MONDAY NIGHT REIGNS-O-METER #58: 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-0-Meter

Change. Uproar. Havoc. Monday Night Raw was all of these things and while others were shook up on the shake up show, while others wrestled on the wrestling show and still others did Dolph Ziggler things on what is now obviously known as the Dolph Ziggler show, we were treated to our hero talking for a bit.

He cut a scathing promo, covering himself in glory and greatness. His heritage shone through, his dynasty and proud bloodline out there for all the world to see.

But before Samoa Joe arrived we were first treated to Roman Reigns. Yeah. Great.

Roman came out to open the third hour for the second week in a row. Again he didn’t wrestle. Again he didn’t fight. Again he was interrupted by the same guy.

Samoa Joe, standing on the ramp, did what is apparently now his job; advocating for Paul Heyman advocating for Brock Lesnar. Joe put over how tough Lesnar was. He made Roman seem weak and small. Well, even more weak and small after what happened at WrestleMania. He threw to a pre-prepared video package that was basically celebrating how easily beaten up Roman Reigns was.

At this point I, a Roman Reigns fan, am going to be annoyed if he beats Samoa Joe. Maybe I’ll have a rant about how Roman is being buried? Nah, he’s too pretty to bury.

All good stuff, none of it part of any actual feud between the two. The word pointless doesn’t begin to cover it but you’ve got to get Roman on TV, right? Otherwise people might worry that he’s going to turn up on Smackdown and ain’t nobody wants that, am I right?

The thumbnails for the two segments over the two weeks on YouTube are almost exactly the same too. I genuinely couldn’t tell the difference for a bit.

Honestly right now, and in fact for weeks before WrestleMania, it was like WWE had no idea what to do with Roman Reigns. It was like he was there, their shiniest trinket, their most desirable accessory, their crown jewel… and they just didn’t have anywhere to put him.

Thankfully the Shake-up offered options. Jinder Mahal, Baron Corbin, Bobby Roode; these are all potential opponents going forwards. The Dolph Ziggler/Drew McIntrye axis could be immense if not for the fact that it’s obviously to get 3MB over. Who needs The Shield when you’ve got a three man band, right?

So after acting tough and making a fat joke (it’s 2018 Roman, try not to be so bloody easy to hate, yeah?) the segment between Roman and Joe just kind of ended.

Next week will be the go home segment for the Greatest Royal Rumble. I wonder if it’ll be exactly the same or not?

Odds Counter
– None

Did Roman Reigns beat the odds?
No.

How the mighty have fallen.

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NOW CHECK OUT THE PREVIOUS COLUMN: MONDAY NIGHT REIGNS-O-METER #57: Tracking Roman Reigns’s ability to beat the odds and come out on top