5 Mistakes WWE should avoid making with Roman Reigns

Roman Reigns has been WWE's biggest star for half a decade now, but it was only in 2020 with no crowds that he began to enjoy the best run of his career. He is the face of Friday Night SmackDown - a brand that has become WWE's No. 1 show since the move to FOX.

The course of Reigns' career will be interesting. Given his comments a couple of years ago about only wanting to wrestle for a few more years, there's a chance that the biggest part of his career is over.

Whether that's the case or not, here are five big mistakes WWE should avoid making with The Tribal Chief.

#5. Turning Roman Reigns face earlier than needed

It took over six-and-a-half years of demand for WWE to finally pull the trigger on a Roman Reigns heel turn. Perhaps the lack of crowds gave the company the opportunity to establish the Tribal Chief character, and the decision has paid dividends.

Since his return, Reigns has largely been considered WWE's best star. The reason fans clamored for a Roman Reigns heel turn for years was because it's a tried and tested formula.

Perhaps the most famous example of this is The Rock, who was booed as a white-meat babyface in 1997 and turned heel when he returned from an injury. While he had a brief face turn in 1998, there was a swerve and his first WWE Championship victory resulted in another heel turn.

The importance of The Rock's heel run can't be overstated. It helped him develop an authentic personality that made him one of the two most popular babyfaces in the Attitude Era, and one of the few megastars in WWE history.

It's inevitable that Roman Reigns will get cheered at some point by the crowd as a heel. When someone is so good, it's hard to deny them the acknowledgment. WWE might get tempted to pull a quick face turn later this year, but that would be a mistake.

The promotion should stick to the course and give Reigns a lengthy run as a heel, especially since he continues to improve by the week.