MONDAY NIGHT REIGNS-O-METER #31: 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

Short and sweet today, like Bayley’s career.

This week featured one of the most shocking things I have ever witnessed in WWE history. That’s right! WWE edited a video to avoid showing Roman Reigns. That’s right! He could have been shown off in that opening package; he could have been dragged, kicking and screaming, into the Shield reunion storyline. He was not.

I mean, he will be. Soon, in fact. Hopefully not too soon though, am I right?

You’ll note that I’m opening, as Raw did, with Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose. Why? Well, there wasn’t much Roman Reigns this week. In fact, this might be the least Roman Reigns since Roman Reigns returned to Roman Reigns Braun Strowman. Now, while I’m sure The Shield storyline is undoubtedly an-all-roads-lead-to-Roman-spearing-Seth-and-Dean finale, I can’t keep bringing it up because they’re playing it slow, and calm, and realistic.

It’s a really good storyline that isn’t technically relevant, so I have to focus as usual on Roman. Where was Roman? In the overrun. That’s right! Three hours somehow isn’t enough to fit Roman Reigns’s massive talent any more.

I can’t begin to describe just how odd the build has been for this Summerslam match. As expected, Brock Lesnar has been made to look like the toughest SOB on the planet but, for the other three members of the party, the booking has been all over the place.

Joe, after a huge push to Great Balls of Fire, has been pinned, interfered in a match to get his heat back, then just sort of falls out of sight here. That said, Joe has presented the most entertaining promos of all the promos, of which there have been many.

Reigns celebrated nearly murdering Braun Strowman by getting repeatedly beaten up by Braun Strowman. He got his pin on Joe, sure, but got choked out the next week and, all in all, Roman’s spent a lot of time on his back recently. Yeah, he spoke a lot of truth in his promos but he also fell out of sight right here in the go home show.

That leaves Strowman, who has been largely kept out of the firing line when it comes to promos due to his current limitations, has gone unpinned, won a Last Man Standing match because of a referee who doesn’t seem to understand how to count, and now lines up directly against Brock Lesnar. There’s the clip that’s going to be repeated. There’s the moment that everyone’s going to remember. Reigns wasn’t in it.

At time of writing? 2,000,000 views in 15 hours. That’s a big deal.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/-R_CQ2vfvuI

By the time we hit 24 hours, that YouTube clip might have more views than Raw had on USA Network.

Unfortunately, as aforementioned, Roman Reigns wasn’t really all that involved, though, so what do I have to cover on that? Well, Summerslam be coming.

Will Roman Reigns walk out as WWE Universal Champion? Honestly, I’m still on no. With The Shield storyline so prevalent and Rollins awaiting a big push to coincide with the release of 2K18, there’s a major story lying incomplete while we wait for Roman Reigns to complete the triangle. Does that still work if he’s the Universal Champion?

I will be predicting a Lesnar win, pinning Braun Strowman.

No odds today. Roman didn’t do much.

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