9 Big Problems With WWE Heading Into WrestleMania 41
5. Roman Phoning It In
For nearly four years, Roman Reigns was the center of the WWE universe (not the fans, the actual WWE existence itself). He held a world title (consolidating both at one point) for more than 43 months. His Bloodline dominated storylines and the main event scene that entire time.
And then on April 8, 2024, Reigns disappeared from WWE programming. And fair is fair, if Roman negotiated such a favorable deal that he could just vanish for four months and then wrestle just five times in the ensuing eight months, bully for him.
But for the fans who have invested in the WWE product – which as a reminder, revolved around Roman for nearly four years – his return to the company these past several months have been a dismal, disappointing affair. Reigns returned to seek revenge on the new Bloodline, which he achieved at Survivor Series and then on the Raw on Netflix debut.
Since then, Roman has looked like a man on autopilot. The rarely here Tribal Chief gimmick worked when he had foot soldiers carrying out his orders on a weekly basis, but with the Bloodline basically scattered, Reigns just looks checked out.
Even when he has graced WWE with his presence, Roman feels completely disinterested. He’s not in a world title feud. Due to his long absences, he doesn’t have any true rivalries – they’ve dug up the longstanding, long-simmering issues with Seth Rollins and pitted him against CM Punk, which normally would be a dream match – but they haven’t put in the work to make it feel like Reigns really is vested in either feud.
At least when Brock Lesnar would fly in for a major PLE feud, he’d come in like a buzzsaw and tear things up, while Paul Heyman would hype him in his absence. Roman does his five-minute entrance, points to the sky, demands fans acknowledge him, and does some silent “acting” with glares.
It would have been unfathomable to say this a year ago, but if Reigns hadn’t come back for WrestleMania this year, would he have been horribly missed? It’s always better to have a star of Roman’s caliber onboard, and he always could turn it on, but everything thus far points to him phoning it in.