MONDAY NIGHT REIGNS-O-METER #32: Tracking Roman Reigns’s ability to beat the odds and come out on top

Roman Reigns is one of the most divisive and talked about WWE performers in history. The company makes desperate play after desperate play to make him their number one star – thus far to no avail. How do they do it? What do they do?

I’m Tom Colohue and this is the Monday Night Reigns-o-Meter.

Monday Night Reigns-o-meter – Summerslam Omnibus Edition

Roman Reigns has not been the focus of WWE programming recently. He’s on a pay-per-view losing streak and his Shield buddies are getting much bigger reactions. Does this make Roman sad? No. Maybe on the inside.

So while some regions of Twitter spent Summerslam wondering if Roman was wearing red, desperate to see a full Shield reunion ending with Roman raising the UV Title over his head, Roman Reigns had other ideas. He was going out, on his own, to defeat three men who have all legitimately had his number all year. Three men who have beaten him, who have dominated him, who have destroyed him.

Yeah, it didn’t go well for Roman.

Not only was this match all about Strowman vs. Lesnar, but Roman Reigns was the one to take the pin, being counted down for three after a single F5, just as Samoa Joe had suffered the month before. When Roman kicks out of the F5 at WrestleMania, it’s actually going to mean something this time.

Defeated, battered, Roman licked his wounds and cuddled his WWE championship replica belts to sleep that night before emerging on Raw, triumphant, destructive, and not selling anything.

It’s okay, though. Neither did Lesnar. Stretchered out one night and casually bouncing around the next. Roman could teach him a thing or two about selling if only anyone bothered to do any.

Roman Reigns, the franchise player, lined up against John Cena, also the franchise player, in the battle to decide who was the franchise player.

Then The Miz came out and embarrassed the both of them. I mean, seriously, this was pathetic. Reigns stood in the ring, said his one line, and then stood idle while The Miz literally stole the show. His promo was unquestionably the highlight of that segment, with Roman far down at the bottom in the pile of impressive aspects.

Yes, I’m a bit biased towards #DeadpoolMiz, but let’s be fair, Roman had to do much better than he did here.

And so we had a tag match, building towards the ultimate goal of Roman Reigns vs. John Cena. A match for the ages. A match made in heaven. A match that the crowd in Brooklyn did not like the sound of at all, but to be fair, Miz and Bliss were basically the only things that crowd was really keen on. The tagging happened. The battle lines were drawn. The fighting began. Not going to lie, Roman got beat up a bit, but through sheer force of will and the massive swell of fan support (there was a beach ball, it wasn’t pretty), Roman was able to overcome the odds, fight through the pain and successfully lay on the floor while Cena won the match.

Accrued, that’s a Roman Reigns beating no odds. Y’all know Cena’s going over, right?

Odds Counter
– Braun Strowman
– Samoa Joe
– Brock Lesnar
– Samoa Joe again
– The Miz
– Bo Dallas, briefly

Did Roman Reigns beat the odds?
No

NOW CHECK OUT LAST WEEK’S COLUMN: MONDAY NIGHT REIGNS-O-METER #30: Tracking Roman Reigns’s ability to beat the odds and come out on top