Roman Reigns Plotting to Alter his WWE Character

Since his mock turtled-necked debut as CM Punk’s bodyguard, Roman Reigns has always been the strong and silent type. However, it sounds like The Big Dog is ready to add a bubbly dimension to his WWE character.

Reigns joined the Sports Illustrated Media podcast and revealed he’s eager to trade out his serious vibes for ones that are more whimsical. To Reigns, his already brooding persona was made even heavier by his leukemia saga, and a dose of levity is much-needed.

“I honestly think last week, that was one of my goals. I was like, ‘OK, I knew the first week was gonna be crazy emotional, but I don’t wanna be the guy who comes out there and everybody gets semi-sad or gets super heavy all the time.’ I want people to have fun. I want to create escapism. It’s like a mini vacation [for the fans] on their couch. Let’s get into these storylines. Let’s take all this positive sensitivity being sent to me and shift it and send it to people in need. That’s where I’m at now, shifting all this positive energy from me to the people in need,” Reigns said.

For a few years, Reigns’ haters seemed to resent how shallow the character was. His promos were brief, elusively so, and everything he did felt like it was micromanaged. That’s not so much a knock on Reigns but how protective WWE was of him. However, you can’t blame a billion-dollar company wanting thoughtfully manage their asset. But we’ll never forget the suffering succotash promo.

Reigns thinks that his leukemia announcement and return inherently broke WWE’s forth wall, and incidentally, may have opened an avenue for a fresher version of the character.

“But also with the storylines and character, because we have introduced Joe, especially last week, I felt like there was a lot of Joe within the promo of Segment One. Even with the interaction with Seth [Rollins], I just feel like with me integrating the characters and who I am in real life and who I am on stage, for me to kind of mix them, it allows me to laugh at Roman a little bit and have a little more fun and be a little more loose as opposed to the stoic brawler. If you know me in real life, I’m kinda like my cousins [The Usos], I’m a bit of a clown, I act up, we goof off a lot. We’re silly. We’re big kids. We’re always goofing around, trying to laugh. If I can add that in the next couple of years, those layers of being chilled out, little more comedy, a few different emotions, I think that would be pretty neat.”

Could Roman Reigns channel the DNA he shares with his cousin and WWE icon Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson? Or should he stick to the semi-mute man in black?