Roman Reigns’ current run highlights WWE’s babyface problem

Watching WWE main roster programming these days `comes with the understanding that roughly 98 percent of the on-screen content will make you want to boil your eyes with a laser pointer. The small amount of quality you do get will likely involve Universal Champion Roman Reigns.

Since returning last August and becoming the company’s top heel, “The Tribal Chief” has easily become the most compelling aspect of WWE’s product. Reigns has unlocked a newfound level of confidence in the ring and on the microphone, and his performances have elevated the SmackDown brand.

As great as Reigns has been, however, his time at “The Head of the Table” has brought light to how undercooked most of WWE’s babyface servings are.

WWE doesn’t have many credible babyfaces to oppose Reigns.

To be clear, this isn’t a referrendum on any of the WWE babyface’s respective abilities to come across as likeable. Rather, it’s a reflection of WWE’s failure in giving fans a reason to emotionally invest in their journeys.

One only needs to looks at the opponents Reigns has beaten to understand the problem. Kevin Owens received title shot after title shot only to lose in increasingly ridiculous ways. Daniel Bryan and Edge were literally stacked on top of each other before Reigns pinned both of them at WrestleMania 36. Cesaro received a decent push before getting hit title shot at WrestleMania Backlash, but his chase to the title felt secondary to the Reigns/Usos family squabbling. Rey and Dominik Mysterio got the worst draw of the bunch, as Reigns spent two weeks destroying them before beating Rey inside Hell in a Cell, a decision made worse by the Mysterios being the SmackDown Tag Team Champions.

This isn’t to say any of those wrestlers should’ve beaten Reigns for the title; fans realize that everything WWE is trying to cement Reigns as a conrnerstone star, which is the correct move. But that ascent to stardom needs to include some measure of suspense to maximize Reigns’ contributions. After all, how excellent can a villain be without an equally compelling foil.

Sure, WWE could bring in part-timers like The Rock, Goldberg, John Cena or Brock Lesnar to fill those roles for the “Big 4” pay-per-views. And yes, it appears that they are grooming Big E for a program with Reigns at some point (if they don’t move him to Raw beforehand). Heck, they could even move Drew McIntyre over to SmackDown to challenge Reigns.

All of these solutions sound great, but for a company that produces as much weekly content as WWE does, it’s not enough.

Again, this extends far beyond Reigns. It’s not like there’s a Disney park-esque line of well-protected Raw babyfaces waiting to challenge WWE Champion Bobby Lashley and NXT has already resorted to turning heels babyface to give Karrion Kross a fresh opponent. This is a company-wide problem that so happens to be best illustrated in Reigns’ most recent storylines, an annoying blip on his otherwise flawless presentation.

Since last August, WWE has nearly everything right with Reigns, but if they want to maximize his performances, they’ll need to get the babyfaces right, too.