Roman Reigns was the hand-picked guy that WWE figured would be their next big Superstar, but his push has not gone all that well. That’s putting it mildly. His push has been an utter disaster. Whatever the reasons are, and many have taken the time to point them out, Reigns isn’t getting any love as a face for WWE. Perhaps it’s time for WWE to embrace the hate and turn Reigns heel.
Reigns as a heel makes sense because the story behind it is already being written by the fans. The WWE fans have seen through the smoke and mirrors with Reigns and they, for the moment, don’t like him. The WWE tries to cover up this fact by pretending any reaction is a good reaction. Yet, the negative vibe behind pushing a talent as a face where the fans treat him heel has not proven to be the best for ratings.
If you look back at the Cena era the WWE’s ratings have not gone off the charts and have stayed pretty flat. There is no doubt that Cena has been an attraction for WWE, but he never was able to get fans truly excited about the product the way a Hogan, Rock, Austin did. Cena is a hard worker and not half as bad as some fans make him out to be, but the constant with him is a very mixed reaction that is generally more towards dislike.
Reigns has been consistently booed and jeered since the Royal Rumble. WWE’s attempts to block crowd noise or pipe in positive crowd noise have not worked. Reigns isn’t getting over as a face. So what to do? Should they push forward like they did with Cena and try to rise about the hate again? The obvious answer is to flip Reigns to the dark side and instead embrace the hate. It’s very important to do this in the most epic fashion so that no one sees it coming.
The WWE is currently putting out the idea that Rollins will be Champ for a while. They need to continue on that path for the next few weeks. They should have Rollins take on Orton at the next PPV Extreme Rules and retain. Then after that match the next night on Raw Reigns should challenge Rollins. Rollins should refuse this challenge and Reigns should be forced to go to extreme measures to get this match.
Even if Reigns does something that sparks some positive reactions the WWE needs to stay the course. WWE needs to do everything they can to tease that Rollins will be facing Lesnar down the line almost looking past Reigns as a legit contender. You do this by working the angle that Lesnar is coming back to get a piece of Rollins after his suspension and you use Heyman to convey this message in promos.
You can also start to build an opponent up for Rollins for the following months PPV. Perhaps by using a #1 contenders match at Payback and setting up the winner to appear to be the natural foil for Rollins. It should be made to seem that Rollins is golden at least until Brock comes back. The announce team and all the promos should be gearing fans for that. You promote that thought that as long as the Authority have Rollins back he will be the Champ.
Then at Payback you have the Reigns Rollins match for the strap. Everything would appear that Reigns is working face and not cheating and doing the right thing. The two should just focus on having a really good match and no under handed tactics should occur. Rollins should survive the spear and Superman punch once. This will suggest to fans that he’s going to win. Reigns should survive a few Curb Stomps as well.
Just when it would seem that Rollins was out of options HHH should come to ring side and seem to be aiding Rollins. There would probably be a ref bump. HHH might go to give Rollins the Sledge, but instead toss it to Reigns who would immediately hit Rollins with it. HHH would then give the thumbs down sign and Reigns would hit a massive Spear on a hobbled Rollins. HHH wakes up the ref and we have a new champ.
HHH then celebrates in ring with Reigns. The crowd would likely go nuts for this. By presenting Rollins as a stable champion in the buildup and doing nothing to suggest this will happen WWE will have laid the ground work for a solid swerve.
The next night on Raw Reigns can be given a mic and he should have no issues telling the WWE fans to go stick it. He tried to do things the right way and they booed him and were critical of him. He can state, as he has on interviews that he’s in this to be rich. He can even tell the Rock to go stick it. That after trying to do this all the right way he’s realized that the Authority are the people that he should have turned to from day one.
HHH and Steph can then grab the mic and talk about how they made advances to Reigns in the past, but he rebuffed them, but now he’s seen the error in his ways. They both knew the WWE Universe was not the answer for Reigns. The Authority was the answer. The stuff writes itself.
From there Rollins can flip back to being a face, which is easy to do because in the face of all this he can simply show some humility and if he puts on great matches the fans will get behind him.
That being said the entire company should then get behind Reigns as a monster. He should win his way into Summerslam. The WWE should limit his matches on Raw and Smackdown to nearly none and make him an attraction. It would be smart business for WWE to use Reigns to top all live event shows. He would probably draw huge if fans aren’t seeing him in action on Raw and Smackdown. The WWE has a problem with using guys on TV so much it’s no big deal to see them.
Reigns doesn’t have to be a better wrestler or better mic guy. He can lean on the Authority for his promos and work basic on top matches no selling and being dominant. He simply needs to become anti-John Cena, the real heel that Cena never became. It would also be prudent to keep him away from Cena since fans tend to get behind whoever Cena is against. Everything should be done to make Reigns the target of all WWE fan hate. They should not be looking to flip him back face by accident almost in the way that Brock got back to being face because he was against Cena and working really good matches and Heyman was cutting insane promos.
The WWE needs to play on all the stereo types that people believe about the company and Vince. WWE should try to get Reigns in as many interviews as possible where he stays in character talking soulless and selfish. Roman Reigns should be a “have” and stick his finger in the face of the “have nots”.
To compound the heat even more the WWE should book Brock against him. There new mega face star. This should happen at Summerslam. This is where they should really establish Reigns by having him go over Brock, of course with some circumstances that should protect Brock and send him off in a different direction. Reigns should win and win big all the way until Wrestlemania where his opponent should be…Sami Zayn.
That’s right the WWE should embrace Zayn and build him up this summer as a main roster guy. He should win the US title from Cena, which would make him popular. He should be tagging with Daniel Bryan and the two should have a good working relationship. Zayn has proven that he can be the positive fan darling that WWE needs and if the NXT pops can carry to the regular WWE crowd than Zayn would be huge out of the gate.
A win over Cena and a Royal Rumble win with the track record Zayn has could lead to a spectacular match at WM32 where the fan favorite could finally get his hand raised on the biggest stage. Obviously from there the WWE could bring in a jealous Kevin Owens to continue their blood feud. That would also probably be money.
At the end of the day the money with Reigns is to take advantage of all the heat and tie him to the Authority. By swerving the fans the turn will feel more natural. It’s what the fans want. They want to believe that the WWE doesn’t listen to them. In a way this is sort of like the chance to throw all of this in the fans face, but in the end have a guy like Zayn get over who’s a fan darling. This is what’s probably best for business.