Why I am a Roman Reigns fan

I have been a pro wrestling fan practically all of my life. I am currently thirty-two years old. Some of my very first memories of life involve sitting with my father and watching WWF Saturday Night. I had a few favorites back then; Jake the Snake Roberts, Rick Rude, and Sherri Martel were just a few. But my absolute favorite was the Macho Man Randy Savage.

No matter who else I love in wrestling, no one will ever come close to him. When I was a little girl, I wanted to be the Macho Man. That is how cool I thought he was. But, as I grew up, other guys would replace him as my "current favorite". Still, make no mistake, I think Randy Savage is the greatest wrestler to ever live. Period. No reason to discuss it. However, Diesel, Bret Hart, HBK, and the Undertaker at one point in my life were my "current favorite". There was something about those guys that made me love them as well.

My "current favorite" currently is Roman Reigns. Although I am also a huge fan of Sasha Banks, Nikki Bella, and Charlotte Flair, when it comes to the current WWE product, I care more about what he is doing more than anyone else. Having stated that, I have hated his storyline and/or booking for roughly ninety-five percent of the time he has been my favorite. If it were solely up to WWE, I doubt I would be a Roman Reigns fan. Allow me to explain.

I am HUGE Shield fan. Present tense. The Shield brought me back to watching WWE every week after just being a filthy WrestleMania only casual viewer for years. Initially, Dean Ambrose was my favorite. He stood out to me with his attitude and promo style. Somewhere in the middle and near the end of their run, Seth Rollins became my favorite because of his performances in all those awesome six man matches.

Then WWE started running a storyline that made it seem like the Shield would break up. Eventually, I came to Cageside Seats. As an OG smark, I had given up communicating with other fans over the Internet because of the sometimes hostile way women are treated. But this website was not like that at all. All opinions were welcome.

In the spring of 2014, after I discovered this site, I began to learn more about the background of all three Shield guys. I went on a Jon Moxley binge and rightly fell even more in love with Dean Ambrose. The same is true when watching Tyler Black. The Leakee footage made me feel there was a bit more to Reigns than WWE was currently showing but I was not a fan yet. Actually, I felt Roman Reigns was just another generic WWE body guy who would flame out once he was pushed.

What changed my mind on Reigns were the "shoot" interviews he did outside of WWE. He always seemed respectful of the interviewer, which does not always happen. He talked about growing up in the South and how family was very important to him. Every single Shield related video, here is this big handsome Samoan talking about being Southern and loving his family. Being from Mississippi myself, I do not see many people from any realm of entertainment mention the South in a positive light so that scored big points with me.

Then Reigns suffered from an incarcerated hernia. Once I looked up what it was and that he nearly died, I was floored anyone would do that. Then, in an interview about it, he said he knew he needed surgery but he kept pushing it back in to go perform because he knew he was getting a big push and he was afraid of losing his spot. My initial thought after reading this information was, "Well, I’m never going to hate this man ever again, am I?"

And I have not. I think Roman Reigns carries himself like a champion. He has not been in wrestling very long but he has picked up with WWE main event style in way that has impressed me and a lot of other people, including his peers like Seth Rollins, Finn Balor, and, yes, Stone Cold Steve Austin. No, he is not perfect. That is why I love him. Remember, I already lived through who I think is the Greatest of All Time. The fact that I am watching someone grow into possibly one of the greatest wrestlers in his own right is half the fun of being a Reigns fan.

His issues with speaking on the microphone steam from the fact that he is naturally shy. He is the youngest of three. His oldest sibling, who wrestled in the WWE, is much older than him. I can also related to this is my oldest sibling is nearly ten years older than me. He still has to find his voice and learn exactly who Roman Reigns is and, unlike a lot of guys like AJ Styles and Kevin Owens, he has Vince McMahon standing in his way, forcing his own vision of what he wants Reigns to be.

The fact that he has not cracked under all the pressure and scrutiny and went on a Twitter rant or walked out on the company or something like that makes me admire him even more. Yes, he has said negative things about fans that do not like him. And I feel like he should have kept that to himself. But I absolutely do not blame him for feeling the way he feels about it and most wrestlers honestly feel the same way about their critics from the shoot interviews I have seen and read over many, many years.

I wrote this article so people who do not like Roman Reigns or are indifferent to him can see things from the perspective of someone who is a fan. I do not expect every one to feel the same way about him as I do. I would just like people to admit that he is talented and that he does belong in the WWE. I do not enjoy Karl Anderson or Luke Gallows personally but I would never say that those men cannot wrestle or that they should not be in the company.

Roman Reigns should be the top heel in WWE in my opinion. I think he has this ability to draw attention that is valuable, just WWE is not using it properly. I feel like they have him work "under" in matches too much when he is perfectly capable of working on top and calling his matches. I do not expect to agree with people about Roman on everything. Heck, I don’t expect to agree with people on most wrestling in general because what I like about wrestling is not particularly what others will like.

I just wanted those who seriously wonder what the appeal is to Roman Reigns to understand how one of his biggest supporters feels. Thank you for reading this and I look forward to your feedback.

P. S. This could've been so much longer.