5 Things Roman Reigns can do to win over his haters

A few years ago when the Shield started wreaking havoc on the WWE roster, the strong, silent Roman Reigns was greeted with a chorus of support--in spite of the fact the Shield were supposed to be the 'bad guys.'

It seemed that fans couldn't get enough of the crowd entrancing, tactical vest wearing trio. With allusions being drawn to the early nWo, the Shield would go on to become full babyfaces and seemed unstoppable until the unthinkable happened--Seth Rollins betrayed his brothers and joined the Authority.

When the Shield split, Rollins and Ambrose were given more nuanced, complicated characters to portray. Their theme music and entrances changed, as well as their ring gear.

Roman Reigns, however, remained much the same. It was as if the WWE wanted all of the golden endorsements from the fans toward the stable to now be concentrated on just one man.

For whatever reason, the experiment didn't work. It seemed like the harder the WWE tried to push Reigns as the next John Cena/Hulk Hogan character the more vocal his detractors came. It all rose to a head when Reigns won the Royal Rumble.

The WWE spent the next couple of years doubling down on Roman Reigns over and over again, while the announcers tried to pretend there wasn't a chorus of boos during his entrances and victories.

The last straw seems to have been two PPV performances. At WWE's Wrestlemania 34, fans chanted 'this is awful' during the Universal title match and at Backlash fans left in droves during the Samoa Joe/Roman Reigns contest.

But it's not too late for Roman Reigns to keep his top guy spot. If he makes these five changes, he has a good shot at winning over his haters and cementing his legacy as a top contender.

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#1 Pick up a mat wrestling/submission game

To say that Reigns has a decidedly unscientific approach to his ring work is an understatement. His style seems to be mostly striking with some power moves thrown in. To be fair, he is wrestling the kind of style that WWE creative wants him to because they think it fits his character best.

However, he could certainly add some more technical moves to his gameplan. Men like William Regal and Kurt Angle could go a long way toward teaching the Big Dog how to mat and chain wrestle, which would silence a large segment of his detractors.

#2 Add some spice to his persona

Roman Reigns needs to take a page from the Undertaker's playbook.

At first, the Undertaker wasn't known as such. He was a middling low card wrestler named Mean Mark Callous (or Texas Red if you go back even further in his career.) Much like Roman Reigns, Mark Callous had the look, the athletic ability, and the size to go far in wrestling, but was missing that special hook to get fans emotionally invested in his character.

Mean Mark Callous allowed himself to become the Undertaker, one of the most successful wrestling characters of all time. Roman could go a long way by being more than just the big man in a tactical vest who punches people and developing a truly compelling character.

#3 Make a heel turn

One solution to Roman Reigns receiving so many boos is so simple, it's surprising the WWE hasn't tried it already; Turn Roman into a heel, or 'bad guy' character.

If a majority of the fans are already against him, making him into a villain might be a way to turn those boos profitable.

#4 Spend some time in the tag division

The fans seem to react better to Roman when he's with his Shield brothers, Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins.

For whatever reason, the triad stable worked, and quite well. While Seth Rollins is fine on his own it might behove Roman to team with the more charismatic Dean Ambrose and spend some time in the tag team division.

#5 Stop being a whitewashed character

Take a look at the photo above. That's Roman Reigns as his original character, Leakee. Right away you have a much more interesting look than black tactical gear, and as a bonus, you can see Reigns's impressive musculature.

Everything about Roman Reigns seems designed to downplay his Samoan roots; his name is Anglicized, his gear is clearly modern and western, and his ancestry was only acknowledged because the WWE hoped his cousin the Rock could lend Roman a little popularity.

By returning to a character grounded in the Samoan traditions, Roman could become infinitely more interesting.

There you have it; Five things Roman Reigns can do to win over his haters.

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