History YMMV / RomanReigns

** Reached an absolute tipping point for fans after [=WrestleMania=] 39. After killing off Drew's and Sami's lightning in a bottle moments, they managed to convert Sami's momentum into another moment with Kevin Owens and The Usos as part of the grander story of the cracks in The Bloodline, with the additional caveat of helping to set up Cody Rhodes to "finish the story" of both his personal quest to capture the gold his father never had and of the fall of the Roman Empire. Yet, one night after Owens and Zayn capture the tag titles from The Usos, supposedly detonating the powder keg...Roman wins to retain the title the exact same way he always does, with The Bloodline numbers game working seamlessly against Cody despite Sami and Kevin being there to stop The Usos. This would lead fans to wonder what the actual point of investing in a Reigns title match was anymore. To make matters worse, the events that immediately followed this decision were Wrestling/VinceMcMahon retaking full public power over WWE via the sale and merger to [[UsefulNotes/UltimateFightingChampionship the UFC]]'s parent company Endeavor, as well as WWE putting on what has widely been panned as the worst "''Raw'' After ''[=WrestleMania=]''" show in history. Many believe that, by the time Cody or anyone else actually gets to dethrone Reigns, the next-level "new champ energy" that WWE shot down on at least three occasions ''(including the one they were supposedly aiming for all along!)'' will be a distant memory at best. That being said, when the Bloodline's story continued on the build up to the ''Night of Champions'' 2023, fans began to realize that Cody's involvement wasn't supposed to end the story, but rather pave the way for Wrestling/TheUsos' bigger involvement in the story...

** Reached an absolute tipping point for fans after [=WrestleMania=] 39. After killing off Drew's and Sami's lightning in a bottle moments, they managed to convert Sami's momentum into another moment with Kevin Owens and The Usos as part of the grander story of the cracks in The Bloodline, with the additional caveat of helping to set up Cody Rhodes to "finish the story" of both his personal quest to capture the gold his father never had and of the fall of the Roman Empire. Yet, one night after Owens and Zayn capture the tag titles from The Usos, supposedly detonating the powder keg...Roman wins to retain the title the exact same way he always does, with The Bloodline numbers game working seamlessly against Cody despite Sami and Kevin being there to stop The Usos. This would lead fans to wonder what the actual point of investing in a Reigns title match was anymore. To make matters worse, the events that immediately followed this decision were Wrestling/VinceMcMahon retaking full public power over WWE via the sale and merger to [[UsefulNotes/UltimateFightingChampionship the UFC]]'s parent company Endeavor, as well as WWE putting on what has widely been panned as the worst "''Raw'' After ''[=WrestleMania=]''" show in history. Many believe that, by the time Cody or anyone else actually gets to dethrone Reigns, the next-level "new champ energy" that WWE shot down on at least three occasions ''(including the one they were supposedly aiming for all along!)'' will be a distant memory at best.

** But then he fell right back into it after beating Cody Rhodes. The fans finally saw that Roman was being booked too protectively, and noticed that all of his matches had the same finish of a ref bump followed by an interference from either The Usos or Solo Sikoa allowing him to win. The case of Cody was perhaps the most egregious of all, as the grander story that had supposedly been told with Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens, Rhodes, and The Bloodline leading up to the match, including Zayn and Owens defeating The Usos for the tag team championships in the previous night's main event, had supposedly lit the fuse for both The Usos' ties with Reigns to at least strain when it mattered the most and for Cody to take the lead as a red hot top babyface in WWE's mold. When all three of Rikishi's sons intervened without fail to ultimately ensure Reigns defeated Rhodes in the same manner as every other challenger as though none of the above mattered, all of the love fans had for Reigns and The Bloodline disappeared almost immediately.

** Instead of blaming him for the decrease in quality of the product, many began to see him as another victim of it. In hindsight, this shouldn't have been surprising -- Wrestling/SethRollins got the same treatment after he was booked poorly as WWE World Heavyweight Champion. It's not just him who has to deal with this crap, but the ''entire roster''. Case in point: ten months of being booked like Wrestling/JohnCena got him tepid to mild reactions at best if he wasn't outright booed. Ten ''minutes'' of being booked like a legitimate badass managed to get him over with ''Philly'' the next night, and his promos on ''Raw'' were short and to the point, enough that little of his momentum from that moment was lost. That shows that Reigns himself was never the problem, it was management and their half-baked booking and over-scripting of promos. Gradual realization of this is why Reigns eventually lost a lot of his XPacHeat and why the company is in so much hot water with the fans right now -- they don't ''want'' to hate him like that since he's supposed to be a face and not a heel, and thus can't convert that into heel heat, but the company's booking gave them little choice since the [=McMahons=], the primary offenders that the fans know of, are currently heels and are ''supposed'' to be booed. Reigns effectively became TheScapegoat for the incompetence of management, and the fans felt guilty he's had to face so much scorn for it. On the bright side, he also admitted it gave him a kick in the ass and the motivation to improve, which the fans were very appreciative of.

** Perhaps not the character himself, but his title reign, which is approaching ''three years'', with the most recent third with unified titles, is starting to get some of this. Some people feel like it's warranted because the Bloodline saga that revolves around him is consistently the best thing about WWE programming and arguably one of the best long-term wrestling storylines ''ever''. Others note that it's slowed the momentum of other stars - to the point that WWE had to revive another title just so shows Roman wasn't on could have some semblance of a main event champion. Some even argue that the reign is [[BoringInvincibleHero simply the result upper management was trying to get over fan protests for years]], just [[BoringInvincibleVillain dressed up in a slightly more palatable package.]] Variables like Roman's part-time schedule [[note]](does it make him feel like a bigger star or artificially extend his title run and make shows he doesn't work feel irrelevant by default?)[[/note]] and the nature of his match finishes [[note]]Fairly consistent pattern of ref bump -> Bloodline interference -> Spear -> win[[/note]] split the base even further.

** But then he fell right back into it after beating Cody Rhodes. The fans finally saw that Roman was being booked too protectively, and noticed that all of his matches had the same finish of a ref bump followed by an interference from either the Usos or Solo Sokoa allowing him to win. The case of Cody was perhaps the most egregious of all, as the grander story that had supposedly been told with Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens, Rhodes, and The Bloodline leading up to the match, including Zayn and Owens defeating The Usos for the tag team championships in the previous night's main event, had supposedly lit the fuse for both The Usos' ties with Reigns to at least strain when it mattered the most and for Cody to take the lead as a red hot top babyface in WWE's mold. When all three of Rikishi's sons intervened without fail to ultimately ensure Reigns defeated Rhodes in the same manner as every other challenger as though none of the above mattered, all of the love fans had for Reigns and The Bloodline disappeared almost immediately.

** But then he fell right back into it after beating Cody Rhodes. The fans finally saw that Roman was being booked too protectively, and noticed that all of his matches had the same finish of a ref bump followed by an interference from either the Usos or Solo Sokoa allowing him to win. The case of Cody was perhaps the most egregious of all, as the grander story that had supposedly been told with Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens, Rhodes, and The Bloodline leading up to the match, including Zayn and Owens defeating The Usos for the tag team championships in the previous night's main event, had supposedly lit the fuse for both The Usos' ties with Reigns to at least strain when it mattered the most and for Cody to take the lead as a red hot top babyface in WWE's mold. When all three of Rikishi's sons intervened to ultimately ensure Reigns defeated Rhodes in the same manner as everyone else as though none of the above mattered, all of the love fans had for Reigns and The Bloodline disappeared almost immediately.

** But then he fell right back into it after beating Cody Rhodes. The fans finally saw that Roman was being booked too protectively, and noticed that all of his matches had the same finish of a ref bump followed by an interference from either the Usos or Solo Sokoa allowing him to win. All of the love fans had for him disappeared almost immediately.

** Reached an absolute tipping point for fans after [=WrestleMania=] 39. After killing off Drew's and Sami's lightning in a bottle moments, they managed to convert Sami's momentum into another moment with Kevin Owens and The Usos as part of the grander story of the cracks in The Bloodline, with the additional caveat of helping to set up Cody Rhodes to "finish the story" of both his personal quest to capture the gold his father never had and of the fall of the Roman Empire. Yet, one night after Owens and Zayn capture the tag titles from The Usos, supposedly detonating the powder keg...Roman wins to retain the title the exact same way he always does, with The Bloodline numbers game working seamlessly against Cody despite Sami and Kevin being there to stop The Usos. This would lead fans to wonder what the actual point of investing in a Reigns title match was anymore. To make matters worse, the events that immediately followed this decision were Wrestling/VinceMcMahon retaking full public power over WWE via the sale and merger to [[UsefulNotes/UltimateFightingChampionship the UFC]]'s parent company Endeavor, as well as WWE putting on what has widely been panned as the worst "''Raw'' After ''[=WrestleMania=]'' show in history. Many believe that, by the time Cody or anyone else actually gets to dethrone Reigns, the next-level "new champ energy" that WWE shot down on at least three occasions ''(including the one they were supposedly aiming for all along!)'' will be a distant memory at best.

** Reached an absolute tipping point for fans after [=WrestleMania=] 39. After killing off Drew and Sami's lightning in a bottle moments so Cody Rhodes could "finish the story", he wins the exact same way he always does, leading fans to wonder what the actual point was anymore.

** Reached an absolute tipping point for fans after WrestleMania 39. After killing off Drew and Sami's lightning in a bottle moments so Cody Rhodes could "finish the story", he wins the exact same way he always does, leading fans to wonder what the actual point was anymore.

** But then he fell right back into it after beating Cody Rhodes. The fans finally saw that Roman was being booked too protectively, and noticed that all of his matches had the same finish of a ref bump followed an interference allowing him to win. All of the love fans had for him disappeared almost immediately.

* CreatorsPet: His hatred with the fans is well-known, to the point that the mics are muted to quiet the boos. Still, Vince [=McMahon=] wants him to be the future of the company and pushes him into more and more while having as many people as possible talk him up. This, in turn, results in more dislike. Eventually it reached a point where Reigns was getting pushed in spite of the fact that business was suffering because of it. While it seemed that it stopped for a while after a violation of the Wellness Policy and subsequent suspension, that ultimately didn't end Reigns's push, as he eventually went on to eliminate the Undertaker from the 2017 Royal Rumble [[spoiler: and retire him at ''[=WrestleMania=] 33'']].

* DesignatedHero: Following his Wellness Policy violation, Reigns was dropped down the card to feud with [[Wrestling/RusevAndLana Rusev]], one of the only heel wrestlers that would get a heel reaction working against him, in an attempt to reverse his standing with the fans. It didn't work, mainly because Reigns's face actions toward Rusev were absolutely deplorable. The feud started when Rusev and his valet and later also wife Lana held a renewal of their wedding vows on TV a week after their actual wedding. Reigns then came out to "congratulate" the two, but then did nothing but toss barb after barb toward the couple. When Rusev understandably had enough and attacked Reigns, Reigns shoved him into Lana, who went face-down into the wedding cake, and then laughed as she screamed that her special day was ruined. Later, when Rusev complained to General Manager Wrestling/MickFoley about the disrespect Reigns had shown him, Mick ''punished Rusev'' by putting his United States Championship on the line in a match with Reigns. That match, at ''[=SummerSlam=]'', never got off the ground: Rusev jumped Reigns before the bell, but Reigns fought back, an understandable heel/face dynamic, but Reigns then continued to beat up Rusev long after he wasn't putting up a fight anymore, [[DisproportionateRetribution brutalizing him with several chair shots and even returning to spear him through the barricade after medical staff were sent to check on Rusev]] (for context, a similar action later in the night toward Wrestling/RandyOrton and Wrestling/ShaneMcMahon was supposed to be Wrestling/BrockLesnar's MoralEventHorizon). Then, the unexpected injury to [[Wrestling/FergalDevitt Finn Bálor]] shot Reigns right back up to the top of the card for a Fatal 4-Way Match for the vacant title a week after ''[=SummerSlam=]'' with absolutely no better of a reaction than he had when he left it. [[spoiler: You could almost hear the sigh of relief when he was eliminated from the title match, and when Rusev returned and cost him a chance to get another title shot, the fans closed out the show ''chanting Rusev's name''.]]

** His [[spoiler:[[CrocodileTears crocodile]]]] TearsOfRemorse at ''Wrestling/HellInACell'' had people wanting Reigns to get an Emmy.

** Reigns [[spoiler: retiring the Undertaker at ''[=WrestleMania=] 33'']]. His X-Pac Heat has gone off the charts and his chances of ever getting over as a babyface have been obliterated.

** Again one that is not Reigns' fault and several fans forgave him for that, but there is no way anyone will EVER forget [[spoiler: his retirement of The Undertaker]]. In fact, this was ''so'' badly-received that WWE saw the writing on the wall and [[spoiler: decided to basically ignore it, with 'Taker coming back at ''[=WrestleMania=] 34'' to [[SquashMatch squash]] Wrestling/JohnCena and resume part-time activity]]. Ironically, the only aspect of the situation that the fans don't blame him for is the actual match itself, which everyone agrees was mediocre, but as a result of [[spoiler:Taker's body breaking down at the wrong moment and proving he really could no longer perform at a high level anymore]]. Reigns did his best to carry [[spoiler:Taker]] through the rest of the match, and general agreement is that no one else could've done any better in his place.

** And then in TLC 2015 after Reigns lost the title match against Sheamus due to interference from Rusev and Alberto Del Rio from The League of Nations (King Barrett didn't interfere because of a nerve injury), Reigns had enough and started beating the trio senseless with a steel chair, to which Wrestling/TripleH and Wrestling/StephanieMcMahon of Wrestling/TheAuthority came out to stop Reigns, and then Reigns started to beat Triple H up as well. This got the crowd cheering for Reigns harder than Reigns' ever been cheered before in his singles run, and this same crowd chanted "We ''Want'' Cena/Cena Sucks" as a way to piss-take on the match. This was so successful that Reigns got a "Thank You Roman!" chant the following night on ''Raw'' in ''Philadelphia''. The very same Philly who, earlier this very year, booed both him and ''[[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson The Rock]]'' straight out of the building. It was probably because A) it gave Reigns some much-needed character development, B) it showed shades of the badass character that got Reigns over initially, and C) people ''really'' hate Wrestling/TheAuthority. [[spoiler: They even celebrated with him when he ''finally'' won the title that same night]].

** Being the [[spoiler: second man after Brock Lesnar to beat the Undertaker at ''[=WrestleMania=]'']] is already a huge one. Him [[spoiler:'''''retiring''''' The Undertaker is an even bigger one.]] The crowd was stunned and '''dead silent''' after the whole match.

** Part of why there was such a widespread apathy for the WWE product post-''Wrestling/WrestleMania 32'' is because the fans were conditioned to react as if Reigns were another Wrestling/JohnCena who would only lose via shenanigans and would always win otherwise. That's why his title match with Wrestling/SethRollins at ''Wrestling/MoneyInTheBank 2016'' had a dead atmosphere in the beginning -- everyone figured that Rollins was going to lose the match since it was too early in Reigns' reign for him to lose it via shenanigans yet. Nobody expected Rollins to win, let alone clean, nor did they expect Ambrose to cash in and finally become champion since the company had him playing second fiddle to Reigns despite being a main-event talent in his own right and infinitely more popular than his best friend. When they suspended Reigns for his violation of the Wellness Policy and it was revealed that the company knew of the violation beforehand (hence the title change), many fans deflated in their enthusiasm, figuring that Ambrose was only a transitional champion and that Reigns would win the upcoming Triple Threat match against Rollins and Ambrose at ''Battleground 2016'' clean -- the best they could hope for was a dusty finish so they could split the world title for the upcoming brand extension. Thus, it was a shock to the fanbase when ''Ambrose'' was the one to win the Triple Threat, and clean to boot, by pinning ''Reigns''.[[note]]Though in hindsight, it becomes clear that Reigns was not going to win the match and the title back. Handing it back to him after he violated the Wellness Policy while he was both champion and the prospective face of the company would've been a PR nightmare, especially since a few weeks after Reigns' suspension, USADA revealed that Wrestling/BrockLesnar had failed two drug tests in regards to his fight at ''UFC 200'', and WWE, in turn, was forced to reveal that wrestlers that work part-time like Lesnar aren't subjected to the Wellness Policy, putting the company in the crosshairs of a potential drug scandal, the sort of black mark a publicly-traded company obviously can't have. Yet the fans, who had become incredibly jaded over the course of Reigns's push, were convinced that there was nothing that would stop the company from continuing to back Reigns.[[/note]] Even after Ambrose won the triple threat, many still figured that Reigns would be in the Universal Title match at ''Wrestling/SummerSlam'' (though it was less having to do with the apathy and more having to do with the fact that Reigns and Rollins were the only two certified main eventers on the show) and win that match -- watching him get pinned clean by [[Wrestling/FergalDevitt Finn Balor]], on Bálor's first night on the main roster was the final push needed to convince the fans that Reigns was no longer the golden boy and reduce the apathy regarding him to almost nonexistent. However, this has returned with a vengeance after he eliminated the Undertaker from the 2017 Royal Rumble match [[spoiler: and later retired him at ''[=WrestleMania=] 33'' (even if Vince told Reigns to do it and The Undertaker approved it)]].

** Eleven months after the infamous booking that lead the crowds to booing him and even The Rock during the road to ''[=WrestleMania 31=]'', Reigns finally managed to win back genuine cheers from the crowd when he destroyed Triple H at the TLC PPV, and again when he [[spoiler: punched out Vince [=McMahon=] and won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship for good from Sheamus]] the following night on ''Raw''. Even more egregiously, the arena in which he [[spoiler: won the title]] was the Wells Fargo Center (Philadelphia), the same arena that booed him and The Rock at the ''Royal Rumble''. Subverted in that this good-will eventually ended at the 2016 ''Royal Rumble'', and shows no signs of coming back anytime soon. If Wrestling/TheShield mini-reunions at ''Payback 2015'' and ''Survivor Series 2016'' are any indication, they are sure-fire ways to have Reigns get cheered if only for a Triple Powerbomb spot. However, any chance of this trope happening to him have been all-but-obliterated with him [[spoiler: retiring Undertaker at ''[=WrestleMania=] 33'']]. The only possible chance now for him to get over is if he turns heel as he's going to be one in the eyes of the fans forever post-Mania 33 otherwise especially given he's still babyface.

** Even as a heel, Reigns is often so [[EvilIsCool charismatic]] that he gets cheered regardless, and has a face-pop-on-command built into his promos[[note]](City name)... acknowledge me.[[/note]]. Then ''Royal Rumble 2023'' happened, which ended with tens of thousands showering him with jeers of [[PrecisionFStrike "FUCK YOU ROMAN!"]]

** Reigns' popularity exploded while he was one-third of The Shield. He was the power guy, he made the hot tag, he had some of the best spots (like spearing people through the barricade), and generally had an aura of capability, mystery, and power. He also had Ambrose and Rollins to talk for him and cover his weaknesses in the ring, and Luke Harper to sell his offense during the awesome [=Shield/Wyatt Family=] matches. Then he got a singles push, and without all these factors behind him, his flaws as a worker became readily apparent. His mystique further fell apart when he was given awful, rambling, humor-driven promos. The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z55UrEEooh8 "sufferin' succotash"]] guy is not nearly as cool as the human weapon that squashed Evolution. The creative team has caught wind of this and has tried to remedy the situation, by having Reigns defeat the League of Nations singlehandedly on two occasions. This backfired with his "tater-tots" promo, mentioned below, and served only to heap further heat onto Reigns and make the League of Nations look like dorks.

** Even as a heel, Reigns is often so [[EvilIsCool charismatic]] that he gets cheered regardless, and has a face-pop-on-command built into his promos[note](City name)... acknowledge me.[/note]. Then ''Royal Rumble 2023'' happened, which saw tens of thousands showering him with jeers of [[PrecisionFStrike "FUCK YOU ROMAN!"]]

** Speaking of 2022, his seemingly endless title reign, and killing off of every single credible challenger. After Drew lost again at Clash at the Castle, audiences just generally gave up hope with it, with the only bright spot being him and the Usos being allowed to have an actual personality again after Vince retired, and Sami Zayn turning every single promo into an attempt to get them all to corpse.

* XPacHeat:
** Received this since the buildup to [=WrestleMania=] 31 because WWE was clearly pushing him as the next top babyface despite him being too green, having terrible mic skills, and not having evolved his character in any way since Wrestling/TheShield disbanded[[note]]He's still wearing the SWAT attire, uses a remixed version of the Shield's theme, still enters through the crowd, and uses a modified version of the Shield's catchphrase (Believe That!). Some fans have even called him the X-Pac of the Shield because of this.[[/note]] simply because of his look, size, and [[{{Nepotism}} Anoa'i family ties]]. As a result, many of his fans turned against him since he won the 2015 Royal Rumble and wanted him to go away. His reception as a solo star went from cheers, to mixed reactions, to boos. He even received dead silence at times. Ratings for ''Raw'' were on a steady dip during Reign's title run, to the point that ''Pro Wrestling Torch'''s coverage of ''Money in the Bank 2016'', where Dean Ambrose won the title after cashing in on Seth Rollins (who pinned Reigns ''clean'' in the main event), outright attributed Ambrose's title win to WWE needing to do something after the ratings for ''Raw''. Sure enough, ratings for the ''Raw'' after ''Money in the Bank'' spiked, while Reigns's suspension for violating the Wellness Policy the night after was met with both wide celebration and massive disappointment. Celebration because he wouldn't be on ''Raw'' for a couple of weeks and disappointment because the company all but handed him everything in spite of the ardent hostility of the fans only for him to flush it all away. To illustrate just how much of a low point 2016 was for him, he won Pro Wrestling Illustrated's "Most Hated Wrestler of the Year" award, which is supposed to be granted to successful {{Heel}}s. Roman is the only wrestler in the award's history, first inaugurated in 1972, to win it as a {{Face}}.
** The heat he got on the ''Raw'' after ''[=WrestleMania=] 33'' was beyond nuclear. The crowd was incredibly hostile to him, not letting him speak for 15 minutes while chanting things like "FUCK YOU ROMAN!", "ASSHOLE!", "SHUT THE FUCK UP!" (Keep in mind, Reigns has not said anything at that point) and "GO AWAY!" at him. At this point X-Pac Heat might as well be renamed "Roman Reigns Heat." Unfortunately, WWE remain utterly convinced that this is a ''good'' thing, sticking to their script that [[InsaneTrollLogic "Reigns is getting the biggest reaction so he's the biggest star in the company, even as a 'face' who everyone hates"]], and citing merchandise sales as proof that Reigns is their biggest attraction, so they clearly have absolutely no intention of changing anything. His hate has gone to the point where some people even wished Joe Anoa'i should have been the one who died when his brother Matt, AKA Rosey, [[TearJerker died on April 17, 2017 at the age of 47]].
** Even [[Wrestling/SeanWaltman X-Pac]] himself can't help but [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cd2W1Of0Fgw sympathize]] with Roman in regards to his X-Pac Heat.

** Further elaborating on this, a large, ''significant'' contingent of fans felt during this era that Reigns MUST turn heel, in the peak of this era. Even Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin back in Vince [=MacMahon=]'s later years in running WWE stated that Reigns should turn heel. As he and many others pointed out, practically every major face around thirty years by that point in time were entertaining heels before they became faces, including Wrestling/HulkHogan, Wrestling/RandySavage, Austin himself, Reigns' cousin [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson The Rock]], Wrestling/JohnCena AKA Reigns' predecessor as "face of the company", [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]] AKA the guy everyone was cheering over Reigns, and even ''Reigns himself as part of Wrestling/TheShield''. When they turned face, they [[ReformedButNotTamed retained all the heel characteristics that made them entertaining in the first place]] while doing more face-like things like being a {{Big Damn Hero|es}}. The logic in that line of thinking seemed to be that by turning him heel, it would have allowed him to make his character more believable and get the crowd firmly behind him so that way when he ''would'' eventually turn back to being a face after a long run as a heel (for example, Wrestling/{{Edge|Wrestler}}'s heel run going '''''more than six consecutive years'''''), everyone would have finally accepted his {{Kayfabe}} character. In fact, many fans pointed out that they REALLY ''didn't'' want Reigns to be like Cena, but to be like Edge during the Ruthless Aggression and PG eras instead. As it would happen, these ''particular'' fans were eventually arguably vindicated when Roman finally ''did'' turn heel in 2020, rapidly winning over just about '''everyone''' who'd every doubted him with his new "Tribal Chief" character and coming to be considered the best thing in all of WWE... and with that, the effective '''end''' of his BrokenBase baggage.

** Every time WWE gives Reigns any sort of big win, the fans are sharply divided on whether it was necessary or not. For example, during his feud with Bray Wyatt, even some fans who actually liked Reigns himself just fine felt that losing the feud would be better for him in the long run and that recovering from a loss to someone who was able to beat him mentally would add depth and sympathy to the character.
** A large contingent of fans feel that Reigns MUST turn heel. Even Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin stated that Reigns should turn heel. As he and many others point out, practically every major face for the last twenty years were entertaining heels before they became faces, including Wrestling/HulkHogan, Wrestling/RandySavage, Austin himself, Reigns' cousin [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson The Rock]], Wrestling/JohnCena AKA Reigns' predecessor as "face of the company", [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]] AKA the guy everyone was cheering over Reigns, and even ''Reigns himself as part of Wrestling/TheShield''. When they turned face, they [[ReformedButNotTamed retained all the heel characteristics that made them entertaining in the first place]] while doing more face-like things like being a {{Big Damn Hero|es}}. The logic in that line of thinking seems to be that by turning him heel, it allows him to make his character more believable and get the crowd firmly behind him so that way when he turns back to being a face after a long run as a heel (for example, Wrestling/{{Edge|Wrestler}}'s heel run going '''''more than six consecutive years'''''), everyone will finally accept his {{Kayfabe}} character. In fact, many fans pointed out that they REALLY don't want Reigns to be like Cena, but to be like Edge during the Ruthless Aggression and PG eras instead. These fans were arguably vindicated when Roman finally ''did'' turn heel in 2020, rapidly winning over almost everyone who'd every doubted him with his new "Tribal Chief" character and coming to be considered the best thing in all of WWE.

** A RunningGag in the IWC is commenting on the numerous inanimate objects that are more over than Reigns. This list includes Mitch the potted plant, Wrestling/DeanAmbrose's CompanionCube when he hosted his TalkShowWithFists the Ambrose Asylum. Other items that Ambrose has managed to get more over than Reigns include a crowbar, [[ICallItVera Barbie]] the barbed-wire bat,[[note]]although since Barbie was the WeaponOfChoice of the famous Wrestling/MickFoley, who gave it to Ambrose himself as a "passing of the torch", that's not really that surprising[[/note]] and a chainsaw[[note]]a la Terry Funk[[/note]]. Also on the list is Francesca (2), Wrestling/XavierWoods's trombone, Wrestling/ChrisJericho's lite-brite jacket, and his scarf.