Roman Reigns. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Roman Reigns is quite possibly the most divisive man in the world of Wrestling right now and for good reason. The leader of the Roman Empire has been largely resisted by the audience in his ascent to the top and has been spat out by the fans after being shoved down their throats like a foul tasting medicine. However not everything about Roman Reigns is something to boo about as there are several parts of his game that are generally pleasing to watch. So what exactly is the good, the bad and the ugly things about WWE's Big Dog?

The Good

Let's start with the good parts of Roman. The best part about Roman Reigns is his Physicality. While many people associate him with one of WWE's typical strongman types he possesses a unique agility that many men of his size don't possess. We haven't really seen that as of late but it is obviously there and WWE would do well to let him unleash that side of him. Not only is Roman very Agile and Physical in the ring but he's also a better worker than people give him credit for. In his time in WWE he's been involved in excellent matches against the like of Daniel Bryan at Fastlane 2015, Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania 31 and even Bray Wyatt in Hell In A Cell. The perception that Roman Reigns is not very good is the fact that more than half the time he's been booked against someone who doesn't match up with him in the ring. His matches against Big Show were pretty slow and being put against the likes of Braun Strowman and Kane doesn't help either. When Roman is put against people who are able to keep up with him in the ring or people who he has good chemistry with, like Ambrose and Rollins, Reigns is able to put on memorable bouts in the ring.

Roman hits a Superman Punch on John Cena

One of the other things people seem to overlook is the fact that he has greatly improved in the ring. Out of the three original Shield members, Roman is the most Green. Seth Rollins spent plenty of time on the Independant circuit as Tyler Black while Dean Ambrose also spent plenty of time in the indies, most notably in CZW (Combat Zone Wrestling). Roman Reigns on the other hand is a product of the WWE development system which all started once he quit his football career in 2010. Because of this, many people have taken to Dean and Seth a lot easier than they have to Roman. However, to his credit Roman has put the work in and has come leaps and bounds in the ring.

Roman is also actually very young. For example, John Cena is 38 years old and at a stage in his career when he's starting to wind down and eventually become a part-time player. Roman Reigns on the other hand is only 30 which is very young for a wrestler at the top of the card in the WWE. He still has plenty of time left in his WWE career which also means he has plenty of time to win over fans before his body starts to turn on him.

The largest part of Roman Reigns which can be viewed as good is that fact that fans are able to like him. When he was part of the Shield he was the silent muscle and people loved it. He didn't say anything but he destroyed everything. Ever since The Shield was taken apart by Rollins, Reigns has been booked to become the face of WWE, however WWE's idea of what the face of their company is vastly different what Roman Reigns is as a character and a person. Reigns doesn't strike you as the person to crack jokes and smile all the time. He strikes you as the type of person that lets his actions and his fists do the talking. The sooner WWE open their eyes and realise this the sooner we can all stop complaining about it.

The Bad

Roman Reigns isn't good on the microphone let's just get that out here. He's not terrible in the sense that he stutters and forgets his lines but whenever WWE ask him to cut a long, boring promo he struggles. It doesn't help that the material that WWE writers give him is absolutely diabolical, whoever came up with the Tater Tots line should be fired. There are some people in the world of Wrestling that are naturally gifted with the stick. CM Punk, The Rock and Paul Heyman are examples of these. Roman Reigns is not one of them. Because of this WWE should be looking to try and cover the flaws in Roman Reigns' game but having him go out and cut lengthy promo's is doing the exact opposite.

Roman Reigns during his "Tater Tots" Promo

Now time for some of the more simpler aspects and that is the fact that he is completely underdeveloped compared to some of his fellow stars. For starters, his move-set is ridiculously contrived. The Superman Punch is an awful manoeuvre and the Spear is one of the most over used finishers in Wrestling history. John Cena is often maligned for his "Five moves of Doom" and have Roman consistently turn to these abilities when he's in trouble is just asking for trouble. His character also lacks depth. Apart from being that guy in The Shield and who's related to The Rock (depending on who you ask) is there anything that people really know about him? Add all these issues together and then compare him to the likes of Kevin Owens, Bray Wyatt or Seth Rollins and his character looks very simple and lacking a lot that would make him a star.

One of the major things going against Reigns is the audience. It has been no secret that Roman Reigns is WWE's chosen one and the WWE Universe have been openly vocal about their displeasure with the fact that Roman Reigns is the man chosen and not someone else. People see Roman Reigns as just a generic copy of WWE's past company icons like Cena and Hogan. Several legends have made no secret about the fact that people don't like Roman either. Jim Rose, Hacksaw Jim Duggan and Stone Cold Steve Austin have all stated that Roman isn't ready or that he needs a Heel run first and even having The Rock support him at the Royal Rumble in 2015 wasn't enough for fans to buy into him.

The Ugly

Without doubt the ugliest part about Roman Reigns is his rise to the top. It has been known news for a long time that Roman Reigns is WWE's guy but they have failed to create compelling storytelling in order to get people to get behind Reigns but nothing has worked.

It comes from 2 basic faults. The first being that Roman hasn't had very many high quality Heels to work against. Sheamus was one of the better ones due to the fact that people really didn't want Sheamus but apart from that WWE hasn't really put him up against a top Heel. Triple H in this day and age won't be viewed as a Heel and was only viewed as such against Daniel Bryan because it was Daniel Bryan which brings me on to the next point. WWE have not come up with any new ideas. To push someone new to the top is like starting all over again which means they need to come up with a completely fresh idea. Instead they've tried to copy and paste him into storylines such as the Stone Cold role against The Authority and the Daniel Bryan role as Underdog. No one has even remotely bought into these ideas. After TLC there was a period of about 2 weeks where Roman Reigns had the support of the majority of the crowd and WWE failed to capitalised on it and now we're at a point where the reaction to him is worse than it was at this point last year.