Why does ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin not have a greater presence on the WWE Network?

Roman Reigns on the screen there. Keeping him strong.

To a certain demographic Austin is still a very appealing figure. That demographic forms a large part of the WWE Network’s subscriber numbers1. There are people that would pay to listen to hear him talk. Maybe not $9.99 a month, but it could certainly be a contributing factor. He’s a good communicator, is passionate about the business in general and WWE in particular, and his status as one of the company’s biggest ever stars gives him all the credibility he could ever need.

I typically don’t write articles about wrestling other than my weekly recaps because I don’t want to fill this site with wrestling overkill, which is what would happen if I hosted too many recaps: the wrestling articles would bury the times I write about pretty much anything else.  However, I decided to make an exception due to the lack of a live, ongoing Monday Night RAW for January 26th (snow storms in the northeast have caused RAW to be postponed until Thursday and Smackdown to be canceled for the week), to discuss last night’s Royal Rumble Pay-Per-View because the events that transpired were so out there that they actually got mainstream media coverage.

Last night, Roman Reigns won the 30-Man Royal Rumble match to put him in the main event at Wrestlemania 31 against WWE World Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar, but fans were not pleased with the outcome.  They booed, they raged, they blocked arena exits, they protested, and even canceled their monthly subscriptions to the WWE Network.  One year ago, Batista suffered the same reaction for winning the Royal Rumble, and oddly enough the fans were begging Roman Reigns to eliminate Batista and go on to the Royal Rumble.  At the time Reigns was one of the three members of The Shield, a faction consisting of Reigns, Dean Ambrose, and Seth Rollins.
So why is it that now that the Shield has disbanded people despise Reigns?  He still has the same moves, same entrance, and same ring gear.  He’s essentially the only guy who hasn’t actually moved on.  He looks like a man in denial the Shield is done.  Why is it that a year later, the fans want this guy’s head?  Is Reigns really that awful? Let’s look at then, now, and the future and figure out what’s what.