WWE wants the crowd to love Roman Reigns and they want it bad, like really, really bad. Despite their best efforts to push Roman Reigns as the next big thing, he’s still getting a mixed reaction in most cities. Reigns has the look and he’s got the tools but he’s certainly lacking in the personality department which doesn’t seem to be as much his fault as it is the lines that WWE is feeding him.
WWE wants us to believe Roman Reigns is a bad ass. Okay that’s cool, but first you need to let him be a bad ass. A heel turn might be just what Roman Reigns needs to convince the crowd that he’s got “it.” The heel turn formula has worked for the biggest names in this business and if WWE hopes to make Reigns a household name, they might want to have him follow in the footsteps of these WWE Superstars.
#5 – Seth Rollins
Seth Rollins has spent most of his WWE career so far as a heel. There was a brief stint with The Shield around WrestleMania 30 where they naturally became faces, but that didn’t last long. Seth Rollins is talented in the ring but do we really think he would be where he’s at today if he had broken off from The Shield and tried to play a babyface? Probably not.
Rollins definitely would have gotten over with the crowd based on his in ring ability alone, but the ability to play the heel catapulted him to a whole new level. Playing the heel has allowed Seth Rollins to have more control over the crowd instead of pandering to them which is something Roman Reigns desperately needs.
#4 – John Cena
Remember when John Cena first debuted? He was like the default settings for a CAW in a WWE video game. You could see that there was potential there but his personality was the equivalent of a dry puddle of glue. Flash forward a little while later and WWE decided to let him play a rapper that was a heel and the gimmick was a huge success.
John Cena used raps to insult his opponents and the audience and it wasn’t long before the crowd started loving him for it. The boos quickly turned to cheers (and then when he turned face a few years later…back to boos) as Cena finally found a way to connect with the crowd but that’s not the most important thing he found. The most important thing that John Cena found as the Dr. of Thuganomics was himself.
Still to this day fans long for the Dr. of Thuganomics when we’re presented with the current incarnation of John Cena. Sure what he’s doing now works for him, but he never would have become a 15 time World Champion without turning heel and figuring out how to get a reaction out of the audience.
#3 – Triple H
Triple H has flipped back and forth between heel and face quite a few times during his WWE career, but it was him turning his back on DX, joining The Corporation and becoming The Game that really put him on the map. Shortly after his turn Triple H started one of the most dominant heel runs in the history of WWE and it turned him into an icon.
After Triple H ran through all of the fan favorites on the roster and made a name for himself, he was unfortunately forced to walk away due to an injury. But when Triple H returned he returned to one of the loudest pops in professional wrestling history.
Triple H had always been over, but becoming The Game sent him straight to the top. Triple H’s career path is a nice little example of how the right run as a heel can get someone over as a massive babyface.
#2 – Steve Austin
Did Steve Austin ever really play anything other than a heel during his run in WWE? Sure, he was a force to be reckoned with as a babyface, but the things he did were not things you would expect a babyface to do.
During his time at the top Austin drank beers, beat up his boss, destroyed everything in sight and stunned anything that moved. He swore on TV, he flipped people off and the crowd absolutely loved him for it. Once again these are not the actions of a babyface but it’s proof that people want to cheer for the bad ass.
The key to Steve Austin’s success was that someone out there realized that the good guys don’t always have to be good
#1 – The Rock
Roman Reigns is always going to be compared to The Rock. They’re cousins and the comparisons are impossible to avoid. One of the things you have to look at though when comparing the two is just how much the career path of Roman Reigns is mirroring the career path of The Rock.
When The Rock first debuted in WWE he was a “blue chipper” and a generic, cookie cutter babyface. The crowd absolutely hated him, greeting him with chants such as “Die Rocky Die!” But The Rock took that resentment, channeled it, refined it and found a way to make it work for him. When the crowd started hating on The Rock, The Rock turned around and hated them right back.
The Rock traveled all around the world and insulted crowd after crowd in city after city. But over time his insults were so damn good, so damn funny and so entertaining, that the crowd started cheering when The Rock made fun of them.
Reigns is in a very similar position right now. The WWE wants him to be their next big face and some members of the crowd seem to be into it, but others just aren’t feeling it. Just letting Roman Reigns grab the mic and go off on the crowd could be a game-changing moment for the guys career. A good portion of the crowd wants to boo Roman Reigns and the boos are drowning out the cheers in most cities. So give the crowd what they want, give them a reason to boo.
Instead of Roman Reigns being okay with his haters, he should take a page out of The Rock’s book and lash out at the crowd. You never know, it could be just what he needs to turn the boos into cheers.
