Roman Reigns: The Art of Turning Face Without Losing Who You Are

After losing to Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania 40, Roman Reigns, the biggest heel in the company, would disappear for an extended break. While he was gone, Solo Sikoa would reshape The Bloodline in his own image and feud with Cody Rhodes throughout the summer. Reigns would make his return at SummerSlam to team up with Rhodes and start a feud with Sikoa over both The Bloodline and who the true Tribal Chief was. Reigns didn’t really change anything about his character, though. Maybe he was a little less paranoid, but he was still very much the Tribal Chief, just a Tribal Chief who was now feuding with a group of heels. In the lead-up to WrestleMania, we would see more of the old Reigns, trying to bully Heyman into staying by his side instead of siding with Punk.

At WrestleMania 41, Paul Heyman would turn on both CM Punk and Reigns and align himself with Seth Rollins, Bronson Reed, and Bron Breakker. Since then, Reigns has been feuding with The Vision. He has, for the most part, stayed away from Punk, focusing on helping out Jey and, more recently, Jimmy. He has told Jey to stop trying to help everyone, advice that Jey ignored until he lost his World Championship to Gunther due to injuries caused by Reed and Breakker, injuries he wouldn’t have had if he hadn’t been trying to help Sami Zayn, Punk, Penta, and LA Knight.

Reigns double-downed on this on last week’s Raw. Asking Jimmy why Jey being more like Reigns was a bad idea, and then pushing Jey to take the spotlight from Punk. This isn’t a changed man who has suddenly become squeaky clean. The only real differences between Reigns now and who he was a few years ago are that he doesn’t have a stable to insulate himself with, and he happens to be feuding with bigger heels than he is. The crowd is behind him because they hate The Vision more than they currently hate him.

And this is the way heels should be when they turn face. Austin didn’t change who he was when he turned face; he was still the beer-drinking, hell-raising, mud-hole stomping, redneck badass he was before. He just happened to have registered with the crowd enough that they wanted to cheer him, and the only real change was who he was in the ring with. Same with The Rock as well, we all know

“Happy to be Here” Rocky Maivia was going nowhere, but thanks to a timely injury and a heel turn, The Rock could be born. When it was clear he was going to be the breakout guy in The Nation, he would start to steal Farooq’s thunder by doing what got the fans behind him to begin with. Once he went full face, he didn’t stop being a cocky ass to everyone. He was The Rock, and again, nothing changed, except who he was facing in the ring.

There are two guys whom the WWE needs to be careful with how they turn them. Dominik Mysterio and Bron Breakker. Dominik has been getting more and more crowd support this year. We have gone from him getting booed out of the arena every night to “Dirty, Dirty Dom” chants being commonplace. Dom has perfected his character; he is a Gen Z Eddie Guerrero. He would rather be playing video games and eating nuggets than anything else; he does everything he can to take the easy and/or cheap way to victory, and he screams sleaze.

When they finally turn him face, which I’m guessing will happen sooner rather than later due to his issues with Judgement Day, he needs to stay who he his. No one wants Dom to turn into a squeaky-clean babyface; they want him to be who he is, who they got behind to begin with. Having mentioned Eddie Guerrero, he is another great example of this. He was Lie, Cheat, and Steal, whether he was heel or face, the only things that changed were who he was facing and how vindictive he could be. Dom can tap into that same energy. Dirty Dom is always Dirty Dom, but when he is a heel, he is just a bit more vile.

Breakker is in the same boat; he is a bit unhinged, cocky, and a badass. That should never change, face or heel Breakker should be about wrecking shop and being a cocky ass who can back it up. The flashes we have seen of Breakker on the mic have shown that he has his uncle’s cool vibe, and taking away from that would be a shame. I would go so far as to say Breakker should never be a traditional face. When he was on his Intercontinental Championship run, he was taking on all comers, and that is how I think a non-heel Breakker should be. He doesn’t care who is a good or bad guy; he just wants to spear them out of their boots and get the win.

In the end, the complete change of character upon a face turn was a very Vince thing, and it’s one that I hope stays dead with him gone. For the faults that Triple H has shown this year, one thing he does know is character work. So, I hope that continues to play out going forward, because if it does, we have two future World Champions in the making, and I’m here for the journey.