The day after he won the WWE title for the third time in four months at Wrestlemania, Roman Reigns debuted his new catchphrase, “I’m not a good guy, I’m not a bad guy, I’m THE guy.” It was notable not just as a shift in character from babyface to tweener, but also as the first public acknowledgement by Vince McMahon & Co. that their machinations for Reigns weren’t going as planned.
There was never any doubt that the WWE heard the boos and read the critiques. But up until that abrupt shift in tone, it didn’t like seem they were going to deviate from the notion that Reigns is the new face of the company, will be your champion, and you will love him.
Just two months later, he lost the WWE title at Money in the Bank. Not only that, this unstoppable beast whom the company had propped up for months was pinned (relatively) clean by a heel, something that rarely happens in the modern world of pro wrestling.
Very few people saw it coming because of the way the WWE had backed Reigns for so long. Through the boos. Through the second-guessing. Through the bad promos. Through the lack of fan support. It was obvious to anyone who has been paying attention that Reigns was going to hold on to that title until at least SummerSlam in August. They rode it out this far, you just assumed they’d see it through.
The world of pro wrestling news is a tricky minefield full of rumors and misinformation but if reports that Roman Reigns-led house shows weren’t making enough money are to be believed, it stands to reason that the only thing that could have stopped WWE’s push, financial losses, finally caused Vince to pull the plug.
And yet, if WWE is finally ready to give up on the Roman Reigns Era, or at least table it for a while, the long-term scenario has worked out very much in Reigns’ favor. Assuming the WWE is finally ready to admit the truth.
First of all, let’s be clear that Reigns isn’t going anywhere. The company has invested heavily in him for the past year-and-a-half and he’s not about to drop down to the mid-card. He’s almost certainly going to remain in the WWE title hunt, or at the very least near the top of the card.
Short-term, that makes sense. WWE needs to start thinking long-term, however, and that’s where you can look at everything that’s happened since The Shield broke up as Roman Reigns, Part 1. Part 2 will require them to do the most obvious, but also most effective thing: turn him heel.
John Cena aside, there’s a pretty good case to be made that the road to becoming a WWE superstar is paved with lies, cheating, backstabbing, and treachery. Before The Rock became The People’s Champion, he honed his skills and crafted his image as a bad guy. Same goes for Stone Cold Steve Austin, who built the foundation for his iconic character in heel actions. Brock Lesner, The Undertaker, Kurt Angle, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Chris Jericho. All of them came into their own as a solo bad guy before eventually becoming a fan favorite.
There’s more to the equation, of course, and every pro wrestler charts their own path based on looks, charisma, personality, and It Factor. Roman Reigns has some of those things in the bag. Other things still need a lot of work. He needs to develop his mic skills. He needs to find a way to let his natural charisma come through more often. He needs to let his guard down and give fans a peek inside the bulletproof vest (literally and figuratively).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z55UrEEooh8
Turning heel gives Reigns, and the WWE, the perfect opportunity to work out all of those issues. No longer trying to fit him into a mold, you can work with Reigns’ natural abilities and interests to hone a different side to his character. Maybe he really wants to be cocky. Maybe he really wants to just shut up and punch people. Maybe a change of outfit would change the way he feels and influence the way fans see him. Now is the time to make those tweaks and going heel provides more room to play around with those nuances.
Not to mention that he’s already getting booed out of the arena almost every night. The fans WANT to dislike him, even if it’s less because of him and more because of what the WWE has positioned him as. You want people to have a visceral reaction to Reigns? Give it to them. Let them reign down their disdain, pun very intended. And if Reigns is given the chance to feed off of it and uses the reality of the situation to inform what he says and how he acts, it will only enrich his character and make him more popular.
Then, when the inevitable reaction-to-the-reaction happens, you’ll be able to flip Reigns back, or at least return to this tweener mentality. But at that point, he’ll be a much fuller character with a clear sense of purpose beyond “I want to be champion.” He’ll have a backstory and an emotional arc and all of these building blocks needed in order to change Roman from Generic Good Guy No. 5 into the kind of person we actually want to root for.
There’s probably going to be a lot of people out there who see Roman Reigns as a failure. That’s valid in the short-term, given what WWE clearly wanted him to be. But in the long-term, Roman Reigns and the WWE can spin this into the perfect opening act for a long and storied career. The table is set for him to becoming the biggest heel in the company. Instead of fighting it, it’s time to lean in.
