We all remember that asshole in school right? The one that's super popular, that gets invited to every party, that all the girls want to be with, and all the guys want to be him. The school loves him because he's the star player of the sports team and so they never miss an opportunity to sing his praises. However, he's a huge asshole. He bullies the weaker guys and asserts his dominance on campus. He's arrogant, conceited and mean. Everything that we were told that we shouldn't be in order to get people to like you.
If you were anything like me in school in terms of nerdom, and let's face it most wrestling fans fall into this category, we hated the fact that people who acted like this were revered and treated as a heroes anywhere they went, despite being the complete opposite in reality. It made us bitter and angry. This is the character I believe that Roman Reigns is. Casual fans love him because he's the kayfabe super talented good looking guy about the place. Us hardcore fans hate him because he represents everything that a good guy or face shouldn't, he's arrogant, he picks on our favourites, he wins all the time, and we're jealous that everyone loves this asshole for some reason. Why doesn't the school, i.e Vince, love Sami Zayn, the ultimate good guy who's nice to everybody and gets amazing grades ahead of this jerk?
Listening to the TIJ podcast with Roman cemented this theory for me. Roman is just naturally a cocky guy, he's good looking and he knows it. He used to call himself the guy that would walk around and he would assume that people thought he was famous because of how he looked. Most hardcore wrestling fans have be hardwired from their youth to despise this type of person.
What makes this a genius character is that it's the very people who claim to be so smart about the business that it sucks in. How dare they push Roman! Everything about him sucks! But the thing is, Roman does not suck. He's great at the little things in the ring, the facial expressions, the selling. He won't do flippy shit but he's great at what he does. The amount of 3/4* matches Roman has had verifies this. But his mic work sucks doesn't it? Sure but so does Cesaro's yet the hardcore fans love him.
Roman doesn't need to talk or make the effort to entertain people like that, just like on Monday, he has the presence and the look that makes people love or hate him, just like that super jock in school. Casuals and girls will buy his merch, and the hardcore fans will make sure he gets a reaction. It's the best character in a long long time that has really brought kayfabe back into 21st century wrestling in my opinion.
Apologies for the long post, I love delving deep into wrestling characters.
TL;DR Roman is the asshole jock in school that everyone loves and nerds get bitter over so hardcore fans boo him and everyone else loves him.