How Good Was Babyface Roman Reigns Actually?

Behold yet another area in which WWE let Reigns down with their stubborn and tone-deaf booking.

There was such a tidal wave of hate for Roman that the smart move was surely to turn him heel and see what he could do. Allowing him to harness that anger from fans and do something with it creatively, instead of forcing a character that was never going to pass in a way that was turning fans off, would've been cool. Y'know, letting him show that he was worthy of WWE investing so much of their hope in him instead of just trying different things that had worked in the past in the vague hopes that it might resonate with fans once more.

He wasn’t given this opportunity. WWE would move him into the US Championship scene and take him out of the main event when the Universal title was first introduced to center things around NXT callups Kevin Owens and Finn Bàlor, but this was only ever temporary. Roman was pushed to the moon as a babyface once more.

This feels all the more tragic when we see what Reigns is capable of today. Whether babyface or heel, he's as good a performer as any wrestling company could wish to have as their top guy. Fans saw this when he stepped away for 5 months as COVID took the world off its axis, then came back to begin the run of a lifetime that finally made him everything WWE believed he could be.

The sad reality is that these years were wasted by Vince, a stubborn old man who treated his audience with contempt and believed they were far stupider and easier to manipulate than they actually are. 

3/10