Repackaging Roman Reigns as a Heel

[Psykohurricane55]

They don't need one person to run the company. Cena, Orton, Balor, Ambrose, Zayn, and Rollins could all be the top faces.

Cena is a part timer right now and is on smackdown so he more of a special attraction then a top faces

orton isn't as over as he use to be and again on smackdown, I could see

ambrose being consider a top face because their finally getting behind him and being on a smaller show like smackdown and with cena being a part timer, i think it's his chance to be take the ball and become a top face.

Rollins as always being a better heel then babyface, so i know the hardcore fans wants him to be a babyface but why turn him at this point when they are in dire need of top heels

Bàlor might be able to someday to be a top babyface but not now, they need to take their times with this guy and not rush this like they do with everything that seem to be over right now. Let him rise organicly to the top instead of force feeding him to the crowd like they do so many times when a superstars is over.

Zayn, forget about this, unless they move him to smackdown which they won't the guy is stuck in the midcard until they release him. The fact that he doesn'T even have a feud for summerslam after winning the feud with owens should tell you that they don't really care that much about him so a main event push isn'T in his future.

The point that navi was making was that they need the one guy that going to be the face of the company, like cena, bryan,austin rock,hogan etc... and all those guys that you name except for cena aren'T at that level of popularity right now. the problem is that nobody want to let the talent have an organic push anymore, they have force feed guys to the fans when they see that they are super over with the fans. The latest victim of that sort of thinking is roman reigns who was super over with the crowd a couple of years ago and they saw that and forced feed the guy to the fans until the turn on him and they are starting to do that to finn balor now and that sad in a way because finn as the potential to be the next daniel bryan if the wwe would just let the guy breath and get over organically instead of putting him in the main event picture right off the bat but that'S how wwe works now.

They need somebody to replace cena as the top guy but the problem is that outside of maybe AJ Styles, nobody is on his level and is ready to replace him and that's because of how WWE book their superstars now and the fact of letting a character get over organically is over.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

What point did Navi even make? All he said was that Reigns should do a double turn with Rollins...which doesn't HAVE to be done...they can simply turn each one relatively close in terms of time if they wanted to got that route. Other than that, he didn't want Flair involved which is fine...it was one idea. So in theory Flair is all you agree on with him, because he believes Rollins is fine as the next face of the company since he's all for having Seth swap roles with Roman.

Some think Flair should just walk away, and that's cool...but this thread is also open for other opinions to be posted on how to turn Reigns heel AND repackage his gimmick. However, most of the responses are just "have Reigns turn on Ambrose or Rollins, and talk crap to the crowd" both are pretty damn generic. Kudos to the 1 or 2 guys who have mentioned something with some damn creativity.

no matter what people thinks about this topic, i'm in the mindset that it really doesn't matter if a guy is a heel or a babyface nowadays, fans will cheer or boo who they like or don'T like. it'S not like when a started watching wrestling in the late 80's when you had babyface and heel and even if you knew that this was a predetermine show, you would get into it and cheer for the babyface and hope that the heel would get his. Nowadays fans just cheer from whoever as the better moveset and who can give the better match, they don'T care about storytelling or psychology in the ring so the age of babyface and heel is pretty much gone.

All that to say that i got the point the navi wrote in the fact that you had to do a double turns if you wanted reigns to be heel and rollins being babyface since it's the old school way of doing this. The best heel turn are always the one that started with a double turns because they are memeroble. Best exemple would be the austin/bret hart double turn. Austin was starting to get over going into wrestlemania 13 and bret was starting to get booed so what they did was do a simple double turns at wrestlemania and let face it, if it wasn't for that moment, i'm not sure that Austin would have been the top guy in the company a year later because that's the moment that started everything for him and i think that having a double turn with rollins and reigns could help both guys in the long run but that all depends on how many IWC fans would except that old school way of thinking.

 

[Rocky84]

no matter what people thinks about this topic, i'm in the mindset that it really doesn't matter if a guy is a heel or a babyface nowadays, fans will cheer or boo who they like or don'T like. it'S not like when a started watching wrestling in the late 80's when you had babyface and heel and even if you knew that this was a predetermine show, you would get into it and cheer for the babyface and hope that the heel would get his. Nowadays fans just cheer from whoever as the better moveset and who can give the better match, they don'T care about storytelling or psychology in the ring so the age of babyface and heel is pretty much gone.

All that to say that i got the point the navi wrote in the fact that you had to do a double turns if you wanted reigns to be heel and rollins being babyface since it's the old school way of doing this. The best heel turn are always the one that started with a double turns because they are memeroble. Best exemple would be the austin/bret hart double turn. Austin was starting to get over going into wrestlemania 13 and bret was starting to get booed so what they did was do a simple double turns at wrestlemania and let face it, if it wasn't for that moment, i'm not sure that Austin would have been the top guy in the company a year later because that's the moment that started everything for him and i think that having a double turn with rollins and reigns could help both guys in the long run but that all depends on how many IWC fans would except that old school way of thinking.

Ehh not really. Double turns are so rare and not all that memorable. The only one anyone ever mentions is the Austin/Bret Mania 13 one because all the other ones sucked, and really had no impact on the business. There are far more impactful/memorable one way turns in history...it's not even close in comparison. Seriously...the list is like 10,000 times longer.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

Ehh not really. Double turns are so rare and not all that memorable. The only one anyone ever mentions is the Austin/Bret Mania 13 one because all the other ones sucked, and really had no impact on the business. There are far more impactful/memorable one way turns in history...it's not even close in comparison. Seriously...the list is like 10,000 times longer.

Since you so into your point about impactful/memorable one way turns over the double turns. Please give me at less 5 exemples of one way turns that were impactful in history and you can't use the shawn michaels turning on marty jannety one because that the most use exemple.

 

[Rocky84]

It would get him booed and possibly the biggest heel in the company. That's kind of the point of a heel turn.

Yea the point is also to be memorable and entertaining bro...and that idea simply isn't imo at least. I guess I was expecting too much creativity to be put into it from posters here...the other guy above called it "a huge dog and pony show" but calling anything besides turning on Ambrose "a dog and pony show" is ridiculous. Where's the logic and motivation for Reigns even doing that? They've wrestled for the title a few times already...so why would he need to attack him when they're totally open to fighting it out like they have already?


All I'm saying is...


-turn his character "heel"...don't necessarily need to seek out boos...just turn him into a character who doesn't give a crap and tells the fans and everyone else the way he feels...same way Rollins does (who fans still love) but do so in a creative and entertaining way.

-change his theme song (like Rollins and Ambrose did)

-change his attire (like Rollins and Ambrose did)

-change his gimmick (like Rollins and Ambrose did)


...it's pretty simple. I really don't see what all the negative feedback is about lol. I thought everyone knew this was totally obvious.

 

[Rocky84]

Since you so into your point about impactful/memorable one way turns over the double turns. Please give me at less 5 exemples of one way turns that were impactful in history and you can't use the shawn michaels turning on marty jannety one because that the most use exemple.

Wtf? So wait lol, I can't use the "most used example" (which really isn't btw) but you can use the ONLY example of a double turn? Lol cmon...I beg you to find 5 double turns that compete with these...and you can't use Austin/Bret.


1. Hogan joining the NWO
2. Stone Cold joining Vince at Mania 17
3. The Rock joining the Corporation
4. Vince/Higher Power
5. Macho Man turning on Hogan
6. Sgt. Slaughter turning on America
7. HBK turning on Hogan
8. HHH turning on DX/joining the Corporation

There's 8 big ones off the top of my head in no particular order.

 

[Rocky84]

Another thing I wanted to point out was the fact that my original idea had Roman turning by simply cheating to win the title. Everything else was after the fact. The act of turning can be simple, but it's what he does afterwards that counts...that's where the creativity lies. You can't just turn someone and keep everything else the same about them...

That's why Hogan changed his whole attitude, gimmick, and attire after joining the NWO, and that's why the Rock changed his whole attitude, gimmick, and look after turning Hollywood. So on and so forth...

 

[Psykohurricane55]

That's also why a single heel turn wouldn't work in this day and age in wwe or even a double turn. Because everything is so micro manege in wwe that they're not place for creativity or follow through. So a heel turn for roman reigns would work like it did back in the day when all your exemple happenned. Plus the fact that the fanbase as change from the time that all the exemple you gave hapenned. Back then fans actually were ingage into those characters, they wanted to believe that this was real, compare to now which they don't care about the product because they got smarter and nobody cares if a guy is a heel or babyface, all they wants is to cheer for anybody that does something cool.

 

[BestSportsEntertainer]

They need somebody to replace cena as the top guy

No they don't. The Attitude Era didn't just have Austin. It had Austin, Rock, Taker, HHH, Foley, Kane, Jericho, and a bunch of others.

The New Era can have Ambrose, Reigns, Rollins, Styles, Owens, Zayn, Balor, Cena, Orton, Sheamus, and others.

 

[BestSportsEntertainer]

Rocky84, my way would be memorable and entertaining. People would be talking about it for years. Where's the logic and motivation behind an attack on Ambrose? Simple. Ambrose is over with the crowd. Roman isn't. Roman attacks Ambrose and tells off the crowd. Boom. You got a massive heel.

I said he should change his theme song, attire, and gimmick. Again what's your point?

 

[Psykohurricane55]

No they don't. The Attitude Era didn't just have Austin. It had Austin, Rock, Taker, HHH, Foley, Kane, Jericho, and a bunch of others.

The New Era can have Ambrose, Reigns, Rollins, Styles, Owens, Zayn, Balor, Cena, Orton, Sheamus, and others.

Yeah but who was the face of the attitude era? Austin and rock on the face side and taker and hhh on the heel side, everybody else where background players to feed to these four guys when they didn't feud with each other but don't kid yourself, if austin and rock wasn't there during the attitude era, wwe would'nt have been as successful as they did during that era.

 

[BestSportsEntertainer]

Yeah but who was the face of the attitude era? Austin and rock on the face side and taker and hhh on the heel side, everybody else where background players to feed to these four guys when they didn't feud with each other but don't kid yourself, if austin and rock wasn't there during the attitude era, wwe would'nt have been as successful as they did during that era.

Okay Ambrose can be the face, but don't just focus on him and feed everyone to him. Have multiple faces.

That's why Reigns was so rejected. No one wants to see one guy on top and him going over everyone.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

Okay Ambrose can be the face, but don't just focus on him and feed everyone to him. Have multiple faces.

That's why Reigns was so rejected. No one wants to see one guy on top and him going over everyone.

Yeah but you need one or two guys that are above everybody else and gets more focus that the rest of the rosters, like it or not but it as to be the one that is able to get over organicaly with the fans, if ambrose can do that then go with that if not then hope that somebody else catch fire but you need one guy to be the face of the company like, cena, austin, rock & hogan we're for their era.

 

[ShinChan]

He surely needs to be repackaged as soon as possible. He also needs to turn into a silent badass heel.

Still I am doubtful about it happening anytime soon.

He needs to have a new entrance as well as a new attire. He needs to start speaking much lesser. Just unleash him. Even have him lose matches via DQ due to uncontrolled anger.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

He surely needs to be repackaged as soon as possible. He also needs to turn into a silent badass heel.

Still I am doubtful about it happening anytime soon.

He needs to have a new entrance as well as a new attire. He needs to start speaking much lesser. Just unleash him. Even have him lose matches via DQ due to uncontrolled anger.

I completly agree with this, you don't need to turn him heel just turn him into a golberg type character that just want to beat peoples up.

 

[Spencesc11]

I have been saying for months the best way to play this out would have been to keep The Shield all on the same show "Raw". Should've saved the triple threat match for Summerslam with Reigns turning heel and building his "Roman Empire" heel faction. Ambrose & Rollins could do a DX type thing as the rogue tweener faces. Reigns could've made it a Samoan faction with the Uso's & Samoa Joe. Reigns is built to be a heel. Then you could've had Smackdown be focused with the next generation of stars (Cesaro, Balor, Owens, Zayn, Styles, Neville, etc...) along with Cena & Jericho for name cred. The Brand split was done very poorly as evidence of a rushed Balor to the Main Event and Ziggler competing for the World Title on Smackdown. My Summerslam would've been more like this....

Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Orton (Raw, Orton on Raw, Jericho on Smackdown)
Shield Triple Threat for WWE Title (Raw)
Styles vs. Cena (Vacant Smackdown Title)
New Day vs. Wyatt Family (Raw Tag Titles)
Rusev vs. Apollo Crews (US Title) - Raw
Miz vs. Cesaro vs. Zayn vs. Owens (I-C Title Ladder Match) - Smackdown
Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks (Raw Women's Title)
Big Cass & Enzo vs. The Uso's (already heel)
Nia Jax vs. Becky Lynch (Vacant Smackdown Women's Title)
Finn Balor vs. Jericho (Smackdown - Opening Match)

Shield Triple Threat - Ends when Uso's come down and interfere and form the new Samoan Empire!!! You add in Joe later after he drops the NXT Title.

 

[Radical]

Rocky84, my way would be memorable and entertaining. People would be talking about it for years. Where's the logic and motivation behind an attack on Ambrose? Simple. Ambrose is over with the crowd. Roman isn't. Roman attacks Ambrose and tells off the crowd. Boom. You got a massive heel.

I said he should change his theme song, attire, and gimmick. Again what's your point?

Change his theme song? I guess they could. But if he's going heel his current theme song is pretty good for a heel. It was the Shield theme song, and they were associated as a big heel team for a long time. Sure, they could change his theme song but it's not really necessary. Look how many times they changed Bad News Barrett's theme song and how well (not) it worked out for him?

Change his attire? I hope you are not thinking trunks. If you want that there a plenty of guys who go for the cookie-cutter traditional look. Should have cheered Ryback more when he changed to that or should cheer Finn Balor a lot now because that's his style.

No, I think some unique attires like Roman's actually are fresh and enjoyable to differentiate among the many in traditional attire.

Change his gimmick? Well, yeah, kinda. If he's gonna be a heel, be a heel. But his gimmick is already pretty set. Just be a strong ass-kicker who keeps his talking short and to the point and rarely loses. Which will draw more and more heat.

 

[tomthebodz]

I'd have him join The Club.

Balor wins the title at Summerslam. The next night on Raw The Club (as new tag team champions) come out to congratulate him. He shakes their hands and have a mini reunion. Then they turn on him, as they are about to hit him with the Magic Killer Reigns runs to the ring to apparently make the save. But instead he spears Balor aligning himself with Gallows and Anderson.

The Club would have beaten The New Day the night before so they'd be getting booed pretty badly and Reigns would have ruined the celebration of the new top babyface in the company.

 

[Just Do It]

The cat is truly out of the bag with Roman,. The fans don't want to cheer him and he isn't a draw.

It's simplistic to say "Just do what they did with Rock in 1997 and hope for the best". But really, this is the best idea. Just handle it naturally and aim for the best results. They need to get their foot for the acceleration pedal.