Roman Reigns‘ career changed forever at SummerSlam 2020 when he returned to WWE as a ‘heel’, something that had not happened throughout his career on WWE’s main roster. As an individual superstar, WWE and Roman Reigns garnered intense criticism from fans for years for making Reigns a babyface, until he changed absolutely everything and became the Tribal Chief.

His overly criticized babyface past came back to haunt him again as a renowned pro wrestling journalist revealed online how the then ‘Big Dog’ failed in comparison to the babyface that was John Cena.

In his latest tweet on X, Dave Meltzer talked about the baby face runs of Roman Reigns and John Cena. He suggested that the WWE was right about Cena’s babyface run and the decision to never turn him heel. However, it was the opposite for Reigns.

And that was because ‘The Leader of Cenation’ was the top merchandise seller in the company. In fact, he even matched the sales of Stone Cold Steve Austin. And that might be the reason why the WWE did not and may not turn him heel.

However, when it came to The Tribal Chief, he wasn’t the top merchandise seller. Additionally, the WWE did not do him any favors as he was being pushed to the moon while the fans wanted other WWE superstars to succeed. This invited vitriol from the wrestling faithful despite Reigns not having a say in the direction his character underwent. These reasons further highlighted the fact that the former WWE Undisputed Universal champion failed to achieve what John Cena did.

Roman Reigns could not carry the torch that John Cena lit in the past

This made Meltzer tweet against the WWE as he implored the promotion to turn the 38-year-old heel multiple times in the past. A decision that later turned out to be one of the best decisions that the WWE has ever made. This is what Meltzer wrote in his latest tweet, “Roman wasn’t the merch draw Cena was nor the arena draw during that period.  If you read my writing, I was begging them to turn Roman and never did for Cena.  They were two totally different issues.  Cena was a huge success as a face,  biggest since the glory days, Roman was not.”

Now Roman Reigns is in the best stage of his career. And clearly is the face of the company while Cody Rhodes tries to establish himself further. Counting on the unconditional support of the fans with this new character, the Tribal Chief became somewhat of a household name. As his fame crossed the realm of professional wrestling. After a title reign of 1,316 days, we can clearly say that Reigns has surely turned things around for himself. What do you think? Was Roman Reign’s title reign actually that bad? Let us know in the comments.