After committing attempted murder Roman Reigns finally seems to be an interesting character. Unpopular opinion alert, I don’t mind Roman Reigns that much, he’s improved dramatically.
With this new edge that seemed to come out after his loss to Braun Strowman, the doors have now been blown wide open for Roman Reigns.
There are quite a few options that WWE can take to develop Reigns further, in this article we’ll be breaking down a few of them.
Heel Turn
This is the best route for WWE to take with Reigns. Ever since beating The Undertaker at Wrestlemania Roman has been walking a fine line between face and heel.
This borderline heel persona was clearly demonstrated after his loss to Strowman. The facial expressions of anger and bitter disappointment were clear. (On a further note his facial expressions were really good during the match!) This anger, the way he snapped on Strowman was fantastic.
The last time we saw this was when he snapped on Triple H at TLC 2015. Then he was laying into a heel, which put him over massive as a babyface. In contrast this time, he beat the hell out of a face (Strowman is basically a face, despite how WWE book him). This will get him massive heel heat with the crowd. Furthermore, from the facial expressions of Kurt Angle, and how the commentators
Furthermore, from the facial expressions of Kurt Angle, and how the commentators were selling Strowman standing on his own two feet, it seems as if WWE is teasing a double turn.
Roman has shown that when he gets into heel mode, it’s really good. He may well benefit from a Rock type heel turn back to baby in the future. This has the potential of getting him hugely over with the crowd, including the smart marks.
We’ll have to wait for RAW to see.
Crisis of Confidence
This story worked really well for John Cena. The unstoppable hero falls and has to climb back up. It’s classic storytelling. Roman Reigns after beating everyone on the roster is losing. He can’t string together victories like he used to and it all comes back to Braun Strowman. They tried this story with the two before, but it ended too quickly with Roman going over.
If Roman starts to struggle, slowly making his way up the roster, people will start to get behind him. No, I don’t mean jobbing him out to Curt Hawkins but having him grow organically as a face.
Even in the match against Strowman, Reigns was showing that he was struggling against the big man. This makes the crowd sympathise with him. This is when WWE make him ‘fight back’ have him gradually overcome the odds of men like Strowman. Not squashing and no selling them! (Another point with this match, Roman’s selling was pretty good!)
If WWE wants to quickly make Roman a face this is the best root to take. It may not have the longevity of a heel turn back to face, but it will get Roman over as a baby.
Keep pushing Reigns
Let’s be honest this is probably what WWE is going to do. If pre-GBOF rumours are to be believed Roman may win the Universal Title at Summerslam. (However it is good to note that Brock Lesnar is extremely happy with how his match with Joe went, and Brock has a lot clout backstage).
Some people may hate the idea, but if done well, it doesn’t seem like a terrible idea. Reigns’ already has wins over most of the main roster and The Undertaker. This kayfabe wise puts him on another level.
Another unpopular opinion but, Reigns is a pretty good wrestler. I’m going to get a lot of hate because he’s a ‘Vince guy’ and didn’t ‘pay his dues’ like a lot of the indy guys. However I’m going to stick to my guns and say he’s improved dramatically, and his performance last night shows he’s getting better. Not only is he getting better wrestling wise, but aforementioned his ring psychology is getting better.
When The Big Dog won the main strap before, he was definitely forced onto the crowd. To a certain degree, a win at Summerslam may be too soon once again. However, with his improvement, he can be a pretty solid champion.
With some minor booking tweaks, and even more in-ring improvement, there is yet hope for Vince’s project to succeed.
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