Having Roman Reigns Get Brutally Destroyed Won't Win over WWE Fans

The WWE is, by all indications, continuing its four-year mission to get Roman Reigns over. And the latest strategy—beating him into pulp—won't work either.

The overall sentiment of this tactic—garnering sympathy for the underdog—is nothing new. It's been a reliable staple of professional wrestling since its beginnings. It's the beatdown before the inevitable comeback; it puts heat on the heel and frames the babyface as an overachiever.

In most cases, though, WWE celebrates the shift in momentum. After taking a beating, Hulk Hogan "hulks up" to finish his opponents; Undertaker sits up; and John Cena's entire mantra is "Never Give Up."

With Reigns, however, the comeback is secondary to watching him suffer. Done sparingly, it can be iconic moment. But WWE has been running this playbook for close to three years. They're celebrating his suffering not as a means to an end but as both the means and the end. It's starting to feel exploitative.

The first notable time WWE worked this strategy was at WrestleMania 31. Reigns walked into the match as a deeply unpopular babyface, thanks to the awful booking of that year's Royal Rumble.

During the WrestleMania match, the production crew alternated between medium shots of The Big Dog getting suplexed and clotheslined, and close-up shots of him laughing.

The implication was clear; Reigns was taking Brock Lesnar's best shots and coming back for more. And that match was the best one of the pay-per-view; it won over fans who, even if they didn't like The Big Dog's character, appreciated the man behind it was absorbing so much punishment.

The company used a similar tactic after WrestleMania 33. Reigns had just beaten The Undertaker, which made him the most unpopular wrestler in the company at the time.

So Creative sent Braun Strowman to beat Reigns down, throw him off a ledge and tip over his ambulance. Everyone could get the hatred out of their systems from this and the subsequent Strowman beatdown. Again, it served to highlight how durable and game The Big Dog was.

At WrestleMania 34, Brock Lesnar cracked Reigns across the the top of his head with a sharp elbow, intentionally, to draw blood. And boy, did it.

A gush of red came streaming down Reigns' face and pooled into a puddle in the center of the ring. This was a decidedly mature part in an otherwise PG product. And on top of that, he still lost the match.

The closest comparison would be Steve Austin's WrestleMania 13 moment when Stone Cold, with his face covered in blood, passed out from Bret Hart's Sharpshooter. WWE was going for a similar plot here—to showcase Reigns' resilience and absorption of punishment, even in the face of crushing defeat.

This time, though, there was no reaction. There was no significant pop from the crowd, which was content to toss beach balls around and chant. And at home, there was a similar non-reaction as Lesnar piled on F5 after F5.

The fans have seen this story before, and they've become numb to its impact. Yes, we know Reigns is durable, and we know he's game for a beating. But that's no longer enough to make us care about him. Only character development will accomplish that.

The solution to get Reigns over is common knowledge: turn him heel. It's been written about many different ways on B/R and elsewhere. It's been noted by former bookers and agents in shoot interviews. But it seems WWE is willing to try any idea except for that. They're willing to elbow their top guy in the skull and risk a concussion instead of making him the villain, which no requires no blood at all.

WWE needs a better, long-term strategy. Because the way it's going now, the only thing they'll succeed in doing is shortening Reigns' career.