10 Worst Babyface Backlashes Of All Time

The irritating thing about the (over)reaction to Roman Reigns is that it's largely fake. In a business that's often choreographed and scripted out the wazoo, you're supposed to be able to rely upon the crowd's reaction to something as being real.

In Reigns' case, it's very clear that a lot of people are only booing him because they've seen other people do it on TV. Most of the frequent complaints about him have been answered or fixed by now: he's vastly improved in the ring since the Shield broke up, he has a perfectly valid and varied moveset, and he's sticking more and more to what he's good at on the mic, and not trying to be witty or charming.

His heel mannerisms - of which there are enough to be worrying for a babyface hero - suddenly make perfect sense if he's now playing an entitled a**hole champion... and now that he's not feuding with Triple H or hanging out with Dean Ambrose anymore, he doesn't have to worry about some cool heel from the Attitude Era or some charismatic drawling wild man upstaging him all the time.

All indications are that we've got Roman Reigns as WWE World Heavyweight Champion for most of the rest of this year, maybe longer. This is a fait accompli, something fans should be making their peace with. 

Yet despite this, the booing continues. 

There are yet more problems up ahead for Reigns: he's facing AJ Styles at Payback, who will be cheered like he's just planted the US flag on Mars, and at some point Seth Rollins is going to re-materialise, probably as a kickass babyface, and be worshipped by the crowd as though he were the second coming of Shawn Michaels. 

But the more heelish Reigns can become, the less likely any of that will be much of a problem. There's plenty of time to turn him babyface again in the years to come. 

After all, he's not going anywhere: and provided WWE steer clear of letting an out-of-touch septuagenarian write his promos and book his storylines, what more could possibly go wrong?

*thunderclap*

*worried reaction shot*