Bad News for Roman Reigns Haters

There are some legitimate reasons to be booing Roman Reigns. I was watching in 2014 and 2015–that booking sucked. That “tater tots” promo was awful. And hey, you can boo whoever you want. But Reigns isn’t going anywhere.

According to this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter (subscription required), Roman has moved up into a very important position in the company’s ladder. He’s now the biggest merch seller of any full-time star on the roster–either Raw or SmackDown.

That’s counting John Cena as a part-timer, which some people may have an issue with, but given Cena’s increasing proclivities toward film and TV roles it seems his time in WWE is only going to keep shrinking.

That means that despite the boos, Roman is the top babyface in WWE. The feeling backstage has been that the boos are a vocal minority of fans on TV and pay-per-view, and Roman does get much more positive reactions at the house shows. A decade-plus of John Cena on top seems to have made WWE okay with mixed reactions.

So if WWE had any concerns about Roman’s long-term viability, then those merchandise numbers have certainly assuaged the fears.

“Love him or hate him, everyone in the WWE Universe has an opinion!”