We saw the same thing on Sunday when Reigns hit the ramp ahead of his entertaining match and victory over Braun Strowman at WWE Fastlane.

There’s an argument to be made against Strowman losing cleanly so early in his push, but if anyone was going to beat him fairly, it had to be Reigns. He looks and acts the part of a promotion-carrying Superstar, and that’s the issue for some.

Welcome to this era in professional wrestling when the most natural good guys are booed and the most dastardly heels and everyman faces are championed. Reigns doesn’t fit into any of those new desired categories. Everything about him screams traditional babyface–even though he made his WWE debut as a member of the heel faction The Shield.

Reigns was actually cheered then, but those days seem long gone.

Reigns’ in-ring work is criticized as is his talent on the microphone. The criticism is unfair in many ways, but Reigns is perceived to be a company favorite who has received a push, or as many would say “he’s being shoved down our throats.”

That’s a bewildering concept. Fans often forget that all WWE Superstars have to be presented to fans. Without the platform, the script and the opportunities, we wouldn’t be able to see any of them perform on such a large stage.

In that way, all of them are “shoved down our throats” to some degree. Reigns is too perfect from a cosmetic standpoint and that is a red flag to a large percentage of a fan base that seems to live to be contrarians. I recently interviewed WWE legend Big Show, and he had this to say about Reigns:

“Our audience has a way sometimes of being misinformed from the wrong people. The internet is full of so-called experts who couldn’t lace up a pair of boots. That’s OK everybody is allowed to have their own opinion. I appreciate a guy like Roman Reigns because of his ability to weather a very rocky storm. He’s getting a lot of grief for something he doesn’t deserve. It seems like it’s the in thing to boo Roman Reigns.”