The Roman Reigns story arc is growing stagnant

Six hundred-plus days. Roman Reigns has sat on top of the WWE Universe for almost two years, closing out big match after big match along the way. But as the days tick away, there’s a growing air of concern about stagnation in the “Tribal Chief” angle. What’s next is a hard question to answer when WWE has done an effective job ensuring that Reigns and no other men on the roster are truly presented as a star.

Finn Balor, Edge, Kevin Owens, Jey Uso, and many others have fallen along the wayside. Reigns stands tall, piling up body after body along the way. While that has been enjoyable and solidified him as the biggest name of this generation, that practice hasn’t done much to build up the rest of the roster.

Even Drew McIntyre, who has been inserted into the title picture suddenly fell to Reigns back at Survivor Series in 2020. And while that was almost two years ago, little has been done to build McIntyre up as a credible threat to Reigns’s run as champion. Even the victories he’s picked up along the way do not greatly increase his overall stock.

Beyond the win-loss record, everything about Reigns’ presentation is beginning to become monotonous and dragging. His walks to the ring rival The Undertaker for pacing. He and Paul Heyman run down similar lines, as The Usos stand in place with their fingers in the air. Reigns’ character hasn’t developed new wrinkles since his first return, and outside the back-and-forth with Brock Lesnar, much o this has been the same. Now that Lesnar is gone, and fans do not want to see any more of that angle, there are few directions for the promotion to take.

WWE has booked itself into a predicament. Where are his new challengers going to come from? Will they book challengers to look like strong opposition along the way? Is Cody Rhodes the only credible name on the roster that can take those titles off Reigns’s shoulders? Years of booking show otherwise and it’s hard to put that confidence in how this storyline will play out.

There’s the opportunity that The Usos turn on Roman, taking the focus back to the beginning, which set the tone for the early success. Maybe they bring in Solo Sikoa as a third arm to slap some sense into Reigns? There’s the dream match with The Rock also hanging out there to play with. The options are there, but with week after week of mediocre television that can’t be saved only by Reigns’s presence, even his run of dominance can’t fight off the power of boredom forever.

Is Roman Reigns’s story getting cold? Opinions may vary, but the current trajectory isn’t helping in the long run.