Roman Reigns, once the polarizing figure in the wrestling world, has undergone a remarkable transformation in his character arc. For years he was pushed to become babyface, but he shone as a Heel. Join us as we explore the reasons why Roman Reigns returning as a babyface is best for business, this shift is not only significant for Reigns himself but also for the WWE as a whole.
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#romanreigns #solosikoa #bloodline #wwe #wrestling #sportskeedawrestling
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00:00 Roman Reigns has been the ultimate villain of professional wrestling for nearly 4 whole
00:16 years now.
00:17 It's a bit crazy to consider that he's now more associated with being a bad guy when
00:21 WWE spent a painful 6 years trying to mold him into being the next big hero.
00:26 Don't mistake crazy for surprising, because as far back as the dreaded Big Dog era went,
00:32 there were a lot of fans who were vocal about wanting Roman Reigns to be the bad guy, and
00:37 they knew he'd be good at it.
00:39 One of the major reasons cited was due to his old clips of him that resurfaced from
00:43 his days in developmental with FCW and NXT.
00:47 The clips, although short, showed Roman Reigns playing a rich, arrogant bad guy who knew
00:52 he was better than you and knew how to run his mouth and back it up.
00:56 It was clear from a few minutes worth of footage that he was always much more comfortable in
01:00 that role, but as you probably know, it was the decision of one man that prevented it
01:05 from happening for so many years.
01:08 For that one man, Roman Reigns needed to be the next John Cena and nothing else, which
01:13 led him to getting backlash from audiences almost every week between early 2015 and late
01:18 2018 and also saw him get verbally roasted by John Cena, the man who he was supposed
01:25 to succeed.
01:26 But 2019 came along and although WrestleMania 35 that year had incredible moments that saw
01:32 Seth Rollins, Kofi Kingston and Becky Lynch ascend to the mountaintop of professional
01:37 wrestling, the year as a whole is considered one of the worst of the PG era.
01:42 Roman Reigns was actually getting good reactions by this point because despite him still being
01:47 the big dog that many hated, there was a big shift in perception due to his battle with
01:52 leukemia.
01:53 Even when his character wasn't making too much progress, fans saw Joe Anaway as the
01:58 family man and couldn't help but cheer him on.
02:01 At the same time, the end of 2019 was also the time when he was in a feud with Baron
02:07 Corbin involving dog food.
02:09 We can't point out to which exact moment it was, but something clearly shifted within
02:14 Roman Reigns when he realized that it just wasn't working anymore and he needed to do
02:18 something about it.
02:20 That opportunity came during the COVID-19 pandemic when he made an unprecedented move
02:25 of a main event superstar pulling out of Wrestlemania altogether.
02:30 The decision was understandable because Wrestlemania 36 was pre-taped in late March right as the
02:36 global lockdown was happening.
02:38 Roman Reigns, being a leukemia survivor, had no idea what COVID-19 would bring just like
02:44 all of us in the world.
02:46 Although he was a bit dismissive about pulling out due to COVID-19, he never fully denied
02:51 it.
02:52 But during that period, he probably came to a full realization that he needed to take
02:56 his career into his own hands.
02:59 He reportedly worked with Paul Heyman in creating the tribal chief character and story as we
03:04 know it today and Roman Reigns supposedly went to Vince McMahon with an ultimatum.
03:09 Turn him into a villain or he walks out of WWE and is done for good.
03:15 By this point, Roman Reigns was already the number one star of this generation and a bona
03:20 fide locker room leader.
03:22 Considering his position on the card, he was in a much better place to approach Vince McMahon
03:27 than he was back in 2016 or 2017 when the peak Roman hatred was happening.
03:33 In reality, he probably knew for a very long time that he was in the wrong role, but he
03:38 was earning millions of dollars and being thrust into the number one spot in the industry.
03:43 How many of you can really claim that you would deny that if you were in the same position?
03:48 Either way, our point here is that 2016 Roman Reigns and 2020 Roman Reigns were two totally
03:55 different superstars.
03:57 The decision paid off in a huge way and he has fully cemented himself as one of the greatest
04:02 to ever do it.
04:04 Now that Roman Reigns' record breaking run as Universal Champion is over, it seems like
04:08 it's time for a change in character after nearly 4 long years.
04:13 So why should it happen?
04:14 And how can it happen?
04:16 For one, let's take a classic example of someone Roman Reigns is familiar with, The
04:21 Rock.
04:22 We're not going to get into the whole story of The Rock, but for those who don't know,
04:27 he was a failing babyface just like Roman Reigns was, except arguably worse.
04:33 The only difference was that Vince McMahon showed zero hesitation into turning him into
04:37 a villain in his second year in 1997 and from there he took off.
04:42 But when it finally came time to become a full-fledged babyface again, The Rock hardly
04:47 needed to change anything about his character.
04:50 He simply diverted his insults usually reserved for the audience towards other villains.
04:55 It was a minor tweak and he turned it into one of the biggest box office draws that wrestling
05:00 has ever seen.
05:01 We're not saying that Roman Reigns is going to have the same ratings effect, but the days
05:05 of fans going "turn Roman heel" are long gone.
05:09 We've already seen how it can play out and we've already seen the peak of it.
05:14 Change is necessary in professional wrestling and considering that Roman Reigns has achieved
05:19 quite literally everything bearing a Money in the Bank briefcase, there isn't too much
05:23 left for him to do.
05:25 But it does feel like if he were to become a big trash-talking good guy, it would be
05:29 a full circle moment.
05:32 Sure it was great to have Roman Reigns getting respect from the fans for his inspiring return
05:36 in 2019, but this is the type of positive response associated solely with character
05:41 and storytelling, not circumstances in his personal life.
05:46 So how does WWE go about doing it?
05:48 For one, they need to make only minor tweaks to his character, a character that's going
05:53 to require a lot of humbling.
05:55 It can start somewhere around Summerslam with Roman possibly losing to Cody Rhodes again.
06:01 It makes sense that Roman Reigns will return with the bloodline, and of course, he's
06:04 going to get a massive pop when he's finally back.
06:08 It looks like WWE is already spinning the wheels of a possible bloodline dissension
06:12 and civil war.
06:14 With Roman gone for the time being, Soto Sakoa has taken command and replaced Jimmy Uso with
06:19 Tama Tonga, a decision that was never confirmed to be one that Roman Reigns made.
06:24 With Jacob Fatu also reportedly having signed with WWE and waiting to make his debut, it
06:29 makes perfect sense for him to be a major figure in taking out Roman Reigns.
06:34 There's a lot of stories that can be told here.
06:37 We haven't even seen Roman Reigns vs Soto Sakoa yet, let alone Roman Reigns vs a dominant
06:42 force like Jacob Fatu.
06:45 Survivor Series War Games makes perfect sense for there to be a bloodline civil war of sorts,
06:50 with the Usos possibly reuniting to team up with Roman Reigns against the new bloodline.
06:56 Although a 3 on 3 War Games match is admittedly a little odd.
07:00 Perhaps there could even be a big twist where it turns out that The Rock was the puppet
07:04 master the whole time.
07:06 We know The Rock isn't coming back anytime soon, and when he last left, he seemed more
07:11 like we could see a Rock vs Cody Rhodes match than a Rock vs Roman match.
07:16 But the money is always there to be made with a Rock vs Roman, and now that Cody's story
07:21 is finally finished, they can have that dream match without any interruption or fan backlash
07:26 whatsoever.
07:27 It's gonna take some time to play out, which is fine because Roman doesn't appear every
07:31 week anyway, and being a good guy doesn't mean he's gonna start making more appearances
07:36 either.
07:37 This is actually the only factor that could possibly be a detriment to Roman Reigns'
07:41 babyface turn, the fact that he won't be around as often to capitalize on it.
07:46 Either way, there are a lot of ways the story can be told, and perhaps it's one that can
07:51 finally lead to the conclusion of the bloodline story after all these years.
07:56 One thing's for sure, it's gonna be interesting to see how Roman Reigns transitions from being
08:00 the biggest villain in the professional wrestling world, to the biggest good guy.
08:05 It's possible that it simply may not work out, and that he will prove to be a natural
08:09 villain forever, but this time, it's worth a shot.
08:13 After carrying WWE on his shoulders for years, after finishing what can only be described
08:18 as a generational run, he deserves to get the love from WWE fans as a good guy again.
08:24 Whether he succeeds or not, he has done enough to cement his legacy as one of the best to
08:29 ever do it.
08:31 Just like Corey Graves said at Wrestlemania 40, it's because he's addicted to greatness.
08:37 Thank you for watching.
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