Triple H vs. Roman Reigns: Best Booking Options to Avoid Negative Fan Reaction

With jeers, chants and middle fingers, the audience has spoken; fans are rejecting the story of Triple H vs. Roman Reigns.

To avoid having WrestleMania 32 climax with crowd rejection as the 2015 Royal Rumble did, WWE has to adjust its tale of the hero on a quest for gold. The key to salvaging the WWE World Heavyweight Championship bout is creativity. The company must turn this situation on its head.

Should the WWE simply and stubbornly continue on with the tale of Reigns overcoming The Authority and claiming his spot as the next top babyface, WrestleMania will end in an antagonistic audience spitting on Reigns' coronation.

Try as it might, WWE has not been able to script a path for Reigns to win fans over. Even on the last Raw before WrestleMania, and even with Reigns flying over the top rope and taking part in a pull-apart brawl with Triple H, fans weren't convinced.

Benjamin Tucker of Pro Wrestling Torch summed up the situation:

To avoid a repeat of that scene on a larger stage, WWE has to have Reigns shed his babyface status. The best options for The Big Dog at WrestleMania all play up to his recent vicious streak. The WWE should play to his strengths and make use of the crowd's current animosity toward him.

Involve The Rock

It's not yet clear what his role will be once he arrives, but The Rock is headed to WrestleMania. While it would be fun having him cut a promo or lending The New Day a hand, it's in WWE's best interest to again use him to help out Reigns.

At the 2015 Royal Rumble, The Rock fought alongside Reigns to fend off The Authority. The Brahma Bull then raised Reigns' hand in victory.

WWE was clearly attempting to have The Rock as a conduit and to have some of his popularity transfer to Reigns. It didn't work. This time around, WWE would be better going for the opposite effect.

Have The Rock be Reigns' ticket to red-hot heat as a heel.

On the WINC Podcast, former WWE writer Vince Russo brought this idea up and laid out a scenario where Reigns turns on his distant cousin. In Russo's vision, The Rock aids Reigns only to have the rising star attack The Great One.

Russo said of the plan, "I don't know what they could possibly do to get more heat on him than that."

He has a point. Few stars are as beloved as The Rock. Having him play Reigns' victim would assure a massive reaction.

Perhaps Reigns later explains that he's tired of living in The Rock's shadow. Maybe the attack is a result of him feeling betrayed by fans and lashing out as a result. Either way, WrestleMania would get a major surprise and create intrigue moving forward.

The Game Holds On

The expectation among most fans is that Reigns wins at WrestleMania. This is the climax WWE has been building toward by having Reigns fall so many times. The WWE title is the mountaintop Reigns has been striving to reach for well over a year now.

Subverting that expectation would be powerful. A Triple H victory would turn a seemingly predictable matchup into one of the more surprising bouts of the night.

With many assuming that Triple H is simply a transitional champion, having him retain the title will leave fans wondering what's ahead. Would someone else be the one to knock him from his throne instead? 

This would be especially powerful if Triple H moved toward a babyface role during the bout. Reigns, meanwhile, would have a catalyst for a huge change in his character.

Cageside Seats' Geno Mrosko wrote, "I'd be far more satisfied if Triple H beat him clean in the center of the ring—especially if this match isn't going on last, and it shouldn't—and it led to a complete breakdown of the Roman character."

Fans will be expecting Reigns' shortcomings to end at WrestleMania. Watching him experience another one creates anticipation about the implosion that will surely follow.

This way, WrestleMania isn't the culmination of The Big Dog's tale as much as a passage to his darker self emerging.

Make the Switch

WWE has to adapt.

Crowds aren't buying Reigns as an elite babyface. Rather than blame the fickleness of today's fans or dismiss this as a phenomenon limited to "Internet fans," the company should simply harness the enmity thrown Reigns' way. 

Have Reigns knock Stephanie McMahon over during the bout. Have him turn on The Rock or The Usos. Showcase his most callous side.

WWE has an opportunity to crown a heel champion that already has the crowd seething.

And it wouldn't be a case of the villain tag making Reigns cool. As the folks from The New Age Insiders podcast pointed out, the Reigns hate is evident:

Steve Austin said on his podcast in February, "The kid has got to have a heel run before he's going to be universally loved because that's just the way that I see it."

Count Diamond Dallas Page among those who think a turn is in order, too. Page told Scott Fishman in an interview for Channel Guide Magazine, "If I was booking, I would do the same thing they did with Rocky Maivia. I would turn his ass heel. I mean completely." 

That approach is the far wiser one.

Reigns is already treated like a heel, and WWE has recently painted him as so violent and enraged that the transition to villainy would be easy.

If fans are going to boo WrestleMania's ending, the company might as well take ownership of that reaction. Presenting Reigns as the knight who's trying to claim his long lost prize would be going against the grain.

It's better to ride the rising tide of resistance to him than to fight against it.