The WWE Universe wasn't shocked to see Roman Reigns win the seven-man Elimination Chamber on Sunday. After all, it was widely expected for nearly a full year that he would clash with Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 34 for the Universal Championship.
Of course, this is once again a hope for Vince McMahon that Reigns will finally get over with the crowd. Despite headlining the last three WrestleManias that includes a victory over Triple H and a "retiring" of The Undertaker, fans simply aren't sold on Reigns. A win over The Beast Incarnate could change that, however.
So how does the WWE plan on getting the fans to cheer for Reigns? According to Dave Meltzer of F4WOnline.com, WWE will try to make Reigns a babyface as he nears the hyped up match vs. Lesnar:
"We're told the goal of the build to the Roman Reigns vs. Lesnar WrestleMania match on April 8th is to get Reigns cheered to lead to his win. Lesnar is also still scheduled to return on the March 12th Raw in Detroit...
The idea for the build to the WrestleMania main event...is to make the build come across as much like a shoot as possible and the segment did accomplish that goal...
Reigns, who was booed heavily coming out, was cheered at the end of the segment. He tried to give the impression he was doing an unscripted promo and would get in trouble for it, but obviously that was not the case."
Of course, there's no guarantee the WWE will get the fans to cheer for Reigns during this feud. What complicates things is that Lesnar often portrays a heel character, but the fans frequently cheer for him. This happened against Undertaker in their 2015 SummerSlam and Hell in a Cell matches. He also received quite the ovation for beating AJ Styles at Survivor Series.
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Fans have refused to cheer for Reigns against heels, including Braun Strowman, Seth Rollins, Chris Jericho, Kevin Owens and others. The creative team will have to get real crafty in order to make fans resent Lesnar and cheer on Reigns.
Perhaps Reigns' bout with Lesnar is Vince McMahon's last hope of getting The Roman Empire to earn the love of the fans. If they won't accept him after possibly defeating the Universal Champion, it could be time for Vince to look for a new superstar to carry the torch.
The next six weeks promise to be full of hype, intrigue and excitement. Not just to watch two major stars face off at WrestleMania, but if the fans will finally start to cheer on Reigns - something McMahon wanted the fans to do years ago.
NEXT: ROMAN REIGNS WILL EQUAL AN IMPRESSIVE RECORD AT WRESTLEMANIA 34