Oba Femi was the man of the hour on Sunday. After seemingly ending Brock Lesnar’s career at WrestleMania 42, Femi appeared on WWE’s post-show, where fans kept chanting his name as they had in the lead-up to and through his win over “The Beast.”
“They’re my people, aren’t they?” Femi boasted. “I’m their ruler, aren’t I? They will follow me. They will walk with me. And most importantly, they will strut with me.”
While all of that’s true, Femi failed to mention the obvious: they will turn on him.
Just
20 minutes later, new World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns appeared on the same show. Like “The Ruler,” the OTC was greeted with adoration from the crowd. But when Femi’s name was mentioned, allegiances shifted, with fans chanting at Reigns, “Oba’s gonna kill you!”
Further proving that fan affection goes wherever the wind blows, CM Punk’s promo on Monday’s Raw saw him grateful rather than bitter after losing the world title to Reigns at Mania. After Seth Rollins had to vacate the title due to injury, Punk said he was able to step up as champion because he stayed prepared.
“If I didn’t stay ready, you’d be here yeeting, talking to Jey Uso right now instead of me,” Punk said, referring to the man he beat for the vacant title.
At that, fans in Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena booed.
“I don’t know why you’re booing that,” a baffled Punk said. “I like to yeet too. Get with the program, Vegas.”
In that same segment, Punk was joined by Cody Rhodes, a man readers once assured me that fans wouldn’t turn on as they did in AEW. Yet Rhodes was booed standing alongside Punk, just as he has been in recent months, despite being positioned as WWE’s top babyface.
But it got stranger still.
Later in the show, as Reigns moved to reunite The Bloodline, he put over Jey Uso. The crowd responded by yeeting. This, less than two hours after they booed the mere mention of “Main Event” Jey.
The fans’ wavering support called to mind a famous promo from Bryan Danielson, who saw his popularity fade shortly after returning to WWE following a two-year retirement.
Then known as Daniel Bryan, he got over with a single-word catchphrase (“Yes”), just like Uso. But after fans turned against him, he addressed the backlash in a memorable promo following the 2019 Royal Rumble that, fittingly, leaned on a single word of its own.
“Fickle! They’re fickle! They cheer ‘em one minute, they don’t care the next,” Danielson said.
Seven years later, nothing has changed.
And so the question isn’t will the audience turn on Femi, but when will they abandon their ruler?
Let’s see: divide the months they’ll cheer him before blaming WWE for pushing him too hard despite those cheers, add the moment he either challenges or defeats Reigns for the title — my guess is March 2027. It could be sooner, though, if he continues to show up dressed all fancy as he did on Raw.
Nothing says corporate puppet like a suit, amirite?
Of course, math wasn’t my best subject, so my projection might be off. Still, make no mistake about it: the fans are going to turn on Femi because it’s what they do. Hell, he probably lost a thousand fans during the first paragraph of this article.
Fickle.
