I had originally intended to sit down and write an article all about the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony, but as I sit here now, post Wrestlemania, surrounded by angry people on the internet I realize there is something I want to talk about more (and that is RARE. Ask my friends, the Hall of Fame is like my Wrestlemania.)

What is it that I want to talk about more?

Roman Reigns.

Now please note before going forward in this article this is not about if I think Roman deserves the push he is getting. This is not a debate on who would deserve it more. This is not an article about me being a Roman Reigns fan. Because I’m not a Roman Reigns mark by any stretch of the imagination. I have things I dislike about him just as much as others do.

This article is about why the reaction Roman is getting is not all about Roman.

For those of you unfamiliar with Roman Reigns, this is the man in question:

I mean LOOK AT HIM. he’s got the look of a King.  But that’s the problem, he has the look but as I said above, Roman Reigns is a flawed performer. He has a limited move-set, little to no mic skills as evidenced by the fact that when he was the silent destroyer in the Shield people loved him. But the thing is, he has been selected as “The Chosen One” by the WWE to be the next face of the company and rather than take their time and build his ascent naturally, the WWE creative team somewhat forced the issue.   Fans are backlashing pretty hard against this, even tonight as Roman was victorious in his match against Triple H and won the WWE World Heavyweight Title; he was pretty much booed out of the building.

But here’s the thing, tonight and on many other nights, Roman has played his role perfectly. Tonight Roman was the underdog, fighting not only against a much more experienced opponent, but a man with the full weight of the WWE behind him as Triple H is in fact the COO of the company. Roman took an ass kicking tonight, he sold his beating well and in the end triumphed over adversity.  So what more could we, as fans watching the match, ask of him? Who knows but there were boos EVERYWHERE.

Here is where the premise of this article comes into play. Is this Roman’s Fault?

The answer is “No, not entirely.”

So whose fault is it?

In my opinion the majority of the fault lies with the WWE creative team and John Cena.

Okay hold on, before you jump at me, at least hear me out.

On the part of WWE creative team, the fault lies with them for not taking their time. Natural pushes work. (push is the wrestling term for a company getting behind a wrestler.) This has been shown so many times,  even on the part of the aforementioned John Cena.

John Cena’s push took place over time as he worked his way up the ladder as it were. The best way I can think to explain it is in gaming terms.

With a natural push you start out at “level one” with very few abilities or guns and you learn to use the abilities or the recoil on the guns as you work your way up. As a wrestler you start out with a few fans here and there, and then the audience gets to know you as you appear more and do more things. Then you win a few matches and level up to level 2, you gain some more abilities, or you get sights for your guns that let you do more of what you like to do. As time passes, you and the creative team learn what the crowd enjoys that you do and start tailoring things to your strengths to get you more “experience” (or with this analogy; fans)

As more work accumulates under your belt, you hit level 3. By now you have tried all the abilities, guns, scopes etc. and by now you know what your play style is. By now you know if you are a mage or a warrior, a sniper or a medic. In the wrestling world this would be you becoming a fully refined wrestler, knowing what moves the crowd likes, being able to vibe with them and get the reactions you want (boos or cheers depending on your role).

Then you work up to level 4, using and polishing your chosen style until you start to gain recognition. The same thing in wrestling, perhaps winning one of the mid card titles in the Intercontinental or US titles.

Then Level 5 and above you are on the main stage, in games you get to prestige or choose a speciality, but in wrestling, you are on a one way trip to the top, that the crowd has taken the time to take the trip with you and are invested in your advancement and want to take the journey with you.

This is the evolution of a natural push.

However the WWE creative team decided to just have Roman start at level 5.  In the video game analogy he has so many abilities, guns, sights that he doesn’t know what works and he is having to learn in the face of foes so much better than him.  Had they taken another year or so to let him learn and grow, we’d be looking at a different situation.

And now on to John Cena. Now, please bear in mind I’m not saying that John Cena is actively torpedoing Roman’s push. The issue is more of a side effect of John Cena.  Even though Cena did go through a natural push, and he did carry fans with him, there is a small problem.

The issue is that Cena has been “Level 5” for SO long and has been forced down the audience’s throats SO MUCH that the resentment to him being in that spot has grown and festered into an almost septic hate on some levels.

So now that the WWE universe sees another person being positioned to take up that mantle and be this smothering force , who in many ways is a lot like Cena. Fans have pushed back against it with all their might and  Roman has gotten caught up in it.

I mean if you are Roman and Vince McMahon walks up to you and says “Oh we’re going to push you to the world title and possibly the top of the company” are you REALLY going say no?

Roman is in an unenviable position of being thrown to the deep end of a swimming pool full of sharks. These sharks that have been force fed the same thing for years on end and when the sharks reject him, it’s not wholly his fault but the blame seems to land on him anyway.

As I said at the top of the article, I’m not a Roman apologist. I’m not a devout fan of his, but people need to stop knee-jerk or pre-judging matches just because he’s in them as bad. At this point he’s not even being given the chance to prove them wrong. People just assume the match is going to be bad because of his participation, and frankly that just isn’t true. Over the last 24 months, Roman has had some of my favorite matches on many of the pay per views that we have had.

All I’m asking for the readers out there who have made it this far, stop prejudging his matches, you might be surprised.

Also keep your ears out for a special post Wrestlemania  podcast coming your way this week sometime as myself, Mansa and Brett are going to jump into the happenings.

So what do you think of my points?

Did you enjoy the Wrestlemania match as I did?

Are you members of the Roman Empire or are you in another camp?

Leave your comments below! But remember, stay on topic as this is about the outside factors that are affecting Roman, not if he deserves the push or who deserves it more.