Roman Reigns Is Quietly Having the Best Stretch of Matches in WWE Career

Roman Reigns is a victim, a suspect, a babyface, a heel, humble, smug, cheered, booed, vulnerable, invincible, the personification of a corporate juggernaut and an underdog with the decks stacked against him all at the same time. 

The polarizing star has settled into John Cena 2007 territory as someone whose detractors passionately despise him. In 2017, Cena receives a more Pavlovian "Let's Go Cena-Cena sucks!" reaction that's just evidence of everybody having a good time.

But lost in the infinitely fascinating narrative of Roman Reigns is the fact that the former three-time WWE champion is having the best run of matches in his WWE career.

Reigns is on pace to become the first WWE Superstar since Hulk Hogan to main event four WrestleManias in a row. After closing out the last three WrestleManias, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (h/t Wrestling Inc) notes that current plans call for a WrestleMania 34 main event pitting Reigns against current universal champion Brock Lesnar. 

And though his place in WWE lore is already immortalized, Reigns seems to have evolved, from very good to a great performer, almost overnight. Matches featuring Reigns have received "this is awesome" chants during their last three outings on WWE television or pay-per-view. 

His match against Seth Rollins on the go-home show for Extreme Rules was a thing of beauty that featured an instant highlight of Rollins hitting a Buckle Bomb before Reigns immediately bounced back with a Superman Punch. The match was so good it brought the Greenville, South Carolina, crowd back from the dead after Alexa Bliss' universally despised "This is Your Life" segment. Reigns and Rollins had a tall task of reviving this crowd after one of the worst segments in Raw history, and somehow, they did just that. 

The Buckle Bomb-Superman Punch combination figures to be a staple of WWE highlight reels, and WWE went right back to the spot in the Fatal 5-Way at Extreme Rules, which also received rave reviews. 

Wade Keller of PWTorch.com referred to the overachieving bout as a "very good match." 

James Powell of Prowrestling.net was a bit more eloquent in his praise, calling it "an exciting and suspenseful main event." 

Reigns capped off his spectacular week this past Monday in a hot match against Bray Wyatt, announced ahead of time, to kick off Raw. Bolstered by the momentum from the night before, the 3.113 million viewers in the first hour marked the highest first-hour viewership in well over a month per ShowBuzz Daily (h/t Wrestling Inc). 

Reigns figures to spend much of 2017 as an accessory to the Raw roster as WWE moves forward with its plans for WrestleMania 34. Barring injury, Reigns will be leapfrogged by a loaded Raw main event scene that features Seth Rollins, Finn Balor, Bray Wyatt, the returning Braun Strowman and Samoa Joe, who is already set to receive the first crack at Lesnar's Universal Championship at Great Balls of Fire. 

But as Reigns continues to perform at peak levels, he's a lock to outdo his instant classic against Lesnar at WrestleMania 31. 

Alfred Konuwa is a Featured Columnist and on-air host for Bleacher Report and Forbes. Like him on Facebook.