Ever since Roman Reigns was handpicked by WWE as the new face of the company (and John Cena's replacement), fans have rejected The Big Dog. WWE really hasn't helped matters by having him headline multiple WrestleManias and forcing him down the throats of fans and now Cena has weighed in on why the man who was once the most popular member of The Shield is now universally booed.
"Roman has it tough. I kind of ruined this for everybody…the content, the format change did. Attitude Era was male 18 to 35. And our program still draws males 18 to 35. But we’re a PG program. Which means you’re audience is a six year old. I don’t say don’t cater to the male 18 to 35, but your audience starts at six or younger. So you have to give them essentially Shrek or Cars or the Lego Movie.
"Sometimes, 18 to 35 year old dudes don’t want to watch the Lego Movie. You have to try to push, but don’t think there’s not a second in my mind that our audience isn’t six. Our audience is so mixed that there’s never going to be a good guy that appeals to everyone. Even if it’s someone that the fans endorse and become the guy. It’s a thing where the fans are like, ‘Okay, you as a company are going with this guy? No you’re not because we get choose.’
"When Roman was with The Shield, everybody loved him. He didn’t really change much. He was soft-spoken, his actions spoken for him, he performs incredibly well. Yet there’s a giant uprising because a lot of it is, ‘You can’t tell us what to like.’ And that’s okay. It’s just tough waters to navigate as a company and it’s tough to build stars."
Cena is spot on here and as someone who experienced this rejection from fans over the years, he knows what he's talking about. The odds definitely seem to be stacked against Roman and the PG rating doesn't help matters but WWE should have given up on him years ago as a number of stars have risen since he started receiving his push that could have become the face of WWE and not been booed.
It's hard to say for sure, though, and with Vince McMahon fully committed to Reigns as the new "face that runs the place," it is what it is. What do you guys think? Share your thoughts in the usual place.