Roman Reigns’ WWE Booking Continues to Hurt His Direction

2016 is in its closing chapters with the fall approaching.  The leaves are changing, the weather is changing, yet the direction of Roman Reigns is the same.

It has been an up and down year for the Juggernaut, Roman Reigns.  He started the year out as WWE World Heavyweight Champion only to lose it at the Royal Rumble thanks to Triple H.  Reigns would get revenge at WrestleMania, holding it until Money in the Bank followed with a controversial Wellness Policy suspension.

After Reigns returned from his suspension, he found himself in an intense feud with Rusev.  This feud culminated last night at Clash of Champions, where Reigns won the United States Championship.  While Reigns adds another accolade to his growing resume, he continues to work against the grain in the struggle between WWE and its fans.

It’s been a topic that has been talked about over and over again.  Reigns struggles to get over in the WWE Universe, and now it seems he’s eclipsed the John Cena curse.  Frankly, I am tired of trying to explain the good side to Reigns.  WWE won’t embrace a change when it comes to him, and it is frustrating at best for me, who is a fan of Reigns and the Anoa’i family.

Let me explain:  A Superstar should evolve in some way over the course of his or her career.  That means they need to shed some skin so to speak and sometimes it calls for changing their character’s attitude on top of it.  For Reigns, he still embraces The Shield in his gear, which it looks to fans as if he is holding onto the past.  It has been obvious that he’s not comfortable just yet in his babyface role.  Forced words escape his mouth and it further incapacitates him as a Superstar.  The leash is hooked on him tightly and the company has also seemed to force him against time to get him to where they want him to be.

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With Reigns feud with Rusev, the leash seemed to have loosened when Reigns made the challenge to the Bulgarian Brute.  The confrontation in Atlanta at the beginning of August was a great start, and the next week Reigns was more relaxed than we have seen him on the microphone.  The intensity the feud between the two beasts was exactly what each of them needed and things looked promising.

However, between Rusev’s wedding nuptials with Lana and Finn Balor’s injury, WWE made a major mistake with both men.  Both men were booked in the WWE Universal Championship tournament, in which Reigns advanced to the finals.  Rusev walked out in his match; there was no follow-up to the no contest at SummerSlam the night before.  Reigns kept busy in the Universal Championship picture, which it damaged his comeback feud.  From there, he lost to Kevin Owens when Rusev returned.

Reigns’ beef with Owens and Triple H should have been dropped there for now while Reigns goes to take care of unfinished business with Rusev.  The beef could always come back up later on.  However, what does the company do?  Book him in the main event on Raw, where he wins a Steel Cage Match against Owens.  Even though Owens and Rusev decimated the Samoan Superman after the match, last week’s Raw only served to put Seth Rollins over in his evolving face turn.

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Reigns said last week on Raw, ‘what does it do for me?’  Because of the damage that was done towards the buildup of Clash of Champions, it hurt him more than help him.  WWE is desperate to get Reigns to where they want him to be, on top of the world and it’s anything but.  Putting Reigns in the Universal Championship picture was the last place Reigns needed to be at.  There could be other options that would’ve served Reigns until Rusev returned from the honeymoon.  Now, Reigns is back to square one once more with the flip-flop booking the company has thrust him in.

Sunday night’s match was great, so imagine how much better it would’ve been received if the buildup was done better.  Whispers of a heel turn have seemed to fade after the conclusion to the Championship match., What is worse is that Reigns’ win was the only Championship that changed hands.  It seemed as if the company didn’t want to overshadow Reigns’ win with another title change.

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The fact of the matter is that the company must allow Reigns to fully evolve in order for him to become the Superstar they desperately want him to be.  Reigns can’t be rushed; it takes time for mega Superstars to emerge.  The potential is there, but the company is committing a severe crime by taking shortcuts to continuously skyrocket Reigns which sabotages his legacy.  At the end of the day , hough, WWE will be dead set on what direction they want to go in.  There is great potential in a Reigns heel turn where he can embrace the hate the way he should.  More money is on the table with the idea, but the company doesn’t want to take it.  And that is a misfortune.