MONDAY NIGHT REIGNS-O-METER #62: 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

To those of you who are not already aware, Roman Reigns is a hero, a kingmaker, your pal and mine. He is a great talent, a smooth talker, a master baker, and the guy can rock a mean jigsaw puzzle. Some of that might be fake news, but the fact that it’s fake news might be the fake news.

As he came to the ring last night on Raw, Michael Cole referred to his reception as being “serenaded.” Is that a word usually used for that particular response? Obviously in WWE world.

Roman didn’t respond. He came down, his head held high, his chest puffed out, and his chest protector nicely waxed. A recap from last week was shown, giving particular spotlight to Jinder Mahal’s hands holding Roman’s ankles because it’s almost impossible to see the high-definition, perfectly-timed screenshot in which this has happened.

They also go big on the uncrowned UV Champion business. Is this what we’re doing now? Brock didn’t want to appear tonight so we’re just pretending Roman actually won the belt back at Mania?

Oh, and Booker T is back on commentary. Given how heavily Jinder Mahal is going to feature here I would remind you that on the Greatest Royal Rumble pre-show, Booker T referred to Jinder Mahal as the Modern Day Mahalalala. Seems interesting, doesn’t it?

Upon first mention of the Modern Day Maul A Llama, the crowd actually give out a little cheer, but WWE clearly expected this. Braun Strowman’s star was literally made on the back of beating on Roman Reigns. Turns out that after the original Mahal experiment failed they’ve now decided to fall back on the one guaranteed way to make someone everybody in a WWE audience can support; beat on Roman.

Kurt Angle, the most obvious and natural heel to step up against Roman Reigns, obviously, logically, clearly, steps up against Roman Reigns. He offers the Modern Day Moana Charmer a chance to qualify for the Money in the Bank ladder match. Meanwhile, Roman is now so unpopular with the average crowd that even WWE management are being turned face.

Roman does his usual cool, aloof, smug, and entitled thing while the crowd actually serenade him with a goodbye chant. See Michael Cole? That’s what serenading is.

Roman goes looking for the Modern Day Bananarama and a fight ensues, which apparently nobody could see coming from all of the subtle hints that Reigns was dropping in that opening promo. As you might expect, the slightly larger dog wins the beat down.

Now, back before WrestleMania, I predicted that we would see Jinder Mahal move back over to Raw to provide an instant feud with Roman Reigns. This feud would present the fans with this ultimate question: Who do you want to boo most? Mahal is guilty of everything that people hate Roman for. In fact, he’s guilty of the same things but to a much larger degree. Unfortunately, given that he is not Roman Reigns, Mahal will be cheered over Reigns. There’s no way that WWE didn’t see this coming. Vince McMahon might have finally found the perfect talent to make people cheer his daughter for what would probably be the first time ever.

But more importantly, the Modern Day Ohana Means Family got screwed out of his chance to hold the Money in the Bank briefcase by the cowardly, mean, and entirely justified backstage assault by the whole damn Roman Empire.

The second assault though – spearing Jinder through a flaky wall when he was already injured and doing everything he could to still compete at the top level? That was a little less justified. There’s absolutely no way this was unintentional.

Turns out I am going to be cheering for the Modern Day Morena Baccarin after all.

Odds Counter
– Jinder Mahal

Did Roman Reigns beat the odds?
Yes

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NOW CHECK OUT LAST WEEK’S COLUMN: MONDAY NIGHT REIGNS-O-METER #61: Tracking Roman Reigns’s ability to beat the odds and come out on top