Roman Reigns and the Trouble With Inflexible Storytellers

Another big time match, another loss for Roman Reigns. Worse, the crowd still refuses to get behind him. Why hasn’t WWE entertained the idea of a new direction?

For the past four years, it seems that the only goal in WWE is to make Roman Reigns into The Guy™. From a terribly received Royal Rumble victory in 2015 to four straight WrestleMania main events, Reigns has been the clear focus of the company. Even the recent Superstar Shake-up seemed designed to position Reigns as the superstar to carry Raw for the foreseeable future.

During much of that time, I’ve been one of those lunatics who has offered support for Reigns, despite a large portion of the fanbase being against his rise. My take on the situation has been to appreciate what he does in the ring, realizing that his position on the card is almost entirely out of his own hands. Roman isn’t a superstar with the clout to demand certain matches, or wedge himself into a program. He’s a little more than five years into his career, so he does what he’s told.

And in that five years, he’s developed into one of the best workers on the roster. You can argue that he does too many strikes and not enough “wrestling” moves, and I can see that. But I would challenge anyone who says Reigns is terrible in the ring to point out specific examples of that. Because if you really watch him with an objective eye, you’ll see that’s an outright lie, and he’s usually great on a nightly basis.

No, the trouble isn’t with Reigns in the ring, but how he’s utilized. After the Greatest Royal Rumble — in front of a crowd that was supposed to finally be in his corner — it’s clear Reigns will never get the reaction sought by the front office. Despite little inklings of crowd support over the build to WrestleMania, the fact is the fans have made their decision on The Big Dog. No matter how badly the higher-ups want him to be a top babyface, he’s going to be booed.

It’s not the first time this has happened. The Royal Rumble in 2015 not only got Reigns booed, but The Rock as well, and who saw that coming? Sometimes it appears WWE will run with it, like the night after WrestleMania 33 in 2017. Reigns delivered one of his best promos to a crowd that was deafening in their hatred anytime the mic got close to his lips. But the creative team as always doubled down and tried something new to get Reigns cheered. None have worked.

Take the entirety of the Braun Strowman feud. Not only did Reigns fail to get cheered after being assaulted while on a stretcher, thrown into a lower level parking deck, and placed in an ambulance that got flipped over, the program got Strowman over. Samoa Joe is the kind of wrestler who really can’t be cheered if you focus on his attitude and demeanor. Yet, when he goes against Roman Reigns, Joe is the “good guy” in the eyes of the crowd.

For years, the WWE Universe as booed John Cena, despite his role as top babyface. When Cena showed up on Raw and went toe to toe with Reigns, once again it was Reigns getting booed, and Cena getting cheered. And that is the real sign that WWE has a problem on their hands.

It’s obvious that the John Cena model is being used to book Reigns. The mentality that “any reaction is a good reaction” is backwards and detrimental to a good story being told. The beautiful thing about pro wrestling is that it allows good storytellers to adapt mid-story and use the characters to their fullest potential. Some stories work once, but retelling the same one at a later date is an abject failure. Even “updating” it for the times doesn’t work — Red Dawn was a movie that got mixed reviews in 1984 when it was topical, and the 2012 remake was nearly universally panned.

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Trying to replicate the Cena career with Reigns is not going to work. Cena wasn’t The Rock, who wasn’t Steve Austin, who wasn’t Shawn Michaels, who wasn’t Hulk Hogan, who wasn’t Bruno Sammartino. Attempting to force another superstar on the same trajectory as a previous “top guy” is just begging for failure.

And after all this time, you kind have need to wonder if Reigns would be better served with a sort of repackaging. He enjoyed tremendous success as part of The Shield upon his debut, but once the group disbanded in 2014 he’s basically been a one man Shield. There’s been no change to his character one bit — he’s got the same entrance music as The Shield, he still wears the same gear, he even continued entering through the crowd for a while. Maybe fans see him as a poor imitation of the once great stable, while Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose evolved after the breakup.

If Vince McMahon really wants Reigns to be the top superstar, he should step back and try a different approach. One of my favorite quotes has always been, “If we always do what we’ve always done, we’ll always get what we’ve always got.” Continuing the same tired booking that doesn’t achieve the desired results will only ensure that Roman Reigns never gets cheered. Doing something different doesn’t necessarily mean different results, but the odds are better, at least.

Next: Was Greatest Royal Rumble Worth Leaving Women Behind?

Here’s a thought — let Samoa Joe destroy Roman Reigns at Backlash. Give Reigns a few weeks off television, and let him come back at Money in the Bank in June as a changed superstar. Let him be a ticked-off, angry heel who hates the crowd for refusing to believe in him. Have him attack the kinds of superstars who get the reactions he feels “entitled to.” Guys like Seth Rollins, Finn Balor, Braun Strowman. Maybe that will be what finally clicks for The Big Dog. Top heel is still a pretty important position in the company, right?