Can a Shield reunion earn Roman Reigns favor with WWE fans?

The Shield might be returning to the WWE soon, but is the company truly assuming this could be an indirect way of helping Roman Reigns get over with fans?

The Shield appears to be reuniting very soon, and it seems this was set up on WWE RAW  this past Monday. While the return was not made official that night, a few things stood out. Roman Reigns was involved in an angle with current WWE Intercontinental Champion, The Miz. Miz has been having one of the best runs of his career and has made the IC Title mean quite a lot. WWE felt he needed to have some extra help to surround him besides his wife, Maryse. This eventually brought us Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel introduced into the fold.

Both men have been in the jobber pool for a long time, despite both being former champions in WWE — Bo as NXT Champion and Axel as IC Champion. The Miz gave them a chance to come on board and help him, and that would allow them to be seen. Thus, the Miztourage was created. This became far more important for The Miz lately, as he and his wife announced they are pregnant with their first child. This is not an angle but a real life scenario. This means Maryse cannot be on television for the foreseeable future, as far as ringside use is concerned.

While pregnancy might be a beautiful thing, no one wants to see a pregnant woman get hurt and possibly lose her child. Regardless of why she is off TV, it was perfect timing. The Miztourage is keeping The Miz champion, and three men are tough to beat alone. This was found out the hard way for Roman Reigns, who could not overcome the odds of the team.

After the beatdown of the former WWE Champion, they did the ever-popular Shield triple fist-bump. This led to further thoughts that WWE will be leaning toward a Shield reunion, at least for one upcoming match. Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins are the current WWE RAW Tag Team Champions, which means they are on the same page for the first time since Rollins broke up The Shield in 2014. Meanwhile, Ambrose and Reigns never had a beef and Rollins and Reigns fixed their issues with each other last year.

This means the group has no trouble being put back together for a match against The Miztourage. However, this does seem to be terrible timing and a horrible idea on paper. It screams desperation, and that is clear based on the team. The Shield took on The Wyatt Family and Evolution, as well as teams like Team Hell No and Ryback in the past. We’re seeing at least two top factions but also three very tough teams in that line-up. So now, on this day, we’re supposed to believe that The Miztourage is competition? To steal a line from The Miz himself — really? Really?!

Ticket sales are not where they need to be. Despite what Roman Reigns claimed a few weeks ago, ticket sales are not at the highest they have ever been, as they are actually lower than they have been since the mid-90s before the Attitude Era kicked in. Ratings are also lower than they were under the John Cena era. While WWE may have tried to “pass the torch” at WWE No Mercy on Sunday by having Roman take the it from Cena, fans are not sold on him even still.

WWE wants to draw interest in WWE TLC, which is why they are trying to stack it with some big stuff; they are already putting former NXT Women’s Champion Asuka in to debut at the event. Now, they are attempting to bring in The Shield to help. This will draw interest in the October show, and perhaps bring in some interest for ratings leading into the event. However, as a certain Rhodes theme music once said: it is “only smoke and mirrors.” First and foremost, WWE is doing a Shield DVD soon, so they need to draw in interest here. Plus they need ratings for the Fall, while they’re up against football.

Roman Reigns is not enough, so he has to be teamed up with his brothers to make people interested. If Roman was such a draw for WWE, why would he need to team up with his brothers to draw in ratings and higher ticket sales? The answer is pretty simple, it’s that he isn’t as big a draw as WWE wants you to think. So the question is, can The Shield make him into a fan favorite or will fans go right back to booing him the moment the group dissolves again for the three men to go their own way?

It’s pretty obvious. Fans will go back to booing.

There is only so much one can take as a WWE fan. Many of us dealt with the John Cena era where the man won far more than anyone ever should. It not only became an annoyance, but it led to fans hating Cena with a passion. However, Cena sold merchandise and he was a proven draw for television and PPV. Meanwhile, Roman Reigns cannot sell you on a $9.99 WWE Network alone. Cena could at the very least talk you into being interested in his matches. Reigns has difficulty making a promo happen at all, much less selling you a particular product with his words. This is why Reigns does not do big media appearance and people like Seth Rollins do over him. Rollins can sell you, Reigns can’t.

This will remain a problem after The Shield ends again. Reigns is also known as a “brawler” wrestler. These types of wrestlers have had success in WWE. Jake “The Snake” Roberts, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, The Undertaker, and JBL all were known to be brawlers. However, all had one thing Reigns does not, high psychology knowledge. Jake was a master at it and Austin learned it from people like Snake. The Undertaker was brilliant in this world and JBL might not have been perfect, but he could make you hate him so easily that he drew you in based on that fact alone. It might not be match psychology, but character psychology used by Bradshaw. However, it worked for his matches.

Reigns can do well with the right guys, such as Braun Strowman and AJ Styles. Both men blend well with Reigns and can do well with him due to their style being so easy to put in with his. However, not all can do this with Roman. This will lead to more hate on his wrestling ability. No matter what, fans will not enjoy Roman Reigns. WWE also clearly knows he cannot draw interest by himself, and the merchandise numbers they hype are not as impressive as you might think they are.

Will The Shield bring love to Reigns? While he is in the group, of course it will. However, do not be surprised if fans decide to not care for him when the group ends once more. In fact, you should probably expect it.