WWE WrestleMania 31: Seth Rollins' Cash-in Perfect Way to Develop Roman Reigns

If WWE is committed to making Roman Reigns a top babyface in the company, then the best thing the company could have done was Seth Rollins cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase at WrestleMania 31.

I made this point in passing earlier this morning, but allow me to examine it further. Chasing Rollins for the World Heavyweight Championship will add depth to Reigns' character he's never had before and put him in an honest-to-goodness underdog scenario.

WWE wanted so badly to make Reigns' win at the Royal Rumble something special. This was supposed to be what we go back and look at as the moment Reigns ascended to true main-event status, somewhat similar to Stone Cold Steve Austin winning the 1998 Rumble before winning the WWE title at WrestleMania 14.

Instead, Reigns was booed out of the building after he eliminated Rusev, and fans got "#CancelWWENetwork" trending on social media. Even The Rock's presence couldn't save the Rumble finish.

It was only Paul Heyman's damage control on the Raw the following night that helped steer things in the right direction.

Yes, some of the negative reaction toward Reigns was down to the fickleness of wrestling fans, but the larger problem was WWE did nothing with him to that point in terms of character development.

Reigns has never moved on from The Shield. He still has his Shield entrance, uses The Shield's theme and wore an outfit strikingly similar to his days in The Shield. While Rollins and Dean Ambrose branched out and established themselves as singles wrestlers, WWE didn't allow Reigns to organically grow before throwing him into the WWE title picture.

At Payback 2014, The Shield beat Evolution. On the very next two pay-per-views, Reigns was inserted into multi-man World Heavyweight Championship matches. WWE basically just said "Roman Reigns is a top singles wrestler" immediately after The Shield's breakup and expected everybody to go along with the plan.

Then, Reigns didn't really do anything heading into Royal Rumble to build himself further as a singles wrestler and then found himself in the main event of WrestleMania. There wasn't any sort of road back to the top. You could've inserted Sheamus into Reigns' place, and it would've created the same general effect in terms of WrestleMania build.

With Leather's Brandon Stroud explained this problem perfectly when contrasting how WCW's push with Goldberg was played to perfection, while WWE messed up Ryback's push royally:

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I don't mind Ryback being Goldberg. The only problem I have with it is that he's truncated Goldberg, forced to jump from jobbers to JTG to the WWE Championship picture without the luxury of Goldberg's slow, epic ramp-up. One of the best parts about watching Goldberg in his initial run was whenever he'd get bumped up to the next class of wrestlers. He'd wrestle Jerry Flynn or Hardbody Harrison or whoever, then after a while he'd get in the ring with Mongo. Then, Perry Saturn. Then guys like Raven or Curt Hennig, guys with a legitimate shot to beat him who just DON'T and die like everyone else. THAT's when he gets Hogan, and when he f**ks up Hogan's Christmas and becomes the biggest thing in wrestling, he gets to have great matches with former champs like Diamond Dallas Page. Eventually he ends up wrestling Kronik or whoever again, but he never goes back to Hardbody Harrison.

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As if that wasn't detrimental enough to Reigns' build, WWE turned him into the kind of cartoonish babyface completely at odds with what made him so popular in the first place. There is almost no reason why Reigns should ever say "sufferin' succotash" in a promo.

It's like putting a Goldust wig on Goldberg.

All of this leads me to my main point: With Rollins holding the world title, Reigns now has defined motivations and genuine odds to overcome—two things necessary to build a top babyface.

Rollins and Reigns were brothers in arms before Rollins smashed him in the back with a steel chair, signaling the end of The Shield and setting in motion his WrestleMania cash-in.

They've never really had a chance to tie up that loose end with Reigns' injury getting in the way. And as if that's not enough to make a Reigns/Rollins feud interesting, Reigns was screwed out of potentially beating Lesnar and standing triumphant at the biggest show of the year.

Reigns will not only have to beat Rollins as well, he'll have to beat The Authority. Triple H and Stephanie McMahon should make Reigns' life a living hell at every opportunity, thus making when Reigns finally topples them all the more sweeter.

Should Reigns get past Rollins, he might have to deal with an angry Lesnar, who will want a shot at the title again at some point down the line. If you really want to make things interesting, you could have Reigns and Lesnar executing a double-turn, with Heyman aligning himself with a younger, better beast.

Who knows? In a year, Reigns might be battling The Rock in the main event of WrestleMania.

In short, the best thing that could've happened to Reigns is losing at WrestleMania 31.