For years Roman Reigns, considered as one of the future stars of WWE, was booked in a way that went against the grain of the general perception of the WWE fanbase. Perceived as a babyface and ‘heir apparent’ to John Cena, Reigns struggled for years to be ‘the good guy’ while simultaneously getting derision from the audience.
Even the intervention of one of the most popular WWE superstars, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, during Reigns’ 2016 Royal Rumble win did not do anything to get fans on the side of ‘The Big Dog’.
That perception changed a year or so ago because of a very scary real life situation; Reigns’ diagnosis of a reemergence of Leukemia, which he struggled with since adolescence. The cancer diagnosis and the subsequent announcement of the disease going into remission garnered Reigns huge sympathy from supporters and detractors alike.
But even then, Reigns’ return was starting to get stale again as the ‘happy go lucky’ babyface, though not of any fault of his own. The impending clash Reigns was to have with Bill Goldberg over the Universal title felt like WWE’s anointed ‘golden child’ was once again being thrusted upon the audience in an unwilling fashion.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic changed things completely.
As someone with a preexisting condition that could have been affected by the coronavirus, Reigns chose to back out of WWE prior to Wrestlemania, leaving Braun Strowman to carry the Universal title on the blue brand for most of the year. This, combined with welcoming twins, gave Reigns a lucky reprieve to reassess his role in WWE when he came back and how his character would go from there.
Perhaps this period of no actual fan reactions in the WWE Thunderdome format, with fan reaction being controlled by WWE allowed Vince McMahon to approve Reigns returning as a heel. As Clash of Champions last night demonstrated, this heel run so far has been next to perfect.
The inclusion of Paul Heyman, a man with history with the Anoa’i family, a family with a long lineage in WWE which produced some of the biggest names in wrestling, is almost an afterthought at this point despite generating some buzz in the beginning. Reigns’ comeback has real life ties and is one of the most simplest stories to narrate: the man is fighting to be head of the family and will destroy and decimate his own ‘bloodline’ to stay at the ‘head of the table’.
The pummeling of Jey Uso, Reigns’ Universal title Clash of Champions opponent and his own cousin, the throwing in the towel by Jey’s twin brother Jimmy, the imploring of even Heyman to Jimmy to throw in said towel and the dialogue we heard during the match from Reigns sewed up this story to a tee.
Even the subtle things laid thick on the symbolism of this being a family affair: the lei bestowed upon Reigns by Heyman when the match ended, which was worn out to the ring by Jey, symbolises in Pacific Island culture the transfer of authority from one alpha male to another. Jey and Roman were both even wrestling shirtless while sporting the same arm tribal tattoo.
Corey Graves said it best in the conclusion of the Clash of Champions main event: if Roman was willing to destroy his own cousin, his family, in this fashion, what in the hell would he do to anyone else gunning for the Universal Championship?
We will not be sure what the future holds at this point, but given the masterclass in storyline booking so far for the return of the Big Dog, Roman Reigns’ heel run has finally shown the Roman Reigns the way fans wanted.
An average professional doing the 9-5 grind who really loves wrestling across all platforms. Here's hoping wrestlers finally get some basic workers rights in 2021.
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