If one were to search for a blueprint on how to handle the Roman Reigns push, you would need to look no further than his own family. When The Rock debuted as Rocky Maivia the crowd vehemently rejected the blue chipper's push and promptly sh*t all over every single thing he was involved in. Those in charge had the awareness to realize that it wasn't working and immediately shifted gears, turning him into one of the most successful heels in years. The Rock was a massive heat magnet and The People's Champion skyrocketed to the top of the industry. The thing about really awesome heels is that they don't stay that way for too long because the audience will force you to turn them, and once The Rock saw the light and changed his evil ways he became one of the biggest stars in the history of the business. All WWE had to do was steal a page from their own playbook and redo the angle from the 1998 edition of the show at this year's Survivor Series. Turning Roman heel and aligning him with The Authority could have helped restore some of the bad*ss credibility he lost when he became smiley, jokey Samoan John Cena. It may have been predictable, but sometimes it's best not to overthink things and go with what works. It would have given Reigns the chance to become more comfortable in his role as a top solo star and the fans could get all that booing out of their system. It may not be a guarantee that he'd translate that heat into a successful babyface singles run down the line but it's hard to picture it being less effective than the current route they've chosen. It could have been a career-defining watershed moment for Roman Reigns, but now he's left to continue trying to climb uphill on shaky ground.
Brad Hamilton is a writer, musician and marketer/social media manager from Atlanta, Georgia. He's an undefeated freestyle rap battle champion, spends too little time being productive and defines himself as the literary version of Brock Lesnar.
