Is Roman Reigns a Hero or a Heel? What His Ambiguity Reveals About WWE’s Creative Rut

Jay-Z starts “Streets is Talking” mimicking questions from the perceived peanut gallery. Without boring you with rap nerds, the point was the streets couldn’t figure him out. Was Shawn Carter reformed or still the same guy who moved drugs out of apartment 4B? I’ve thought about that dynamic a lot as it pertains to Roman Reigns. Is he the benevolent Tribal Chief constantly at war with his past demons, or is he a very big wolf in ill-fitting sheep’s clothing? WWE flirted with a definite answer but opted on mostly shrugging their collective shoulders. Raw’s recent Bloodline segment showed how that indifference makes for conflicting crowd reactions. The crowd acknowledged Reigns by greeting him like the Second Coming. And they often do. But that same audience erupted when Reigns took a Samoan Spike to the throat and rived in writhed in pain. Reigns is seemingly neither good guy nor bad guy; he’s whatever WWE needs at the moment. Therein lies the issue: WWE books for moments, which leads