Could we get a heel Roman Reigns on his return?

[Wald]

This week Roman Reigns won Superstar of the Year at the Slammys and quite a lot of people reacted with disgust. Here was extra proof that Reigns is being rammed down our throat as the next main man no matter what we want, the polar opposite to Daniel Bryan basically. This isn't the first misstep with Roman Reigns this year and it isn't the first time we've seen fans begin to turn on Reigns. At Summerslam there was a very sizeable chunk of the audience that were behind Orton in their match.

But what if this is a set up for something different? The past two years the Authority storyline has been hammering home to us that the company likes A+, big sized wrestlers and don't see the likes of Bryan or Ziggler as their choices. The rise of Daniel Bryan to the title was based along the lines of the fans and Bryan joining together to overcome the WWE boardroom, whilst similar ideas have been used in recent years to help get CM Punk and Dolph Ziggler over. So why then is the company pushing Reigns so obviously as their guy?

Most things I could excuse as just missteps in his character development but winning Superstar of the Year was the first time I've thought there might be a reason behind this. It just seemed to scream This Is Vince's Guy a bit too obviously and in an era where the company accepts that smarks are everywhere it just seemed like a bit of a slap on the face to them. Leaks from the back for months have fed us the story that Roman Reigns is winning the Royal Rumble and winning the title at Wrestlemania and nothing is changing that. I don't think it's a crazy idea to suggest that if that is the straight up idea that Reigns could get booed out of the building at Mania and it could genuinely derail his babyface momentum right from the off. Vince and Triple H have to know this too, they saw it happen to Batista last year and had to change their main event even.

The main event heels are also thin on the ground right now. Lesnar is part time and Rollins can't carry the can for ever. Bray Wyatt needs some upper midcard feuds and wins to help him get back to his pre-Cena feud ways and guys like Kane and Big Show are just too stale. Rusev is there but it does feel he is just being built up to lose to Cena at Mania and the question has to be what happens to him afterwards?

So what if Reigns is the guy to be the next number one heel and not number one babyface? Him as the company's pick fighting Ambrose, Bryan and Cena could lead to a lot more money than him taking on Big Show, Kane and Wyatt. I mean WWE already has Bryan and Cena on the face side, they don't really need a third top line babyface, particularly one the audience might not even allow be one

 

[Jack-Hammer]

If it's WWE's plan for Roman Reigns to challenge Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania XXX for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, he's not going heel anytime soon. Brock Lesnar's a natural heel, some fans genuinely resent him because of the special treatment and deal he's received, he ended the streak and WWE is gonna want to put someone against Lesnar that fans will rally behind and want to see beat him. Now whether that person is or should be Roman Reigns at this point in time is another question entirely.

 

[Zycho32]

The key problem with the whole idea is this; if you think the Heels are paper-thin right now, what do you think the Babyfaces are like?

-Daniel Bryan is still injured, not even close to 100% and there's a genuine chance he may be unable to wrestle again.
-John Cena has been old reliable for the past decade but is notoriously mixed in the reactions he gets, and has been firmly anchored in place due to his sales and 'rep', which is apparently also WWE-Induced, and was about to be phased down in the ladder had injuries not made him stand back in.
-Dean Ambrose is in real trouble once he manages to get his revenge on Seth Rollins, because what do you do with the guy after he gets what he's after without quickly drying up the well?
-Dolph Ziggler is very much the stand-in that John Cena was(that performance at SS? Totally what Reigns would've been doing) and as such is too much of a tease to rely upon.
-The NXT Guys in the wings won't be ascending anytime soon, much less blazing their way past the low/mid cards.

I also sound like quite the hypocrite in my mind for saying this, but you might be giving Vince just a little too much credit. It's easy to invent the context that the Slammy award was a deliberate plot device to screw with the fans, if only because it felt like such a blatantly insulting move- like Batista, come to think of it. It's always easier to go to sleep at night 'knowing' that anything that offensive is a definite sucker plot and that you figured it out early on. Been there, preached that, clung to my sanity... I get the concept. I just don't believe it in this case, mostly because I can accept that what happened was Creative never bothered to change the script regardless of development. It really seems Roman Reigns is going to get the John Cena long-term treatment, albeit with a more dysfunctional group of writers and an older Vince McMahon running the show.

 

[Navi]

To say the WWE has a lot of issues right now on their hands would be an understatement. Reigns win at the Slammy's last week was a joke. Now I'll say right off I'm a fan of his, but once you get by the looks there really wasn't much there, and he didn't do much of anything that would propel him to a win of that stature.

Cena by many reports works when he injured, simply because he has too. With Bryan on the shelf for the foreseeable future, and there is a question mark as too whether or not he'll even come back. We also have no idea what kind of shape he'll be in and what he'll be able to do. Bryan might not be able to make it back up to the top tier, a lot is riding on his health.

Reigns does have the look, charisma and intensity of a champion, but he also has a lot of drawbacks. He's okay in the ring, just horrible on the mic and quite honestly he's so softspoken he doesn't make a great heel. Rollins and Ambrose make much better heels than he ever could.

They need someone to replace Cena, and they've picked Reigns. I think it's going to backfire on them again like it did with Batista. Reigns is green and he needs to get his feet firmly under him before he can carry the title. Out of the three Shield members he was the natural to stay a face. If they were all to turn heel, then what was the point of breaking them up in the first place.

But like I said, it's too early to put the WWE title on him. He needs at least another year and then we'll talk.

 

[MartialHorror]

I agree with Navi.

However, I dont think turning him heel is a good idea. I personally believe when Reigns returns, he should feud with someone like Bray or Rusev. Hell, conquering Rusev might be the way to really get fans backing him. I dont think he should win the rumble in 2015 and I dont think he's ready for the belt.

 

[Zycho32]

But like I said, it's too early to put the WWE title on him. He needs at least another year and then we'll talk.

Agreed, he absolutely DOES need another year to build, especially after his injury took his momentum.

Sadly, there's no real choice in the matter.

'05 is comparable, as you saw John Cena and Batista, guys WWE believed were the next generation of Main Event Superstars, claim the belts of their respective brands, ushering in a new era. It's very easy to see that neither were actually 'ready' in an overall package sense at the time, but they had to step in because it was a supremely diluted Main Event picture that had lost a LOT of talent over the recent years. This year is much the same way; If WWE built a long-term storyline around Brock Lesnar being conquered at Wrestlemania, then you have three options;

-John Cena, old reliable as already mentioned. Also very ho-hum, 'Cena overcomes the odds AGAIN' deal.
-Daniel Bryan, a virtual anomaly thanks to his injury, though everyone would've been over the moon about THIS one. Health is too unreliable here.
-Roman Reigns, the handpicked successor. Has 'The Look' despite everything else.

Nobody else works. Dolph Ziggler isn't going to grab enough momentum to be a believable threat, and neither is Dean Ambrose. Randy Orton is John Cena-lite at BEST. And those are the best options. After that you have the Part-Timers brigade (The Rock, Batista, etc.) and all the wishes you can put in one hand while you crap in the other and see which fills faster.

About the only other way you could have had a Feel-Good WM Main Event is if the Authority had TURNED on Brock and he demolished them all while turning face.... but crap, even if the Authority had not been cast out, that's still a hard pill to swallow.

 

[TDFG]

Unfortunately we won't, when WWE has the main-event guys back to full health they look light on the heel side, especially if Orton turns face.

Lesnar is part-time, Rollins & Wyatt for me aren't at main-event level and Big Show is going to be used to enhance talent.

Reigns would be an ideal heel, Cena isn't turning heel which is a pity because I think it would give his character a lot more life again.

 

[Mustang Sally]

I think Roman Reigns needs to return to heel-dom; it's where he came from and what he does best. If WWE management was having any qualms about turning him bad, those might have been quelled by what they saw happen with Batista; the reception Big Dave received surely (hopefully) taught them a lot. Perhaps they're seeing that their decision to shove someone down our throats isn't necessarily going to mean we'll be going along with it. Fans have a voice.....that's good.

The question is when Roman will go to the dark side. Yes, I'm one who believes the original plan was to have Reigns win the world title at WM31, but I'm doubting that now, for two reasons:

--His absence may not have gotten our hearts to grow fonder. Plus, the fact he's still a relative newcomer (to singles wrestling, anyway) could result in a Batista-style backlash that would play badly especially at a championship level. It's up to the powers-that-be to not let this happen again, Batista-ically speaking.

--Unlike many fans, I want John Cena to be the one who dethrones Brock Lesnar at WM31......and maybe even send Brock packing for good. Face it, Cena is Cena and you figure he'll eventually come out on top .....additionally, if Cena isn't the one to beat Brock, what in hell were his two previous losses for? To have Brock leave after WM31 and have Cena forever known as the guy who lost the series to the bad guy? Can't see it.


So, if Cena is the one to get the title shot at WM31 (presuming Brock is still the champ, which I do), it leaves Reigns the opportunity to turn bad guy any time WWE wants him to.

Turn him evil upon his return? No, not that quickly......but soon afterward.

It's his best destiny.

 

[OYDK]

I actually posted about this a few weeks ago, and honestly, to me it makes a lot of sense. Roman Reigns is your prototypical badass, wrecking ball heel. If he were able to deliver a great promo every night like say, John Cena or Stone Cold than of course he would make a great face of the company, but he can't... and that makes him better suited to be a top heel. The guy has everything else; the looks, the charisma, the athleticism, and hopefully when he comes back, more fluidity in the ring. Very similar to Brock Lesnar when he first came into the WWE actually now that I think about it, only difference is Lesnar had Paul Heyman.

Guys like Dean Ambrose, Daniel Bryan, even Seth Rollins are much better suited to be top faces in the future than Roman Reigns imo. I think eventually, we will see Reigns as the badass heel once WWE realizes that he probably won't get super over as a face. They just don't seem to realize that yet.

 

[Dirk]

If you want to turn Reigns heel, let him ride out that return-pop for a while - it sells tickets and merch for at least a month.

If Brock/Reigns is indeed a lock, keep him face until WM and sometime into the title-run turn him heel.

Having said all that, it's always better to have a face than a heel. If somebody is able to play face, do that with him. Only do the turn if you have a long-term opponent lined up for him and there's nothing left to do with him as a face.

 

[A11oftheLights]

If he could show some personality and charisma instead of having promos that are heavily scripted and therefore forced a heel turn could work. If wwe watches their own monday night war series they'd understand that a heel turn could work especially in the modern wrestling world where the IWC (especially the hardcore sections) cheer the heels or dump on anything the wwe wants to do/ isnt exactly what they want.

 

[YourSavior]

Could we get a heel roman reigns? Yes ...but we won't...there isn't a good enough reason to turn him heel right now when he is clearly over as a face with the fans.

 

[Gawd1595]

i don't see the charisma that everybody else sees or that's just me? i like Roman Reigns but he doesn't deserve to be in the title picture yet way too green, now I'm going to have to dislike him because of all this. Only way ll be happy is if Seth cashes in right after reigns wins the title start a year long feud have Ambrose in the mix then bang!

 

[sMark]

The thing is - WWE needs new face of the company right now. John Cena did everything he possibly could as a face, in perfect world he will turn heel and get a feud with face Roman with final big match at SummerSlam - you know this will make you watch and make WWE money, but i don't see WWE doing it, they will go with merch sales instead. They will not turn Reigns heel as well, Ambrose & Orton maybe, and this in my eyes is the best possible scenario. If top faces would be Reigns, Cena & Ziggler, the heel side with Ambrose, Orton, Rollins, Wyatt & Sheamus can work pretty well against them, unfortunally i don't see any moves by WWE so far to turn some of them heels.

 

[Wald]

Well Reigns returned last night and he came back as a face, doesn't mean the heel Reigns is completely off the table but I would wager that it definitely is now.

He got a good reception, mostly through how he was booked to take out the groan inducing Big Show run in, but it was positive so WWE should see if it can maintained. Plus he announced he is the Royal Rumble and set up a potential match against Seth Rollins at the Fast Lane PPV. We also now have Lesnar v Cena at the Rumble so I think it's safe to say that the Road To Wrestlemania for Reigns is

Royal Rumble: Enters and wins
Fast Lane: Beats Seth Rollins
Wrestlemania: Beats Brock Lesnar for the WWE Title

Hell they might even have Rollins cash in and lose at Mania to further put Reigns over.

Only question remaining in my mind is whether the hardcore WWE fans accept this. I'm normally not one to say that creative should divert from the obvious storyline path just to mess with the hardcores but I'm equally not sold on Reigns being ready for the Cena push.

That being said, John Cena wasn't ready for the Cena push back when he beat JBL for the title and it has worked out pretty alright for him and the company.

 

[MartialHorror]

It was kind of awkward when Roman Reigns flubbed his line and obviously forgot what he was supposed to say. Poor Roman. He can go so far, but WWE's forced pushing is going to turn him into another Ryback...er, well, at least before Ryback got his renewed push.