Roman Reigns' Character Forever Trapped by WWE's Stubborn Babyface Booking

Roman Reigns insists he is not a babyface.

He told ESPN's Tim Fiorvanti as much in an interview published August 30.

"To me, I'm neither," he told Fiorvanti of his role as either a traditional good or bad guy. He continued, "If I'm totally off here, then I'm totally off, but I'm the first of my type. I'm the first true gray area guy ... just being what he was born to be."

We have heard Reigns lay down that rhetoric before. He has said it numerous times and though his intentions are admirable, that line only serves to magnify the issues facing his character, as does Paul "Triple H" Levesque's logic on display later in the same interview.

"For the people that hate him, he's already turned, and for the people that love him, they don't want him to turn. And if we turned him, the people who hate him would switch to loving him, and the people who love him would switch to hating him."

He's not a good guy. He's not a bad guy. He's just...there.

Reigns is neither wholly likable nor is he unlikable. He does not even have the title of antihero to lean on, like "Stone Cold" Steve Austin before him. He is undefined, the indecisiveness of management disguised in the form of a half-assed catchphrase.

Whether he believes his words or not, continuing to spout the same gibberish that clearly contradicts the manner in which he is written by the company's creative team only insults viewers and the performer himself and gives way to increasingly louder jeers.

Overcoming the Odds

Reigns falls into the same category of his No Mercy 2017 opponent John Cena.

Both Superstars are routinely booked to overcome the odds, scoring victories that can best be described as overcoming the odds. They are beaten down for the majority of the match, mount an inconceivable comeback and most of the time, send the crowd home with the triumphant hero standing tall.

That booking strategy alone obliterates the notion that Reigns is not a babyface.

He is rarely booked in the position of control, where he obliterates an opponent and makes them fight from underneath.

Matches with Braun Strowman have been shining examples of such a formula while the lone exception would be his fairly dominant performance against The Undertaker at WrestleMania 33.

Nowhere in popular culture does the hero control the story. They are put in the position of having to deal with great adversity if they are to succeed. Batman does not spend an entire two hours in any of The Dark Knight trilogy films kicking the hell out of The Joker.

He is faced with fending off the bad guys before he can achieve his happy ending.

Ditto Iron Man, Spider-Man, Superman or any number of other comic book or mythological heroes.

They are constantly battling for a cause.

That is the role Reigns finds himself in. He is designed to generate cheers but does not, a lack of character development and unwillingness by WWE Creative to pick a specific and defined role for him hurting his ability to reach the level Cena did before him.

Towing the company, calling him "shades of gray" but clearly presenting him as a hero only creates confusion and, worse, fuels his haters.

Opposition

If Reigns was truly a 'tweener, a Superstar not defined by labels of "babyface" and "heel," he would routinely work with opponents on both sides.

Some will argue that is exactly what he does, competing against Finn Balor and Seth Rollins in notable matches in recent memory. Those matches, though, are one-offs on Raw. They do not carry the prestige or gravity of a major pay-per-view bout or high-profile program.

They are the exception to the rule.

To hammer home the idea that he is neither good nor bad, just the top dog in WWE, the company should try something new. Once he wraps up the programs with Strowman and universal champion Brock Lesnar, throw him into a program with the aforementioned Balor. Let him work with Rollins and Dean Ambrose one month, then feud with Samoa Joe for a few months.

Change it up. Tell the audience that Reigns is unlike anything they have seen before, something the company has failed to present him as to this point.

Stubbornness as a Recipe for Failure

Reigns is a fantastic big match performer.

There are fans who will take to Twitter and fuel a narrative of Reigns as a terrible wrestler with only a handful of moves. Those fans are entitled to their opinions but when looking at recent WWE pay-per-views, it is difficult to argue that Reigns' matches are not the best of the night.

He understands the importance of putting certain moves in certain spots, manipulating the audience with a comeback and using body language to enhance the reaction. He gets the performance aspect of his job and will one day earn fair comparisons to Cena, especially if he can continue growing and evolving as a worker.

All of that will be for naught if WWE Creative continues to force feed Reigns to the masses in the fashion they currently are.

Trotting him to the ring to insist that he is not a good guy, then specifically booking him in that manner, demonstrates a stubborn stupidity that makes them appear completely out of touch with the audience and unaware of the contradictory nature of the character.

Let him break through and present himself as a truly unattached performer.

He does not pander to the audience, he does not cut dense promos that are unreflective of the connection that does (or does not) exist between him and the WWE Universe.

Reigns, himself, knows who he is.

It is time WWE figures it out or risks wasting the prime of a superb performer on its own inconsistency and stubborn determination to force something that simply does not exist.