Roman Reigns is a Modern-Day Wrestling Heel

Roman Reigns isn’t the most likable champion by the standard of current fans, but maybe that is what makes him a modern-day heel in WWE.

The oldest formula of success in professional wrestling has always been to have the good guys as someone the majority of fans love, respect and want to see chase the championships. The other part of that equation is having the bad guy that everyone absolutely despises and hopes will one day lose their top at the top of the mountain.

It’s interesting for the WWE to continue having Roman Reigns, who is not the most respected and most liked superstar in the company, to be the babyface who toppled Triple H for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 32 earlier this month. More than 100,000 fans could be heard raining down boos towards Roman Reigns; who was continuously booked as the good guy.

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But it was noticeable how Reigns has changed his demeanor as a more neutral champion with the promo the very next night on Raw saying that he’s not a good guy or a bad guy, but he’s “the guy.” A week or so after the craziness from WrestleMania has settled down, one thing may have come to a realization for this writer – maybe the WWE considers Reigns the top heel and they wanted us to boo him for a more modern style of booking the product.

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Over the past few years, the WWE has made several attempts to censor the chants from fans who have done their research through the online news sources and social media. But the fan base of the WWE Universe has changed with the evolution of the World Wide Web and the different online tools.

Things started to change as they had one of the best feel-good moments with Daniel Bryan winning the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 30 and then one of the more shocking moments with Seth Rollins cashing in Money in the Bank the very next year. But there are ebbs and flows in the world of professional wrestling – or as WWE calls it, sports entertainment. Just like any sport, the guy/team that some people don’t like are going to win.

Despite all of the negative heat that having Reigns winning the championship was going to bring during WrestleMania, the WWE still held strong to their booking that has been known for several months. Why would Vince McMahon want to knowingly upset a large portion of the WWE fanbase? Because without saying it, he’s created the most disliked heel in the modern era of WWE.

The good news is that the WWE is seemingly developing a lot of international talent that is expected to come into the main roster and start to challenge Reigns and other current stars as part of the influx of the new generation of WWE that has been developing in Triple H’s version of NXT. Time will tell if this is going to be the future of how the WWE books good guys and bad guys; but the fact that fans continue to boo Reigns is a sign that whatever the WWE is seemingly doing with their creative plan is working.

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