MONDAY NIGHT REIGNS-O-METER #91: Tracking Roman Reigns’s ability to beat the odds and come out on top

Roman Reigns is one of the most dramatic, divisive, and discussed WWE performers in history. The company makes desperate play after desperate play to make him your favourite graps guy – 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.

Wildcard baby yeah!

After the announcement of the Wildcard Rule, the most important and exciting rule of all time, it feels almost disappointing that I’m here to talk about Roman Reigns. I’m not here to talk about Best In The World Lars Sullivan. I’m not here to talk about the psychological aspect of Braun Strowman, who was previously killed in a dumpster and revived to fight the White Walkers, throwing Sami Zayn into a dumpster to start the whole process again. I’m here to talk about Roman Reigns.

Thankfully, Roman Reigns is the wildcard this week, which saves me a whole load of potential issues. Although, Vince is clear that wildcards have to be invited and that’s a rule that everybody seems to forget seconds later.

With ratings sitting somewhere in between tanking and just plain tanked, Vince McMahon called on the hero of the hour and Roman Reigns answered the call. He arrived on Raw, despite being a blue guy now, and then just plain forgot to go back to his actual job afterwards. What a role model.

We can only be grateful that Roman is still a good guy. Every heel who crosses over seems to come out with a world title shot for no reason. Lucky escape for all of us.

Instead, we were treated to a rematch from easily the best match at WrestleMania. The one that featured the moment when the heroic underdog finally… no that was Kofi Kingston vs. Daniel Bryan. Got it. The one where, after suffering a heinous beating, a low-blow turned to tide to, hang on, no, that was Seth Rollins vs.  Brock Lesnar.

The one with the return of a legend? Nah, that’s Beth Phoenix.

Yeah, I can’t remember a damned thing about the match. Definitely the most exciting rematch possible, right?

Roman entered the arena for Raw, just in time to threaten an old man a couple of times. That’s basically his gimmick now, isn’t it? Roman would be interrupted by the far more important combination of Kofi Kingston and Daniel Bryan, who would then go on to do something meaningful. Meanwhile, Drew McIntyre would make himself known to challenge Roman in the most transparent ratings grab in a long time. Everybody is obviously going to tune in for a match of that magnitude.

I mean, they didn’t, but you get what I’m saying.

The match itself was good. Solid WWE-style fare. Probably better than their WrestleMania match, if we’re being honest. Roman still won, naturally, but only by DQ this time due to the interference of Shane McMahon, Elias, and kind of due to The Miz. It’s easy to forget, when Shane McMahon is busy throwing the best punches in the world at Roman, that he’s also in a concurrent feud with The Miz. Truly, he is the best of us.

Smackdown Live featured a pure Roman Reigns hype package with some of the most doctored audio you will ever see in your life. Highlights included the Royal Rumble win, the victory of Triple H and Stephanie McMahon at WrestleMania, beating John Cena at No Mercy, “retiring” The Undertaker, and, of course, the defeat of Brock Lesnar at Summerslam. Then we go back to the sad bit.

It almost looks like WWE can hear those boos creeping back and are trying to remind the fans about why they should cheer again, isn’t it? Totally worked, though. This was followed by Shane McMahon, who had seemingly completely forgotten about his feud with Reigns in favor of his feud with The Miz.

Odds Counter
– Drew McIntyre
– Elias
– Shane McMahon

Did Roman Reigns beat the odds?
Yes

I mean, no, but yes.

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