It’s his yard now. Roman Reigns is the guy. He’s the ultimate meta-heel, a new kind of character with a special kind of relationship with fans. Right now Roman is in a unique position in wrestling history. He just beat – nay, retired – The Undertaker at Wrestlemania. WWE have built him relentlessly into one of their bigger draws. He sells merchandise. He’s the top babyface. But also, he isn’t.
Lots has been made recently of how WWE have fans right where they want them. Those boos you scream at Roman? Part of the plan. Hell, I’m sure the fact I’m writing about the “Big Dog” at all makes me the biggest mark in all the land. And when 20,000 people are telling one guy to “fuck off” on live television it’s obvious who comes across as the bigger ass holes. Sometimes wrestling fans can be our own worst enemy.
Guess what though? Triple H has a new trick when asked about Roman Reigns: he’s already a heel. It makes a certain amount of sense. If everyone’s already booing him, doesn’t that automatically make him a bad guy? Well, maybe. But can he be a genre redefining character AND a the top guy at the same time? I don’t buy it. Remember, this guy is also one of WWE’s better merch sellers right now. For me the answer’s much simpler: Roman Reigns is the Hawkeye of wrestling.
Let me show my working. The Avengers, and the other myriad Marvel movies, are the nearest thing to a pop culture phenomena in cinema right now. It’s not an accident, either. The series is headlined by some great characters – Iron Man, Captain America, Black Widow and more. In wrestling terms these three characters alone could carry WWE for a decade. But imagine, for a second, that for the next Avengers movie Marvel pushed these three into supporting roles and had Hawkeye take the lead.
Hawkeye’s not a bad character. He’s not even boring – I’m more of a Captain Marvel guy myself, but I know Matt Fraction and David Aja earned critical acclaim a while back for their run on the Hawkeye comic. But on the big screen Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye has a ceiling. Perhaps it’s because Renner isn’t quite an action movie lead. Who knows? His family and backstory in Age of Ultron was actually pretty interesting, but when you have Tony Stark and Steve Rogers available it’s pretty obvious who people are paying to see. Don’t get me wrong – Hawkeye’s still pretty cool. The guy’s earned his spot in the Avengers. But let’s face it; he’s a supporting character.
It’s not a perfect metaphor for Roman’s current push, but it runs deeper than you’d think. Like Hawkeye, Roman is pretty cool, but he’s also underdeveloped. In Hawkeye’s case it’s because he only shows up in a two hour movie every other year and the lion’s share of screen time is given over to more popular and dynamic characters. For Roman the reasons are more opaque. He’s a good wrestler and he works hard, but he lacks the intangibles to be a main character. Roman is not compelling.
Because come on, why would you build your story around Hawkeye when you have Captain America (John Cena), Tony Stark (AJ Styles), Black Widow (Charlotte) and Spider Man (Seth Rollins)? People don’t hate Hawkeye, because he’s not the protagonist. They get just enough Jeremy Renner to keep them wanting more. It’s an approach which earned Marvel Studios more than $2 billion in gross revenue last year on the back of only two films.
The post-Mania snark fest is over now. Hardcore fans enjoying a long weekend in Orlando have gone home. The crowd that booed Roman like he’d fumbled the winning pass in the Super Bowl won’t be back in such numbers for a while. Normal crowds will resume. Maybe. Roman has created a new kind of heat. WWE can pretend they know what it is and how to control it, but they don’t. This is not heel heat. This is “go away” heat. It’s “why do you keep trying to sell me vanilla when you have chocolate fudge and raspberry ripple” heat.
Contrarian internet wrestling smarks (like me) can pretend we know where this goes, but we really don’t. Before WWE even descended on Orlando and the Citrus Bowl the rumour was already out on their plans for Wrestlemania 34: Roman Vs Lesnar for the Universal Title. Vince McMahon is going for third time lucky with Roman Reigns. The push will continue, and wrestling fans will get to see something that’s never happened before. A new phenomena: what happens when Vince puts his foot down, and refuses to give us anything but Hawkeye.
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