A Double Turn?

[Jack-Hammer]

I'm wondering if we'll see a double turn, or if we saw the beginnings of it, last night after Roman Reigns rammed the ambulance into the trailer following his loss to Strowman in the Ambulance Match.

I'm not saying that it'll happen, it just struck me that Reigns' actions were about a heelish as it gets when you get right down to it after you saw Strowman stumbling, almost incoherent and bloody after the jaws of life were used to pry open the ambulance. Strowman refusing medical attention and limping off made me view him as a gutsy badass while Reigns' actions seemed ruthless. He took to Twitter last night and simply said something to the effect "I'm the baddest man to ever set foot in WWE" and was unapologetic for his actions. While it's true that Reigns has been more along the lines of a tweener for a while now, nearly "killing" Strowman goes beyond the tactics of a tweener.

So yeah, is it possible that last night saw Reigns truly turn the corner to being a full blown heel? Is Strowman now a sympathetic, gutsy babyface?

 

[Snugglebites]

Na. Cena, Austin, Hogan & Shane have all " attempted murder" and remained faces.

 

[Fire Marshall Bill]

A response by kb regarding Orton's feud with Wyatt leading into WM33:

Yep. That was his big face turn: documented arson.

Doesn't get more cut and dry than that. If you actually look at even Hulk Hogan's history (one of the biggest babyfaces of all time), you can find several instances of him being quite the bad guy even though he was the face.

Besides, Reigns hasn't been a clear cut babyface in several months now.

 

[L@RISANO]

Not really sure about a double turn as such until we see the follow up of it with regards to both characters.

Also remember when Braun toppled the over the Ambulance with Roman inside a few months ago.

This feud has been a brilliant blood feud and with last night's events, even more fuel was added for it to continue further even into SummerSlam if required.


To besides, as FMB points out above, "The Guy" has been increasingly heelish since Mania anyways.


Looking forward to RAW and SummerSlam. Well done WWE.

 

[Richard Blonoff]

This may be a move designed to make Braun look more sympathetic in the eyes of the fans, but I'd be very surprised if they used this to put a stop to the never ending Roman experiment.

Guys have already said it, in WWE the top faces can do some truly awful stuff and still get away with it as faces. Seriously you can go on YouTube and wrestling sites like WhatCulture have entire videos dedicated to times that mega faces did truly awful things and got cheered. Cena alone has his own top ten list.

I do think they have moved Reigns away from the face/heel dynamic though. He has cut some very heel promos since Wrestlemania, especially the night after besting Undertaker and the night Braun returned when he basically said no one could beat him and ran down the other top guys on Raw. The issue is that they pushed Roman so hard so fast that most fans turned on him and boo him despite being a face. If you turn him now, it won't have the same impact. I feel like we are going to be stuck with Roman as this kinda tweener and he can just cut a promo based on whatever role his current feud needs him to be.

Roman is a good pro wrestler. He has improved drastically from his Shield days to the point where he is one of the better in ring guys they have. Seriously, every match Roman is in feels like a big deal. He has also gotten better on the mic. He isn't great, but he isnt spouting off cartoon phrases anymore. If you listen to Reigns in real life, he comes off as a bit of a dick. Let him be that guy on the mic, which they have to an extent, and it will probably work.

 

[Wildcat66]

Highly unlikely. When you think about other attempted murder attempts like Steve Austin, Shane McMahon, Edge, I guess you can mention Randy Orton if you want; he isn't exactly that far off from them.

 

[tvcolosi]

Na. Cena, Austin, Hogan & Shane have all " attempted murder" and remained faces.

Granted but those were retaliation to something the heel did. Crybaby Roman did this after losing clean.

 

[Navi]

Randy Orton burned down Bray Wyatt's humble abode to the cheers of the audience and still remained a face. Nothing ever came of that though did it. Good visuals but yea nothing. Didn't DX blow up Vince's limo with Vince inside to cheers. It's an ongoing WWE thing with blowing up and crashing cars shit, usually the heel gets it and the crowd loves it.

Anyway, last night was the supposed heel Strowman getting what was coming to him. Reigns lost the match and was pissed, even though he was the one who went headfirst into the ambulance under his own power, Strowman didn't even touch him.

Strowman has been the one getting cheered through this feud anyway and Reigns has been getting the boo's. But the WWE wants a reaction and they get one, positive or negative. Did Reigns turn heel, I have no idea, I guess we'll see tonight on RAW.

 

[Aeon Mathix]

Braun Strowman threw Reigns off a stage while he was strapped to stretcher and the proceeded to turn over an Ambulance with him in it. Are we really having this conversation? Are you saying no good guy would ever amount to the revenge Reigns did last night for that happening to him? Orton punted Cena's father and Cena held Orton down in the STF while his dad gave him his own punt. Triple H broke into Orton's home, The Rock once busted into a dressing room to hit Benoit in the back of the head with a chair to get him back. Shane McMahon crashed a limousine with Kane in the back and also kicked him in a pit of fire.

Maybe they were trying for something maybe they weren't but logic doesn't really dictate Reigns being the bad guy here after what Strowman did to him for months. Anyone would have gotten that kind of revenge good or bad.

 

[Franchize1990]

I think we may have seen the beginning of a double turn. I think a major difference between the "attempted murder" actions of the other guys mentioned and Reigns last night was how the announcers sold the actions. I think with the others, the normally face announcers try to find ways to justify the face's actions by stating what was done to them over the past weeks, months, etc. Correct me if I'm wrong but, I believe I didn't really hear any of that from Cole or Booker T. The conversation was more steering towards "We hope Stroman is okay" or "That's a human being in that ambulance" or "Before we go trying to talk about ramifications..." I think Angle's look at Roman and Roman's dismissal of the look also help plant the idea that last night was a double turn. Could easily be wrong and wouldn't be the first time but, Stroman walking away under his own power is a face like move

 

[BestSportsEntertainer]

Nope Reigns isn't turning heel.

Austin dropped HHH in a car from 20 feet in the air. Remained face.

Orton turned face by burning down Wyatt's compound.

Several faces use heel tactics. This is nothing new.

 

[BestSportsEntertainer]

Granted but those were retaliation to something the heel did. Crybaby Roman did this after losing clean.

Strowman tipped over an ambulance with Reigns in it, threw him off a stage, and sneak attacked him multiple times.

 

[CrunKSinatrA]

I listened to the Solomonster's review last night and he talked about the possible double turn.

I think he's right that the WWE doesn't have the balls to go through w/ it.

Even though, other top level faces have committed attempted murder and remained faces.

None of their victims were as popular as Braun Strowman.

But last night got really weird with the whole face vs heel dynamic.

Reigns is supposed to be the next Hogan/Cena level babyface, but he gets the most boos.

Strowman is supposed to be a sadistic monster heel, but he gets cheered over Reigns.

Also, Lesnar never turned babyface but he worked face against Samoa Joe.

Lesnar made a miraculous comeback and beat Samoa Joe w/ a desperation F5.

But Samoa Joe has a grassroots indy following that made people root for him.

Maybe it's just the older fans and the IWC that wanted Joe to win last night, but Joe definitely had babyface support last night.

Joe worked a relentless slowdown heel w/ all those Coquina Clutch attempts.

It had me wondering if McMahon would pull the trigger and put the strap on Joe.

 

[johnnybbad78]

I thought the same thing. In fact what the announcers said made a big difference. Usually when a face does something totally outrageous like this, the announcers play it off with phrases like "He did everything he could to overcome the monster Strowman" or something like that. Instead last night they were saying things like "Disgusting" and "What was going through Reigns' head?" You might as well do a double turn because the fans have already turned both of them for you, lol.

 

[GhettoV1]

This feud is a early winner for Feud of the year and Roman Reigns winning Most Hated Wrestler of the year for a second year in a row.

 

[Mighty NorCal]

Not a double. Only more face heat for Braun.

They will continue to be daft with Roman, and we will continue to be cheated of what could be the top heel of this era.

 

[thebarber]

Reigns wont turn, Vince is too stubborn. Never mind how the booking is idiotic having Strowman beat Reigns twice, clan and not the number 1 contender to a title he hasnt challenged for yet.