6 minutes ago, carolineg said:

Roman would have made the Possession hard to buy in general because John had to be her savior.

No.  He returned when John/Marlena were about to married.  So it went Possession, then Aremid, then the Paris kidnapping, then the Kristen baby story with the secret room and Susan.  So there were multiple arcs before he returned.  Roman actually "died" in 1997 and gave John/Marlena letters forgiving them and encouraging them to be together then popped up shortly afterward.  Kristen/Stefano found him

Interesting to know the succession of everything. Very, very interesting! Such a shame Wayne never got the chance to re-claim the role. Oh, the triangle we could have had:

Renewing Wayne's contract in 94 would have probably meant a salary boost on top of what may have been a generous contract to start with. Days probably thought they had a supercouple pairing with John/Marlena and no guarantee they could find a suitable match for Roman (if they even wanted to).

So easier budget and story wise to drop Wayne.

28 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

Renewing Wayne's contract in 94 would have probably meant a salary boost on top of what may have been a generous contract to start with. Days probably thought they had a supercouple pairing with John/Marlena and no guarantee they could find a suitable match for Roman (if they even wanted to).

So easier budget and story wise to drop Wayne.

It's also reasonable to assume Kristian Alfonso's return didn't come cheaply.

It was just sad how in 1994 Wayne's Roman was sacrificed for Reilly's possession story. The upcoming possession was the only reason Roman was acting the way he was, so petty and unforgiving, treating Marlena like dirt. Marlena had to get to this dark place so she could be vulnerable to the devil 🙄 Wayne's Roman's last line ever to Marlena at the airport when he was leaving town, hugging her, was "God bless you"; foreshadowing some? 🤔

Reilly was a writer who would sacrifice character in an instant to further his plots. It's too bad, since when he was forced to, Reilly also could do character pretty well. 

5 minutes ago, Jdee43 said:

It was just sad how in 1994 Wayne's Roman was sacrificed for Reilly's possession story. The upcoming possession was the only reason Roman was acting the way he was, so petty and unforgiving, treating Marlena like dirt. Marlena had to get to this dark place so she could be vulnerable to the devil 🙄 Wayne's Roman's last line ever to Marlena at the airport when he was leaving town, hugging her, was "God bless you"; foreshadowing some? 🤔

Reilly was a writer who would sacrifice character in an instant to further his plots. It's too bad, since when he was forced to, Reilly also could do character pretty well. 

We  know from other writers who worked with him that he was capable of doing everything a soap writer should be able to do. When he was HW, though, unless there was some guiding influence, he didn't necessarily "follow the rules". He did not respect time, history, characterization, no, you are correct that he placed plot above all else.