills. Many may agree that Reigns is (arguably) improving on the mic but he is still nowhere near at a main event level in terms of promo skills and without someone like a Heyman or Lana by his side he just isn’t ready.

While in The Shield he was surrounded by two of the best mic workers in the company today, Seth Rollins and even more so Dean Ambrose. Yet still, after spending two years beside these incredible individuals, Reigns is struggling severely on the microphone.

His poor promo skills are a key reason why many fans have begun turning their backs on him.

#4 Other more popular stars

Another major reason why many fans have been rejecting Reigns is that fact that there are so many more popular and talented stars that are being snubbed in the eyes of the fans.

Daniel Bryan, Dolph Ziggler and Dean Ambrose are all hugely popular and talented individuals who deserve big matches at mania yet find themselves lumped together in an IC ladder match (which don’t get me wrong, will be incredible. The match I’m most looking forward to).

Most fans would have much preferred to see any of these guys go on to face Lesnar at Wrestlemania. As a result, the large fan support that these mega stars garner has in turn caused many to turn on Reigns and boo him instead.

#5 Forced upon fans

One of the most significant reasons why Reigns is losing a large majority of his fan base is the fact that to many fans it still feels like he is being forced upon us when there are plenty of other more talented individuals we would rather support (as previously mentioned).

Despite an obvious downward spiral in Reigns fan support, the WWE have still decided to push him into the main event and force him onto fans that were clearly beginning to reject him.

The continued pushing of Reigns, even though his fan support was clearly on a massive decline (especially compared to others such as Bryan, Ziggler or Ambrose) has further made fans reject Reigns even more.

The main event match between Lesnar & Reigns will be in interesting one to watch. Hopefully, Reigns can prove us all wrong and deliver an amazing bout but only time will tell.