Roman Reigns Tribal Chief Appreciation

Roman Reigns is my new favorite wrestler.

The truth is 22-year-old Jack Goodwillie would probably be aghast to hear that. But this is 2020. All facets of life are changing rapidly and will continue to.

Roman Reigns’ meteoric ascent to wrestling’s top heel is no exception.

The former “Big Dog’s” momentum, using the term loosely, appeared to have cratered when we heard that Reigns, a survivor of leukemia, had no plans to wrestle during the pandemic and WWE mysteriously stopped mentioning his name entirely. He ultimately made his return purely because he felt it safe to do so, but nobody could have predicted the run that would be awaiting him – and to imagine we’re only one month into it!

I have been banging the drum for a Roman Reigns heel turn, well, since the SHIELD turned face. With as erratic as WWE’s writing can be, it is much harder to screw up a heel than a face, and there was never any question as to whether Reigns would be in the company’s long-term plans. When Seth Rollins shredded his knee before Survivor Series 2015, it made complete sense for WWE to recreate the Deadly Game tournament, turn Reigns heel and usher in a new era on Monday Night Raw (you can check out my full pitch on this in various roundtables around the site). Instead, a babyface Reigns won the tournament clean over Dean Ambrose, a more over babyface, then got cashed in on by an ice cold Sheamus, who ultimately left Survivor Series as the WWE Champion in one of the more boneheaded main event booking decisions of the last decade.

Flash forward to SummerSlam 2020 with Reigns returning to attack Braun Strowman and The Fiend, making his intentions clear and fans like myself very happy. There was no juice with Strowman and The Fiend atop the card on SmackDown. Both characters have run their course and that’s especially important in the case of Strowman because of his size and status as a monster. He has the presence and look of a featured talent, but needs momentum in order to keep strong in the eyes of the fans. With that said, what’s The Fiend’s excuse? There might be something compelling to this Alexa Bliss storyline, but I’m over it. Bray Wyatt, still just 33 years young, seems to only regress inside the ring with every match he has, and the “match” with John Cena at WrestleMania COVID-19 was certainly inferior to Undertaker-AJ Styles.

As a result of all of these factors, Reigns crashing the party at SummerSlam made him feel more like a babyface than ever before, even though it became quickly apparent WWE intended on positioning him as a heel. Naturally. But to the surprise of some, something is different about this Roman Reigns. Something is clicking. Actually, everything is clicking and that’s a huge deal for WWE considering how absolutely atrocious Raw has been in recent weeks.

The addition of Paul Heyman to Reigns’ act intrigued the hell out of me. By coupling Reigns with one of the best pure managers wrestling has ever known, it shows the fans an investment in the heel Roman Reigns the likes of which has not been seen before. But still, many continued to question if it would be enough to actually get Reigns over organically, let alone as a heel. However, if coupling Reigns with Heyman captured the attention of unsuspecting fans, his performance in the weeks afterward proved that he’ll be able to keep it as long as he wants.

WWE took a big risk in anointing Jey Uso as Reigns’ first title challenger. After all, Reigns vs. Uso is a far cry from the aforementioned Fiend vs. Strowman, but a welcome change. Vince McMahon has historically and notably been against intra-family feuds, having to be talked into Hart vs. Hart and Hardy vs. Hardy. So it’s hard to say how on board he was to do Reigns vs. Uso at this juncture, or if Bruce Prichard is more responsible for his booking over the past month. The final faceoff between Reigns and Uso before Clash of Champions was about as good of a segment WWE has seen all year. Alexa Bliss giving a nonplussed Reigns and Heyman the death stare on his way down the ramp set the tone, while the exchange between cousins kept me on the edge of my seat.

At a glance, it seemed as though Reigns was attempting to write Uso off as just another challenger, but a series of backhanded compliments got under Jey’s skin, causing him to deliver one of the very best lines of the year: “You know what they say when they see me, uce? Which one are you? After Sunday, when they ask me who am I, they’re gonna say, ‘I know you, uce. You’re the one who beat Roman Reigns at Clash of Champions for the Universal Championship!” It was this line that caused Reigns to finally snap on his own flesh and blood, showing a full-blown heel side to him for the first time. This is a character who is motivated not by jealousy per se, but by the self-awareness that those are jealous of him, fueling his ego like never before. The only way to maintain his hold over his family – his position of power in the Samoan wrestling dynasty – is to beat his own cousin senseless at Clash of Champions. And that’s exactly what he did.

Nobody has ever been able to deny the fact Reigns has always had immense upside in the ring along with his superstar intangibles (look, athleticism, heritage, etc.). Moreover, being held back as a lackluster babyface never hampered his match quality either. His series of matches with AJ Styles shortly after Styles’ debut were nothing short of fantastic and helped prove to fans and executives that Styles’….errr……style, for lack of a better word, could work well in WWE. His match against Jey Uso this past weekend showed a different angle. The Universal Champion succeeded in showing fans that a good Roman Reigns match did not have to be hyper-athletic by nature, but that it could also be psychological and methodical. You would be hard pressed to find a match in Reigns’ extended library that told a story like the one on Sunday did, and it ended with an expressionless Reigns having left his cousin lying because that was the price to pay for his position of power.

The idea of “power” accompanying world championships in pro wrestling is not a new one. However, it’s not often made clear what that power entails. Does it have to do with booking power? Sometimes. Does it have to do with money? In almost all cases, yes, and nobody does a better job of hammering this point home than good, ‘ole JR. In the case of Reigns, though, he is addicted to the idea that he can be the sole provider of not just his immediate family, but the entire fabled and extended Anoa’i wrestling family. It’s only been one month of heel Roman Reigns and he has done a terrific job of illustrating his motivations for needing to hang on to his world title, and that is to say, the emphasis is on Reigns, himself, driving the point.

Yes, Paul Heyman is at Reigns’ beck and call, but this arrangement is not Brock Lesnar-Heyman 2.0. The relationship between Heyman and Roman Reigns seems to be one that is strictly business. Typically, people who use lingo such as, “it’s not personal, kid, just business” are those who are not so noble, with the idea being that while the action isn’t meant to be personal, the personal relationship does rank below what the person would do for a good business opportunity. It’s the mark of a good heel, and Heyman doesn’t have to do all the talking for Reigns. That said, it is canonically known that Heyman has long had ties to Reigns’ family, so the relationship makes all the sense in the world especially when considering Reigns’ history with Lesnar. That does not mean the two have to be close in any way, shape or form, and because they don’t appear to be, it does make for something we don’t often see on WWE television.

Given the performance Reigns gave at Clash of Champions, the sky is truly the limit. Yes, it has been a long time since that expression has been able to be applied to any wrestler these days, but I truly believe it with Reigns, and perhaps I have all along but just couldn’t see it due to the little shop of horrors that is the WWE creative team. There are so many different directions the Reigns character can take from here. After all, there are not one, but TWO Uso brothers. Maybe a match with Jimmy Uso could await Reigns when the other Uso gets medically cleared to return?

There’s no doubt The Fiend will eventually want a piece of Reigns after “The Tribal Chief” took his beloved championship. Additionally, Reigns and Strowman have a tumultuous history in the ring and if WWE ever decides to bring Brock Lesnar back, a heel Reigns with Paul Heyman at his side against a solo Lesnar might offer a fresh take on their storied rivalry. These ideas are merely feuds, though. There is plenty of uncharted territory to further explore with Reigns teasing in a Q&A with fans that he has plans on switching up his look and entrance theme in the not-so-distant future.

So, what if Reigns didn’t turn heel after winning the Royal Rumble in Philadelphia, or at Survivor Series 2015, or at [insert event name here]? It’s all water under the bridge as far as I am concerned; in fact, it’s almost better that he didn’t. Since Reigns came off as such a stale character for so long, there is now a myriad of different directions and pathways his character can take.

I am thrilled to be writing that this version of Roman Reigns – the one who showed up at Clash of Champions – will have every opportunity to take the pro wrestling industry by storm, and is the one name to keep your eye on for the rest of 2020.