In a shocking turn of events, WWE has suspended Roman Reigns for a period of 30 days effective immediately. The reason cited for the same was his first violation of the company’s talent wellness policy. Roman Reigns has since apologized to his family and friends for doing so and posted a tweet regarding the same.
This comes as an absolute shocker to the WWE universe because only hours before on RAW, a match was scheduled between the three members of The Shield for the upcoming Battleground PPV.
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Add to it the brand split draft scheduled for July 19th and Roman’s absence would certainly create a huge void during that process.
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However, perhaps looking at this ban from another angle may actually be beneficial to Reigns as he was struggling with the fans’ ire. As part of this slideshow, let us have a look at 3 reasons why Roman Reigns could get benefited due to this suspension.
#1 Time for Creative to build his character
The biggest problem for Roman Reigns right now is his gimmick. The crowd never had a problem with Reigns as an individual but the reason for their hatred towards him is the character he is portraying.
It doesn't matter to them if Reigns is a 'good' guy or a 'bad' guy or 'the' guy. Just take a look back at Roman Reigns when he was part of The Shield. The fans really loved the whole ‘Big Dog’ persona when WWE portrayed him as the most powerful member of the faction.
That went well with the fans but the current booking isn't doing any good either to the company or to Roman Reigns.
Now that there is a gap of 30 days, the creative team could study the case of Roman Reigns with some extra care and come up with a plan to make him relevant again. The same happened with John Cena and Batista when they were faces but the creative team came up with a change in gimmick so that at least some portion of the WWE universe whole them.
Reigns has most of his WWE career ahead of him and such a reluctance to be accepted by the audience is not a good sign for that.
The creative team should make the best out of this incident and could even turn him heel as he was suspended for something bad. All we want is a rejuvenated Roman Reigns upon his return.
#2 Change it up on the microphone
It doesn't matter if it is RAW, SmackDown, Live Event or a pay-per-view, whenever Roman Reigns shows up, the WWE universe welcomes him with a chorus of boos.
Don't forget that this man is being touted as the new face of the company and such a reception is a serious hampering those efforts. Roman hasn't been a great worker on the microphone and the situation shows no signs of improving at a quick enough rate in the face of all the negative reactions from the fans.
What can Reigns do about it though?
As long as the WWE writers are scripting his promos to a tee for him, this trend could only end up worsening. What he needs is an organic connection with the fans and an opportunity to express what’s really on his mind on the mic.
#3 Brand split
The biggest thing Roman Reigns will miss is the WWE draft that is scheduled to take place on July 19th.
And while it is still not clear how the WWE intends to work his return into the brand split once he does return, this may yet present the biggest opportunity to the company in refreshing his gimmick and outlook.
If he misses the draft, and it certainly looks like he would, Reigns wouldn’t be confined to either brand exclusively, giving the WWE an opportunity to write him into any storyline they want, on either roster.
While this is undoubtedly a challenge for Creative, especially in ensuring that he does get ‘over’ with the audience this time around, it is still given to a multitude of avenues for them through which they can re-package him.
Roman Reigns getting suspended may be a tough sell for the WWE on paper, but if they played their hand right, he may yet benefit more from the time off than he would have had he still been active.
