Just What Is WWE Actually Doing With Roman Reigns?

Roman, to his credit, grew immensely as the years progressed. His promos will never be perfect, but he is infinitely more assured on the microphone today than he was in 2014. Similarly, his ring work had evolved to the point where he was one of WWE's most consistently excellent wrestlers in 2017, delivering outstanding bouts with the likes of Kevin Owens, Braun Strowman, and Seth Rollins.

Yet 'The Big Dog' couldn't transcend terrible scripting. No matter how hard he worked, he couldn't turn the audience around on his own, and there was a grim inevitability to the WrestleMania 34 build. In an outcome telegraphed almost a full year prior, Reigns was going to end Brock Lesnar's year-long Universal Title reign in New Orleans, finally claiming sole ownership of the WWE throne. It was a dead cert, and seemingly no amount of complaining could prevent it from happening.

But it didn't.

Reigns was defeated in bloody, brutal fashion at 'The Show Of Shows.' It was effectively a burial, and WWE followed it up by having Roman fall to Lesnar again at The Greatest Royal Rumble. The Superman push suddenly ground to a halt. Still reeling from the damage inflicted by his beastly conquerer, Reigns then entered a poorly-written feud with Bobby Lashley, absorbing a shocking clean loss to the struggling 'Dominator' at Extreme Rules 2018.

Bewilderingly, WWE have performed a U-turn on a four-year project, switching Reigns' presentation from imperious winner, to colossal loser. That they'd invest such time and effort into trying - and failing - to get him over as the top babyface, only to go back on it at 'Mania, is without precedent, but what comes next for their broken toy?

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