7 huge missed opportunities to turn Roman Reigns heel 

#6 Brothers no more

The night Rollins struck Reigns with a steel chair, The Shield ended there, as the main thing that keeps friends together is trust, and that's something The Sheild lost. But hey, management saw Dollars signs so cue Shield reunion.

As many wrestling critics believe The Shield's awesome reunification back in 2017 was another attempt by WWE to cash in on one of their popular ideas and run it to the ground,and if we really being honest here every casual and hardcore wrestling fan knew that Ambrose, Rollins, and Reigns reunion was used to drive ratings up, sell more tickets and create hype to garner more interest in a lazily presented product.

But even with all the financial gain, WWE could get from this booking plan, they could get some credibility gain too for one of their most hated superstars- Roman Reigns. This Shield reunion was mainly put together for Roman Reigns and whether you like to admit it or not that is the truth.

As Wrestlemania season was approaching back in 2017, WWE needed to do two things with Reigns, firstly book a filler programme so he can stall until Wrestlemania and secondly they were trying to pull another trick out of their idea bag to get "the guy" over as a babyface with the WWE Universe. And why wouldn’t this new plan work, Ambrose, and Rollins were extremely over with wrestling aficionados before the full Shield reunion, so how could anyone boo Reigns if he joined forces with them?

And to WWE's credit, their plan actually worked, as the negative crowd reaction towards “the guy” slowly but surely got minimal to the point where his IC Championship win was thoroughly accepted by the WWE Universe. But not everything was unicorns and rainbows in The Shield's second run, as injury struck the group, and the man who was put on the sidelines while his team members thrived without him was Reigns himself.

After coming down viral infection close to the 2017 TLC pay-per-view Reigns was forced to sit out of the official Shield reunion/anniversary at TLC 2017 , and instead of his 'brothers' going at it alone, Ambrose and Rollins decided to replace Reigns with Kurt Angle and that was a decision no one in the WWE Universe seemed to protest against.

Later during the United Kingdom tour, WWE once again replaced Reigns with a man that is basically a mortal enemy to each member of The Shield- Triple H. And just to go off topic here, Triple H joining The Sheild in combat was one of the dumbest decisions the 'creative' team ever made, and even though it was a house show that decision was a big WTF moment that had fans singing "hello kayfabe my old friend."

Anyway, instead of building on this real life last minute change, and how it would affect Roman Reigns that his 'brothers' could easily replace him in a second, WWE brought him back with "the big dog" showing no concern that his place in The Shield would be expendable in ‘desperate times’ as Seth Rollins put it.

And with a fully healed Reigns back in the fray The Shield reunion could now take off with a bang as the most anticipated dream match fans have been waiting years for was finally happening at Survivor Series 2017, The Shield vs The New Day. The two most popular WWE factions of the last five years duking it out for brand loyalty, personal stakes and most of all, to finally see which stable is the best, was freaking awesome to watch.

However, WWE finally got it so right but so wrong at the same time, as when this Shield reunion was finally going to end what was going to happen with Roman Reigns? As no matter how much they tried to get him over, a majority of fans would’ve still resented Reigns for the main event pushes he would have received in the future and not taking the time to assess that outcome was a mistake in itself.

Therefore, Instead of Reigns returning to continue The Shield's run as normal, WWE could have centred this narrative around Reigns questioning Ambrose’s and Rollins loyalty to him, as they easily replaced him when he couldn’t compete. Moreover, Rollins did stab him in the back years ago and Ambrose turned on Reigns several times in the past. WWE should have made Reigns character think about all these emotionally conflicting instances and decide whether he wanted to run Raw with The Shield or run his yard by himself.

Therefore, this, of course, would've resulted in Reigns destroying Ambrose and Rollins in their match at Survivor Series and ruining whatever was left of The Shield. As WWE could’ve used this chance to have Roman drop The Shield gear, music and aura he still clings on to this day. A logical heel turn that could ve rebooted Reigns as a heel that fans could relate to, WWE could’ve made the change, but they didn’t.