Paul Heyman is absolutely right when he calls the Heel / Babyface dynamic in WWE “antiquated.” This is without a shadow of a doubt an outdated concept – WWE is still in 2021 trying to recapture the magic of the 80s with guys like Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage. This old-school “superhero” mentality behind WWE’s character development lasted through the mid-90s until Stone Cold Steve Austin cut his Austin 3:16 promo at King of the Ring in June 1996. This was most likely not the case of Vince McMahon telling Steve to cut a promo this derogatory toward Jake “The Snake” Roberts but rather a case of Steve just by chance having the audacity to cut a promo like this – probably being aware that he would get reprimanded.
In 1996, the promo happened to strike the right chords with the audience and WWE slowly started to adopt a more attitudinal mentality which began to fully resonate with the audience and become embedded in the minds of WWE fans about a year and ½ after this (about the time of the first Hell in a Cell match involving Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker – and the debut of Kane. This strategy worked extremely well until the end of 2001, and WWE even attempted to carry on that mentality to a degree with the Ruthless Aggression era.
WWE has been treading water for the past 12 years since the Ruthless Aggression era ended. That is very evident now with characters like Braun Strowman and Randy Orton. I am not referring to the character of these men off-screen, because thank God there have been documentaries about these men telling the complex layers to these individuals’ characters as people.
Where is the depth in Strowman’s character? Who is this guy behind The Monster chasing titles? WWE may want to explore this on television. And most people are aware that Randy Orton is not a sociopath in reality. The later years to these guys and girls as people my need to be explored.
John Cena was WWE’s top dog during this time, and it carried the company extremely well, but Roman Reigns wanted to take the company in a different direction by pushing it forward rather than relying on what worked in the past. Roman had to pay his dues and earn his respect with everyone in the locker room as well as the higher-ups in the company for several years first. The company had already been around for about 30 years (under Vince McMahon) so Roman knew he would have to earn trust in order to take the company in the direction he ultimately envisioned.
Now The Tribal Chief has finally accumulated the trust from WWE to integrate what the company should be about from this point forward: present the human being first and the good guy – bad guy thing will be secondary. This is the model AEW is following – incorporating many different layers and nuances in wrestlers’ characters – and this is one way the why AEW is becoming so successful and regularly averaging over 1 million viewers on TNT every week. This company is being fully transparent with its audience and they appreciate the honesty.
Reigns’ character is extremely relatable because his downfall – like nearly all human beings – will be primarily because of his own insecurities. Roman feels the need to be acknowledged and this will most likely get the best of him eventually and ultimately bring the title reign of The Tribal Chief to an end within the next few months. This is so relatable because the primary downfall of most human beings is their own insecurities which most of them do not want to admit.