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Roman Reigns Must Turn Heel Before WrestleMania 32

By Rob Wolkenbrod

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Roman Reigns’ stock is trending in the wrong direction once again. Here’s why WWE must change his character soon before risking further damage.

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WWE loves Roman Reigns and has made it clear for nearly two years since the first signs of there being “cracks” in The Shield. He dominated the 2014 Royal Rumble and became the “leader” of the group after Seth Rollins held that title for over a year. Reigns then went on a hot streak throughout the summer of ’14 and received a huge push going into WrestleMania 31 season. He won the 2015 Royal Rumble, defeated Daniel Bryan and headlined WrestleMania against Brock Lesnar. However, this was all done while Reigns received ear-piercing boos from the crowd.

Bad fan reaction arguably was the cause of Reigns losing to Seth Rollins at WrestleMania 31, who cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Reigns was supposed to win the match but plans were changed days before.

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WWE then went on a six-month rehabilitation plan of “fixing” Reigns. They put him in a feud with Big Show, who fans hate. Reigns garnered some positive reaction from this. Then he went into a feud with Bray Wyatt after the cult figure took out Reigns as he was seconds away from winning the MITB briefcase. They battled for a month until WWE decided to realign Dean Ambrose with Reigns to get the former cheers. This did not work as the Barclays Center crowd booed Reigns out of the building at WWE SummerSlam.

After the Wyatt Family won the six-man tag match at WWE Night of Champions, we saw booking go in the direction of Reigns being on his own again. It turned into Reigns vs. Wyatt being made for WWE Hell in a Cell on Oct. 25 inside the cell. This was a smart move to focus the feud back on each other.

Unfortunately, things started spiraling downhill after that.

Before this, WWE was cutting short and sweet promos for the former Georgia Tech football player. It made him look like the tough guy everyone thought he should be booked as.

Then this happened.

The choice to give Reigns a live microphone in front of a usually-hot Chicago crowd was an awful decision. The decision of making the promo one that went on for minutes is arguably the worst booking decision of the year.

Reigns fumbled over his lines a few times and the crowd quickly picked up on it. He then answered back to the crowd but it only made things worse. Wyatt coming out to the ring saved him from falling even further. WWE would have Reigns come out for another long promo the next night at the SmackDown taping.

The big issue here is WWE trying to make Reigns like John Cena. They’re trying to give him the long mic time, keep making him “overcome the odds” and look for him to get cheered in any way. They even had the two men come out together for the Breast Cancer Awareness segment a few weeks ago. It wasn’t a coincidence that WWE chose Cena and Reigns to be out there due to their standing.

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    • It’s being made clear that WWE still has huge plans for Reigns but trying to make him a clone of Cena is not working. Doing this is only making the fans hate him like they do with Mr. HLR. If WWE was smart, they would turn Reigns heel before WrestleMania 32.

    Why before WrestleMania 32? Well, WWE may be looking to get Reigns into the main event of the show again. This comes after they moved the formerly planned main event of Brock Lesnar vs. The Undertaker inside Hell in a Cell to the WWE Hell in a Cell pay-per-view. With the magnitude of this particular WrestleMania and the main event left open, it seems that WWE could place in there again for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. This would likely be done via Royal Rumble win for a second straight year. If that happens, you could expect the same reaction he got earlier this year—unless he turns heel.

    If Reigns is heel by the time the Royal Rumble comes around, the negative reaction that makes WWE look foolish won’t be there. He won’t have to pander to the crowd—he can celebrate and be arrogant about it. It should be noted that 8 of the past 10 Royal Rumble winners have been faces, though, meaning if Reigns wins, it will likely be as a face, which would be the wrong move.

    So how would Reigns turn heel? He would accomplish this by simply turning on Dean Ambrose. Friendships in WWE never last and this one won’t be the only one that stays status quo. They could turn on each other at any point, especially if both lose their matches at Hell in a Cell.

    Roman Reigns turning heel before WrestleMania is the smart move. Is it the likely move? Unfortunately, no, but maybe WWE will surprise us.

    You can follow Rob Wolkenbrod on Twitter @RealRobWolkey. If you would like to send a report from a live event, email us at robert.wolkenbrod@gmail.com.

    Next: 3 Reasons Why Steve Austin Must Appear on Raw

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