Roman Reigns has, in his short four years as a part of the WWE roster, been a rookie invader, an enforcer for the most dominant stable on WWE television for the past decade, a rising solo star, a Royal Rumble winner, a WrestleMania main eventer, and a heavyweight champion. He has at times been the most beloved member of the roster, and the most hated.
On paper, Reigns has already accomplished more in four years than the majority of pro wrestlers will in an entire lifetime within the business. And for all those reasons and more WWE will tout their pet project as a massive success. But in a scripted industry, accolades only mean as much as the money they bring in – and that is where the success story of Roman Reigns comes crashing down.
Per the August 22, 2016 edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, based on articles written by Brandon Howard, “If you look at market-by-market over the last five years, on average a show headlined by [Roman] Reigns will draw 29 percent less in that same arena than a show headlined by [John] Cena.” A compilation of house show numbers for 2016 continue to show that the best drawing events that do not showcase Cena are not headlined by Reigns, the star the company has spent considerable time and money developing into the next major face of the company, but by Seth Rollins, AJ Styles and to a lesser extent, Bray Wyatt.
If you couple low house show numbers with an inability to move the needle for television ratings during the time he held the world championship, and during his time chasing the world championship, it’s apparent there is a problem in the WWE’s plans for Roman Reigns as the heir apparent to the decade long throne inhabited by Cena.
There is a disconnect between the character and the fans, reflected obviously in their reaction to him while across the ring from nearly any top star, that isn’t delivering the numbers they need to justify the kind of attention and spotlight he has been given the past two years.
Is it time for WWE to give up and go back to the drawing board with Reigns? I don’t believe so. Many do. My theory, which we’re about to break down at length, is that Reigns can still be the face of the company and recapture the love that many fans had for him during his time alongside Ambrose and Rollins. I believe that there is still a way to fix the Roman Reigns character, and elevate him to the position WWE desperate wants him to occupy, without losing the audience in the process.
I. WHAT WENT RIGHT
Believe in the Shield: The Rise of Roman Reigns
November 18, 2012. Three men in black, revealed to be developmental talents from NXT, came through the crowd and rushed the ring, assaulting Ryback during a WWE Championship match at the Survivor Series. The trio would declare themselves The Shield, guardians of justice and destroyers of inequity. Their impact was immediate and shook the company to its core.
The Shield was a rare instance of WWE doing everything right. The perfect stable of men, like Evolution before them, that created major stars destined for world titles and Hall of Fame level careers from the very start. Every week there was a new discussion on every podcast, and in every message board, about which of the Hounds of Justice would break out and have the biggest impact on the future. Rollins and Ambrose came to the WWE with large (albeit drastically different) independent wrestling followings, but the rookie Reigns consistently held his own in those debates. His size, strength, athletic ability and one of the best top star aesthetics in wrestling history made him the total package; at the time, that wasn’t considered a bad thing.
If Seth Rollins attacked Reigns with a chair in 2016, in ninety-nine percent of arenas across the U.S. he would be met with overwhelming cheer. But just two years ago – and this is perhaps the greatest sign of just how effective The Shield was as a unit – he was met with massive boos and a chorus of “you sold out”. For months after, Roman was one of the hottest babyfaces on the WWE roster. Even alongside John Cena, who still retains a massive split among wrestling fans, the remaining Shield members were loved by nearly everyone.
So where did things start going wrong?
When the band broke up, many assumed it would expose the weaknesses of Reigns, who was by far the most inexperienced member of the group. Instead, Roman continued to produce, and still continues to produce to this day, excellent matches. If you’re not convinced here’s some homework:
- vs. Randy Orton (SummerSlam 2014)
- vs. Daniel Bryan (Fastlane 2015)
- vs. Brock Lesnar (WrestleMania 2015)
- vs. Big Show (Extreme Rules 2015)
- vs. Cesaro (Monday Night Raw 11/16/2015)
- vs. Sheamus (TLC 2015)
- vs. Brock Lesnar & Dean Ambrose (Fastlane 2016)
- vs. AJ Styles (Extreme Rules 2016)
- vs. Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose (Battleground 2016)
There is a popular argument that Reigns has had great matches on PPV because he has been “carried” by great opponents. And he has had some truly great opponents. Guys like Daniel Bryan, Cesaro and AJ Styles could work show-stealing matches with literally anyone, at any skill level. But not everyone has had great matches with Sheamus (a great wrestler in his own right). Not everyone has had great matches with Brock Lesnar.
Perhaps most telling, Reigns took Big Show to his highest rated match EVER. In a career that spans two decades, across two companies, including more than 175 matches ranked by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, against opponents like Lesnar, Orton, Cena, Punk, Undertaker, Triple H, Angle, Mysterio, Guerrero, The Rock, Foley, Austin, Sting, Hogan, Benoit and Randy Savage… It was Roman Reigns who gave the Big Show his highest rated match ever.
So we can agree, or at least agree to disagree, that the problem isn’t Roman’s ability in the ring. So where did things actually start to break down?
II. WHAT WENT WRONG
The Yes Movement: WWE’s Failure to Listen
You’ve heard this argument before, and I’m not about to put the downfall of Reigns solely on the shoulders of Daniel Bryan and the “YES Movement”. Far from it. But it is where the foundation began to crack.
To understand what happened here, you actually have to back up a full year to the 2014 Royal Rumble. By this point you know the story: Daniel Bryan had been screwed over by the Authority for months, through some absolutely terrible television, in angles that made very little sense. Fans wanted Bryan to win the Rumble match and go on to WrestleMania to win back the WWE Championship, getting his revenge and giving the fans their comeback moment. Because, you know, that’s how wrestling is supposed to work. Instead…fans got Batista.
Batista received an incredible reaction just days before when making his return to Monday Night Raw. Fans loved the former world champion, and were happy to see him back after years away from pro wrestling. But they wanted Daniel Bryan, and the minute it became clear that Batista was the WWE’s pick to win the Rumble, all hell broke loose. It ruined Batista’s return, and everything that came after, to the point where we may never see him in a ring again.
Fast-forward eleven months to the TLC pay-per-view. After WWE called an audible and ended up putting Bryan in the WrestleMania 30 main event anyways, he went down with a severe injury. The fans got their moment, but didn’t get the title reign they had always hoped for. At TLC Reigns made his return in a match between Seth Rollins and John Cena, and got a massive babyface reaction from the fans in a moment that oozed electricity and charisma in every second. It’s just a few minutes long, but still stands as some of the best work in Roman’s catalog; the moment it clicked for many that this guy just “got” the business.
With Bryan injured indefinitely, and many speculating already that he might never come back full-time, Reigns was the most over babyface on the WWE roster. It was clear he was headed to the Royal Rumble to win, and would become the WWE Champion at WrestleMania that year. The thing is – nobody really minded. It was obvious, predictable; all the metrics most people use to describe why things in WWE go wrong, but most people seemed on board with it. And then…they announced the return of Daniel Bryan.
This time, fans had hope that WWE would do right by them and learn from the mistakes they made the year before. The difference was, by pulling that audible at WrestleMania 30 and giving the fans what they wanted, WWE inadvertently taught them they could effect the outcome of WrestleMania main events by being extremely vocal – and they wanted Daniel Bryan.
And then Roman Reigns won. And not only did Reigns win, but they treated Bryan so poorly, and showcased him with such apathy in the Rumble match, that you could barely hear the commentary team over chants of “bullshit” from fans in attendance. Reigns suffered the same fate as Batista, and months later at WrestleMania the company was forced to pull another audible in the form of Seth Rollins. It was too little, too late. Reigns was ruined in the eyes of the fans. One month he was the most over babyface in the company, the next he was being booed out of arenas and focused as the physical embodiment of everything fans hated about WWE decision-makers.
It’s almost painful that WWE didn’t see this coming. They are one-hundred percent to blame that Reigns is not currently the most beloved babyface, the biggest drawing star, and the future of the brand. One decision – holding off on Bryan’s return for just a few months – would have changed everything.
What makes everything worse is in ruining the Batista and Roman Reigns characters in back-to-back Rumble matches, neither even won the title at their respective WrestleMania anyways.
But it’s been a long time, and you can’t blame one moment, one night, for two years of bad booking. After the Rumble it was inevitable that Reigns would be hated. The deed was done, and they had to live in that reality. Instead, they continued to ignore the popularity of Bryan, and altogether ignored the reactions that Reigns was getting from fans, and plowed full-steam ahead to WrestleMania.
WWE didn’t take responsibility for their actions, and instead started comparing Roman to John Cena, assuming that split crowds and divisive reactions were a positive sign. “Well, at least he’s getting a reaction,” they said, “and that’s all that really matters”. Except that’s not true, at all. The reactions Cena gets from fans, and has received over a very long, successful career, are similar but not identical to the issues facing Reigns. WWE’s inability to see that is baffling.
A big part of the reason they haven’t been able to right the course is pure inconsistency. One month he was the face of fatherhood, being shown in commercials and spotlighted as this great dad who loves his kid. Even though the crowds largely hated him, everything he did was for the sake of good – to benefit him, his friends, his family and his fans. He was the hero fans didn’t want. But at least that Roman Reigns made sense.
Then he won the title and WWE addressed the boos with a ridiculous tagline that said, “he’s not a good guy, he’s not a bad guy, he’s THE GUY!” Thing is, that would have been a great gimmick if they’d done anything to build towards it, or show any kind of emotional or mental change in Roman’s character up to that moment.
This is something WWE does entirely too frequently – they “change” a wrestler’s character by telling you instead of showing you through actual changes in the character, played out on TV. How is Super Reigns, Father of the Year suddenly “not a good guy”? The company, through Michael Cole’s forced lines on commentary, save face by calling him “controversial” (the same line they use to describe Cena when an arena opts to boo him) instead of the truth – “we can’t figure out what to do with this guy”.
If Roman saves the day for his good pal Dean Ambrose he’s a babyface that gets booed. If they put him up against a popular heel he’s an apathetic robot that gets booed. If they manage to find a heel that actually draws heat, and they put Roman up against him, somehow he still manages to come off like a huge dick (see: Rusev). And he gets booed. Good in March, neutral in April, bad in May, good again in June; Roman Reigns simply no longer has a character, and the fans have stopped caring.
WWE is moving their stars around like meaningless, interchangeable pawns on a chess board, rather than living, breathing characters on a television show. And therein lies the real problem with Roman Reigns. It’s no longer Daniel Bryan, or the fact that fans have moved on to guys like Kevin Owens and Finn Balor. They’ve given up. They’ve put him on auto-pilot, hoping that one day fans will come around. WWE has no idea what to do with a guy they’ve spent countless time and money molding into a concept that just didn’t pan out.
So what do we do? We change the concept.
(TO BE CONTINUED…)
Note: This is part one of a two-part column. Part two, which will be available this Wednesday night before NXT and CWC, will go into detail on the best ways WWE can turn Roman Reigns around in the eyes of the fans, what he needs to do vs. what the company needs to do, and we’ll even fantasy book a little of what that path might look like. Plus, my rules for what WWE absolutely cannot do with him going forward.
