Roman’s future

Hey Scott,

Hope you’re doing well. Love the blog. Love your work with Sporting News. I hear they have the best wrestling content, and the most handsome editors and writers. I digress.

All the talk with Roman losing to Brock at Greatest Royal Rumble made me wonder: is there any salvation for Roman at this point? It certainly felt his suspension was the WWE’s opportunity to start from Square 1. He bounced back a bit after that, and it’s unfortunate that the Shield reunion was ended prematurely. (I wasn’t digging it, anyway, because it just felt like a vehicle to get Reigns over, and not the unit, but that’s beside the point.)

Everyone says “turn him heel” but I’m not even sure that’d help him at this point — short of dominating the division as a heel champion, which, let’s be honest, doesn’t seem to be in the cards.

So, how do you salvage Reigns? If you were a booker, how would you approach Reigns’ future?

Thanks,

NOT Joe Rivera.

I’d back off a lot, move him to Smackdown and maybe give him the US title or tag titles or something. Ideally he could be an awesome hot tag guy with fellow main event washout Dean Ambrose, and maybe let people WANT to see him pushed again after a while.  Alternatively, turn him heel on Smackdown and have the Usos be his muscle, which could also organically turn him into someone people would cheer.  I really think getting him off RAW is the biggest thing at this point, but no matter how they proceed, he’s done as a top guy.  He’s failed in the main position too many times to salvage and the fans will remember.  Back in the old days, this would be when you let your contract expire and then go to WCW to immediately be a fresh top guy, but we don’t have that option any longer so moving to Smackdown is the closest thing.