Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
Even (or perhaps especially) when WWE wanted fans to cheer Roman Reigns, they wouldn’t.
WWE’s failure to turn Reigns into the 2010’s version of Hulk Hogan or John Cena is well-covered ground, but it basically came down to the company’s then-leader Vince McMahon misunderstanding Roman’s charisma*. He was never going to be a “say your prayers and take your vitamins” or “hustle, loyalty, respect” guy, and the moments where he got to display his inherent swagger instead of saying “sufferin’ succotash” proved it. For example, his five-word promo after beating The Undertaker at 2017’s WrestleMania 33.
Keep in mind, he was still technically playing a babyface at this point.
Moments like that also provided proof of concept for the heel character Reigns returned with in 2020 after taking a brief hiatus at the start of the pandemic. As The Tribal Chief, Roman held WWE’s top title for almost four years while portraying a crime boss-like figure who used his Bloodline stable to rule over the company’s fictional universe. It gave fans an in-story reason to boo the guy they’d been booing for mostly meta reasons, and helped “The Bloodline Saga” become WWE’s main focus as it entered its hottest period since the turn of the century.
That it allowed Roman to be himself (or at least play to his strengths) also meant that fans were starting to like Reigns even while they were chanting “F*** You, Roman” during his matches.
As you may recall, a major chapter in that Saga wrapped up at WrestleMania 40 this past April when Cody Rhodes “finished the story” and ended Reigns’ historic run with the belt. We haven’t seen Roman since, but The Bloodline have remained as prominent as ever. In The Tribal Chief’s absence, his cousin Solo Sikoa took over the group. He brought in outsiders from other companies to do his bidding. As WWE’s announcers have told us how unhinged and dangerous those additions (Tama Tonga and Tonga Loa from New Japan, and former MLW World champ Jacob Fatu) are, we’ve watched as they purged first Jimmy Uso and then Reigns’ “wise man” Paul Heyman from the group in brutal fashion.
We hadn’t even gotten to those story beats when the “We Want Roman” chants started, though.
Fast-forward three months, and Sikoa is going to challenge Rhodes for the Undisputed WWE championship this Saturday (Aug. 2) at SummerSlam in Cleveland. Rumors and sportsbooks** favor a Reigns appearance, likely building to a Bloodline civil war angle that could take us through the rest of the year.
That will likely involve Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (every heard of him?), who joined The Bloodline for a storyline that incorporated almost as many behind-the-scenes moves as on-screen ones. You can get the WWE’s Rock-centric version of that story in the documentary they put together about it here (or ask your favorite pro wrestling diehard for their take and settle in, because you’re about to feel like a woman in one of those “bro explaining” memes).
We haven’t seen Rock since shortly after ‘Mania either, when he teased the continuation of his own rivalry with Rhodes. There’s also tons of speculation Rock will be revealed as the power behind Sikoa’s throne and feud with Reigns, and that Roman will reconcile with the Bloodline members he mistreated as a heel (namely Jimmy & Jey Uso and Sami Zayn) for some multi-man matches before an eventual Rock/Reigns clash.
With his next film (Bennie Safdie’s The Smashing Machine) wrapped, it’s conceivable we could see Johnson on Saturday night in Cleveland Browns Stadium — either in addition to or instead of Reigns.
None of that changes the fact that if Roman does make the scene this weekend, we might hear one of the loudest “pops” in a long time. And considering where Reigns was five years ago, that’s pretty darn remarkable.
* It was originally born out of a vocal portion of the audience rebelling against any McMahon-picked “top guy”. But Roman was immensely popular as a member of The Shield just prior to the backlash, so it stands to reason that a presentation that leaned into the cool, stoic personality he showed in that group would have gotten him over as a solo act, too.
** Yes, you can bet on wrestling. You’ll need to use an international/online outfit, and wagers are capped at pretty low amounts so it’s not a get-rich-quick scheme. But someone will take your money, just like they will for the Oscars or any other number of non-sports prop bets.
