Bruce Prichard drew parallels between the fan backlash against John Cena in 2006 and the polarized reaction to Roman Reigns earlier in his career. Speaking on Something To Wrestle, Prichard explained that Vince McMahon was willing to ignore the negative crowd reactions because the business metrics told a different story.
“You had to ignore it. Because that was not some place that Vince was willing to go and he saw John Cena. When you look at whether the loud male views and boos were drowning out everything else, the families in the merchandise sales and the kids and the money was saying otherwise. So that was not a really hard decision. It was one that people didn’t understand, for sure.”
Prichard noted that McMahon had the same unwavering belief in Roman Reigns, something he shared long before the “Tribal Chief” era began.
“Those are the two examples I always use. Go back to when we first started doing this and we were looking at the product then, and I told you from day one, never wavered. Roman Reigns is the biggest star they have, and will be the biggest star. It was he had a look. He had a just a personality that he was made for this business. He’s a star. You look at him, you see a star. The same thing with Cena. He was a star. The audience felt one way, because they felt they were being shoved down their throat. As soon as we stopped shoving Cena down their throat. Then Oh, my God, y’all listening to the people.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Something To Wrestle with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.