Roman Reigns' Booking at WWE Extreme Rules Was a Huge Success

Even though Extreme Rules was largely a hit-and-miss pay-per-view, there were one or two moments that could be hailed as a success.

And after a good few months of toiling away in the face of plenty of adversity from WWE fans, it feels like it all finally clicked for Roman Reigns on the big stage once again.

Let's not forget that when The Shield split around this time last year, Reigns was the guy who had built up a healthy following and a decent amount of popularity.

That had been achieved by, as well as a number of other things, just good old fashioned impressive performances in the ring. Think Survivor Series 2013, or even that marvellous performance at the Royal Rumble in 2014.

But the last six to eight months have been a real struggle for Reigns' popularity. That has been largely down to WWE fans feeling like they've had Reigns shoved down their throat a tad, similar to what happened with Batista a year previous.

Too often Reigns has been thrown into predictable matches, and his win at the Royal Rumble earlier this year was perhaps even more predictable than Batista's in 2014.

So what changed at Extreme Rules for Reigns? Well, more than anything, he was allowed to let his in-ring action do the talking again.

Reigns is clearly not a guy who's as adaptable and comfortable on the mic as stars such as Seth Rollins, Dolph Ziggler and former stars such as CM Punk.

But there was almost a temptation from the WWE to try to craft Reigns' mic skills at the busiest time of the year: in the run-up to WrestleMania. The result? Some labored promos from Reigns that only further increased the animosity between himself and fans.

At Extreme Rules it was all about what Reigns does best, which is wrestle. It's incredible to think that his match with Big Show was probably the match of the night, but that's a testimony to how well Reigns performed. 

The way that match was booked did Reigns wonders moving forward, and it was almost akin to the Reigns of the early part of 2014.

He took a real beating throughout that match and was involved in some pretty brutal spots. Yet time after time, Reigns kept getting up and fighting and doing his best to entertain those in attendance in Chicago.

Credit: WWE.com

That's what WWE fans want to see from their performers; they want to see stars leave it all out there and fight until they've got barely anything left. In that sense, Reigns was booked perfectly at Extreme Rules.

For the first time in a while, the crowd was up in arms adoring Reigns after the final bell. When you factor in that Extreme Rules was held in a raucous Chicago, a crowd that doesn't normally hide its emotions, that's a good place for Reigns to be.

It knew what it had seen was a babyface who was doing what he does best. It knew it was the kind of performance that earns you respect from wrestling fans.

If the WWE can realize that it doesn't have to throw Reigns down the throats of fans on a constant basis, it will still have a future world champion in Reigns. It just doesn't need to rush it.