WWE is turning Roman Reigns heel right under our noses

The Roman Reigns heel turn has begun, and no one has bothered to notice.

We as fans claim to love it when WWE engages in long-form storytelling, but in today’s day and age of social media and instant gratification, criticism comes so swiftly that we make our minds up about something before we’ve hardly had time to see where it’s headed. The knee-jerk reaction from fans has altered the way we consume wrestling content, and thus made it infinitely more difficult for a promotion as scrutinized as WWE to execute a long-form story.

What we’ve seen from Reigns lately is a perfect example of modern wrestling fans being unable to see the forest through the trees. Right now, we’re quick to dismantle WWE’s booking of Reigns and his promos since WrestleMania 34, but really, we might be witnessing the genesis of his long-awaited heel turn. In fact, WWE is taking a page right of its own book written back in 1997.

The lasting memory from WrestleMania XIII was the iconic “double turn” between Bret Hart and Stone Cold Steve Austin. Hart entered the evening as the babyface, but after Austin fought so valiantly and Hart delivered a vicious and unnecessary beatdown of his opponent – one that even guest referee and relentless ass-kicker Ken Shamrock couldn’t bear to let carry on – the Hitman exited WrestleMania with ultra heat. That’s what everyone remembers, but Hart’s heel tactics didn’t come out of nowhere.

For the better part of a year, the beloved Hart lost big match after big match under dubious circumstances. His frustration with his fates became increasingly visible in the weeks leading up to WrestleMania XIII, and culminated in a show-ending tirade following a WWE Championship match loss (in which interference led to his demise.) The point is, Hart’s heel turn at 'Mania was beget by a series of significant losses and whiny promos.

Fast forward to today, and we see a lot of similarities between Hart’s journey to WrestleMania XIII and the way Reigns is being presented to the audience. Ever since Vincent Kennedy McMahon decided to pull the plug on Reigns’ seemingly inevitable Universal Championship victory at the most recent showcase of the immortals, Reigns has been trotted out on Monday Night Raw every week cutting promo after promo about the odd being stacked against him. But these promos are different than your standard “I will overcome” feel-good fare. There’s derision in his voice.

Roman speaks about some grand conspiracy by the powers that be preventing him from reaching WWE’s pinnacle. However, we know that in both real life AND kayfabe (an unearned championship rematch at the Greatest Royal Rumble) that this just isn’t the case. Furthermore, he keeps falling short in big matches, even if it is by nefarious reasons (an incorrect decision made by the head official in Saudi Arabia). Roman Reigns has become a loser in recent months, but he’s talking like he’s being screwed by… someone? It’s whiny and certainly unbecoming of a top babyface.

My theory is that this is all by design. He appears to be out of the Universal Title picture after back-to-back losses at WrestleMania 34 and the Greatest Royal Rumble, and he isn’t being afforded the opportunity to win the Money in the Bank ladder match in two weeks. This is the perfect time to reconstruct his ailing character and commit to a long-form story that results in Reigns’ heel turn.

The question then becomes, who becomes the sacrificial lamb for Reigns to complete the turn against? Dare they try following the Hart/Austin double turn to a tee with an established heel on Raw who could have a run at being top babyface? Sure, if you know who that heel is, let me know. It’s more likely that Reigns completes the turn on an existing beloved babyface in order to maximize genuine heat from an audience that has been begging for his trip to the dark side.

Is that Braun Strowman? Probably not, because Reigns’ first heel program will probably result in him going over, and you don’t want Strowman to eat that pin. Seth Rollins? He’s hotter than fire right now and a great Intercontinental Champion, but would Roman turning on Seth the way Seth turned on Roman be poetic or too on the nose? Probably the latter. Finn Bálor? Maybe, but he’s going to have to build some serious steam over the next few months to get back into the stratosphere of popularity that would really make a Reigns betrayal sting. But that’s why the slow burn to the heel turn makes the most sense.

Kurt Angle even comes to mind as a possibility. Currently a fan favorite and legend, Angle does sit in a position of authority and could be perceived by Reigns as one of the people "out to get" him.
Of course, an easy rebuttal to the prediction that Reigns’ recent behavior signals a heel turn in process is that WWE creative has mishandled Reigns’ character countless times by now, that unintentionally making him come across as an entitled crybaby isn’t that out of line for them. And to that, I say, “You couldn’t be more right.”

What I’m trying to get across is that this Roman Reigns just feels different, and we’ve seen WWE utilize this kind of character flaw before lead to a stunning heel turn.

We’ve just been too busy booing to realize it.