Everyone seems to be talking about how bad the Roman Reigns promo was on Smackdown. About how he looked uncomfortable. About how the dialogues in the promo were really poor. About how awkward his delivery was. About how terrible the crowd reaction has been towards him. However, maybe in the back of your mind, you've already noticed how desperately WWE is trying to get Reigns over with other methods as well.
First of all, I think for the first time ever they're literally pushing someone as the "Avatar" of one certain wrestling heritage that has been present in the Wrestling Entertainment business for generations, the Samoans. The Rock, in character, never went "Samoan this, Samoan that" over and over again. Furthermore, they have been trying to get him over with only the best talker in arguably the history of the business, Paul Heyman. And in Smackdown, they brought another one of the best talkers in WWE, Mark Henry, to hype him up. However, these are only minor issues compared to probably the most obvious desperation from WWE's part: the protective camera work.
When Reigns cuts his promos, after every line of dialogue, they add fake cheers to hype him up. But then you say, man, people are everywhere around the ring. If someone cuts a promo and the camera is locked on to him, there is bound to be people on the background and you can easily figure out whether the cheers are fake or real.
So what does WWE do to protect him? Firstly, they focus on Roman's face as close as possible so that the majority of the screen is that face Vince probably masturbates to:
http://i.imgur.com/0xGDeB0.jpg
But even if you zoom in that close, you can see the background crowd to the left and the right of his face. No you can't. Because they BLUR THAT SHIT OUT http://i.imgur.com/2xngtme.jpg. Yup, they blur the entire background http://i.imgur.com/hPvXHqp.jpg so that you can't see how lifeless the crowd is. Then they add in fake cheers to give you the illusion that he's over with the fans. Check out Daniel Bryan's promo at the start of Smackdown; none of the background is blurred:
http://i.imgur.com/Trg1drr.jpg
from a similar angle. But when it comes to Reigns' promo, it's all blurred and you can't see the crowd on the background at all. Furthermore, when the fake cheers drop, Roman is usually moving; and you know why it's easier to use fake cheers on a moving camera? Background motion blur.
What's more? After Reigns hit the Spear through the barricade on Mark Henry, they don't show the nearby crowd AT ALL. They keep zooming in on Reigns
http://i.imgur.com/uAgsgc8.jpg
and then to Henry
http://i.imgur.com/rRxHoQa.jpg
and then back to Reigns with as minimal as background crowd coming into the camera shots as possible.
Any more camera work that's trying to fuck with you? Yup. They consistently shoot the cameras from a Low Angle Shot (Definition: A shot looking up at a character or subject often making them look bigger in the frame. It can make everyone look heroic and/or dominant). I'm all for Low Angle Shots from time to time, however, they're pushing it with Reigns because, not to particularly make him look bigger in frame (which probably is one of the reasons), but to once again show as less of the nearby crowd and more of the distant crowd as possible (because you can't really tell what the most distant crowd are doing, because they're so small in the view).
What's even funnier? The camera team picked a great angle to shoot Reigns once he was on top of the announce table. But wait? There's a group of people booing Reigns visibly in that shot? And no one's excited aside from a small group of horny young adult women? And everyone in the front row doesn't give two hoots about him? WHAT? So they awkwardly cut to a shot which involves Roman from his chest up:
http://i.imgur.com/IE3uHoZ.jpg
Seriously? From chest-up? Such a terrible camera angle just to protect him from a small group of people booing him? Holy @#$%.
Go watch that entire segment again and you'll realize how little, HOW FREAKIN' LITTLE, they showed the crowd in that entire segment while pumping fake cheers on your ears repeatedly at the same time to make you think "Oh... man... look at all the people cheering for him... liking him is probably the in thing right now, so I'll just like him like everyone else" or whatever WWE thinks we think when they add those nonsense. This is some next level bullshit, if I've ever seen one.
Now, I'm not saying that they don't do Close Up shots or Low Angle Shots or Blurred Backgrounds for any other superstars. Yes, they do that a lot from time to time on other superstars too. They did a Close Up shot on Daniel Bryan as well, where the background was blurred. However, there's one single shot and then there's the entire segment of the show.
TLDR; Roman Reigns is being protected by extremely protective camera shots where they try to include as little of the crowd in the camera shots as possible (be it using close up shots, low angle shots, blurred backgrounds, exclusion of the crowd from the frame etc.) while pumping fake cheers at the same time to make you think he's really over when he's not.
