How Good Was Babyface Roman Reigns Actually?

Let’s go for the throat on this straight away: There has never been a bigger glow-up in terms of mic work than Roman Reigns. This has to be pointed out, because great mic work often takes time to build as a skill. Whilst Seth and Dean had Tyler Black and Jon Moxley behind them (thus honing their craft on the independents), Roman was far newer to the trials and tribulations of weekly wrestling TV, and it showed in a big way.

In The Shield, those guys did the majority of the talking, but Roman had the cool factor. He spoke monosyllabically, and that fit like a glove next to Ambrose and Rollins foaming at the mouth. When Reigns went solo, WWE was in a very different place than it is today. CM Punk and Daniel Bryan became popular because they were so drastically different from what WWE’s head office believed to be cool.

Roman Reigns was WWE’s anointed one, and being new to the business, he was understandably taking the advice of his superiors and trusting them to guide him on the path to glory. Their writing for him was abysmal.

As such, Roman's promo ability in his early years felt like a man reading from a bad script. Not just a bad script; at times, it was one so cataclysmically awful that people still remember individual lines. Hearing Reigns call Rollins a “sniveling little suck-up sellout full of sufferin' succotash” made him look childish and foolish to such an extent that it’s a delivery that will follow him forever. Similarly, calling Sheamus a “tater tot” was immature and couldn't be further from the "cinema" he produces today.

Then, John Cena took him apart in August 2017 in such devastating fashion that he froze completely and looked like Papa Doc at the end of Eminem’s 8 Mile movie. It’s all stuff that would never happen to your 'Tribal Chief'.

Listen to Roman today. Everything he says oozes cool, and his delivery is emotional yet controlled. The 'OTC' is a believable character with historical relevance due to his family ties and contemporary cool. Conversely, the 'Big Dog' felt like they’d given Reigns a pair of John Cena’s old shoes and expected him to walk in them.

Reigns admitted all of these problems on an episode of Logan Paul’s podcast: “If someone gives me something to say today and I don’t want to say it, I ain’t saying it. 10 years ago, if someone’s giving me a script and Vince is telling me to say something and it’s highlighted, then you gonna say it". That's Roman’s direct quote, and lord did WWE give him some crappy stories, promos, catchphrases and nicknames in those early years.

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