Roman Reigns Has Hard Climb Ahead to Regain Top WWE Spot After Suspension

No matter how loud the jeers got or what seething critiques came his way, Roman Reigns knew he had the WWE machine behind him. That changed suddenly and surprisingly.

WWE announced Tuesday that it had suspended Reigns "for 30 days effective immediately for his first violation of the company's talent wellness policy."

The news is stunning. Reigns has been WWE's new golden boy and the clear heir to John Cena's throne. The company had assured him a spot on a high rung even when much of the audience vocally rejected him.

That is now in jeopardy—something he will have to earn back.

Reigns' reliability as the face of the company suffers from this suspension. Anyone backstage not sold on The Big Dog as WWE's next megastar suddenly has more ammo. And WWE has to be incensed about having to adjust its plans now that Reigns won't be on TV for a month.

Dave LaGreca of Busted Open talked about how difficult this suspension will make things for Reigns:

Regaining his top-star status as well as WWE's trust won't be easy, but Reigns knows adversity well. 

His rise to the main event of two consecutive WrestleManias and to world champion status has come with a steady stream of obstacles.

In the midst of Reigns' first push, he came off a big win against Randy Orton at SummerSlam 2014 and had a showdown with Seth Rollins on the horizon. The bout was pulled, however, because of Reigns' undergoing emergency surgery for an incarcerated hernia in 2014, per WWE.com.

Weeks before he was set to wrestle Triple H in the main event of WrestleMania 32, he had to have nasal surgery, as WWE revealed on its official website.

More difficult than those physical hurdles, though, has been the constant uphill climb to win fans over.

When Reigns won the 2015 Royal Rumble, boos thundered through the arena, despite his being a babyface. Crowds made it clear from that point that they didn't want him being WWE's next top dog. Fans booed and welcomed him with insulting signs. 

At one point, that fan unrest boiled over. As detailed by Des Bieler of the Washington Post, a man threw a replica Money in the Bank briefcase at Reigns' head during a match. 

Even on Monday's Raw, after WWE's various attempts to get Reigns over, chants of "You can't wrestle!" echoed as he stood in the ring with Rollins.

WWE may not put in that same effort to sell its fanbase on Reigns when he gets back. His month-long absence will open the door for others to take his spot—for Kevin Owens, Dean Ambrose and AJ Styles to all make their case to supplant him. 

All three of those men are generating positive reactions without WWE putting its back into pushing them. None of these men have to have boos edited out on SmackDown. And none of them have violated WWE's wellness policy.

That leaves Reigns more work to do when he gets back. He'll strive to have the company forget about this suspension and move on.

Reigns will still be back in time for the Battleground pay-per-view but not the Raw-SmackDown draft on July 19. He was surely going to be a key figure on that show. Without him around, WWE will have to go in another direction, and having to do so will irk company officials.

But as Fighting Spirit Magazine tweeted, there is power in coming clean:

"

re: Reigns' status, in terms of perception it can be better to have made a mistake & been forgiven than to have a clean slate. #RomanReigns

— Fighting Spirit Mag (@FSM_Editor) June 21, 2016"

That's a positive for Reigns as he looks to recover his lofty standing. And he only has to look to Orton for an example of a marquee star bouncing back from suspension. The Viper twice violated the wellness policy but still went on to win world titles.

Reigns will be guaranteed less moving forward. He bears a mark that will be hard to wash away.

The journey ahead will be a long one. Reigns started it by apologizing:

Step one down. Countless more ahead.