MONDAY NIGHT REIGNS-O-METER #54: 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 – with limited success. 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

A short one this time, though still longer than Lesnar has spent in a wrestling ring this year.

One thing Roman Reigns did a lot of last year is wrestle. He was in a lot of matches, he briefly dove spear-first into an ambulance, he tried to kill a man, he did a lot of howling and jumping around, and so on. The man’s tired.

Now it’s gone the other way and, instead of doing much in the way of fighting, we’re getting a lot of Roman Reigns talking – generally considered to be the weakest part of his own overall game.

How did he do? Well, you see when you’re in the ring with Paul Heyman, quite possibly the most accomplished hype man in wrestling history, the man who made ECW through sheer force of will at times and the man who taught Steve Austin how to be intense, you shouldn’t really have any chance in hell. And yet, talk he did.

Naturally, Paul Heyman brings with him a bright red, oddly shiny inanimate object as a prop. This time, though he leaves Brock Lesnar behind and brings the UV Title with him instead.

Yes, I know he said it’s not a prop – don’t mess with my joke.

Heyman kneels on the mat, pointing at the title and decrying its value after having casually thrown it on the floor. He highlights the king-making potential of championships, but enough about the Intercontinental Title this one is all about the rarely seen UV Title.

Spoilers: Brock’s not here again. In case that wasn’t obvious.

Roman comes out to a lukewarm reception, an upgrade by his usual standards. Roman’s anti-establishment, anti-rich-lazy-guy persona would have worked a lot better with someone who wasn’t an internationally recognized talent raking in millions upon millions of dollars, but hey it’s a start, right?

Roman, wearing both Shield colours and UV Title colours, takes a good old-fashioned cheap pop to start his adventure with words and takes a leaf out of Samoa Joe’s book by intimidating Heyman. He continues to pound the PG-safe cuss word and doubles down on what is essentially the same promo he hit last week. This week, though, it lands firmer and harder.

It’s a short segment. Raw banners advertise a Lesnar-Reigns segment next week which could also end up being a Reigns vs. microphone segment. He used to lose those. Not so much any more.

Odds Counter
– His previous self

Did Roman Reigns beat the odds?
Yup.

Say hello to modern Roman. They’re setting quite the stage.

Follow Tom Colohue on Facebook and Twitter for updates.

NOW CHECK OUT LAST WEEK’S COLUMN: MONDAY NIGHT REIGNS-O-METER #53: Tracking Roman Reigns’s ability to beat the odds and come out on top