10 Small WWE Character Tweaks That Became DISASTERS!
2. Roman Reigns Is Laid Back And Cool
It'd take until 2020 for Roman Reigns to find his voice as a character worthy of WWE's attention. Perhaps that's unfair, but revisiting most of Roman's character work post-Shield from 2014-2020 is a painful experience. Vince McMahon wanted to marry the coolest parts of The Rock's persona with John Cena's superhuman-style during matches to create the ultimate WWE babyface.
Shame nobody watching wanted to embrace that.
In 2015, Reigns started mumbling his way through some smart-arsed comments in promos. He called Seth Rollins a "snivelling little suck-up sellout full of sufferin' succotash", and it went down about as well as you'd expect a line that flimsy to get over. Later the same year, Roman poked fun at Sheamus for having "little tater tots" for testicles.
All of it felt totally forced, and his delivery lacked oomph.
This, combined with an unstoppable babyface push that repelled fans quicker than a Tony Khan announcement, made Reigns a chore to watch for years. Vince thought it was the way to go, but he needed to realise something. Roman wasn't The Rock on the mic, especially not yet, and his audience wanted something altogether different after years of 'Super Cena' anyway.