Every 'Next Big Thing' In Wrestling History: Where Are They Now?
16. Roman Reigns
Roman Reigns was the movie star-handsome destroyer in the Shield, whose in-ring limitations were masked, brilliantly, by his role in those seminal six-man tags. Roman took what was left of the unit’s opponents and smashed the debris to kingdom come.
If it wasn't already obvious, his Next Big Thing status was cemented when, at the 2014 Royal Rumble, he eliminated 12 wrestlers to break Diesel’s record haul. The Diesel push was echoed deeper into Roman’s babyface run. This was not a good thing; WWE stripped him of his innate cool, made him smile to an unnerving extent, and generally told you to like him a lot so forcefully and so often that he became the direct target of the fandom’s disdain towards the company.
Roman was a fabulous working babyface, but he was the next John Cena when fans had ‘Cena Nuff’. Roman was the philosophical divide personified. The fans wanted Daniel Bryan; they were stuck with Roman because the audience was comprised of one member.
Everybody, except Vince McMahon, knew that the money in Roman Reigns was in the heel role.
Astonishingly enough, Roman, who by 2020 held the leverage to pitch it, turned heel. After a couple of years of monologues and bad finishes, he evolved into a killer main event megastar, fulfilling the prophecy - at last - of becoming one of the biggest stars in company history.
Provided the expected babyface turn happens in 2024, a full decade after the marks who don’t know what’s best for business campaigned for it, Roman will look how WWE imagined he looked in 2014.