He may be one of the WWE’s all-time greatest superstars, but when it comes to Roman Reigns, Stone Cold Steve Austin is just like the majority of the WWE Universe. Fans have been begging for Roman Reigns to turn heel since 2014, when Roman was “chosen” to win the Royal Rumble and take on Brock Lesnar instead of fan favorite, Daniel Bryan. It wasn’t completely that fans didn’t like Roman Reigns as much as they didn’t like the idea of the WWE “pushing a guy down their throat” as opposed to letting the audience organically select their hero.
Two years later and still the boos continue to flood any arena where Roman appears. Many fans believe Roman Reigns’ babyface act, as it currently stands, will never catch on. In the modern era, audiences want flawed, edgy anti-heroes as opposed to antiquated, invincible “supermen.”
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This week on The Steve Austin Show, Stone Cold gave his reasons for why the WWE needed to pull the trigger on a
Here is what he said:
“I predicted this all along. The kid has got to have a heel run before he’s going to be universally loved because that’s just the way that I see it. I’ve always said that I think the guy needs to be a heel first, but, nonetheless, that’s not my call. That’s the booking committee’s call or Vince [McMahon]’s call.”
Why it will work:
“That’s what’s going to make it fun again because everybody is going to be so onboard with booing him! I’m telling you, once he goes through that process, whether that takes one year, two years, [or] whatever, then, they’re going to end up loving the guy.”
In the strange world of professional wrestling, a character often has to earn the crowd’s admiration by first convincing them to hate him. While some would argue Roman already did that with The Shield, it is only a successful singles run as a heel that can truly gain the crowd’s ultimate respect. The Rock didn’t become the People’s Champ until after his run as a cocky, despisable jerk. Stone Cold didn’t become the baddest S.O.B in the company until after a year of being the most despisable character imaginable. Even John Cena put in his due as an Eminem reject before the crowd warmed up to him.
The biggest reason the WWE Universe wants to see Roman turn heel is that they want to live in a world where superstars react naturally to the crowd. In the golden days of wrestling, a wrestler would respond to boos by telling the crowd that he didn’t need them and it was actually they who sucked. To see a wrestler not acknowledge the angst makes them seem less human and more like puppets whose strings are being pulled from behind the curtain.
It’s clear Roman Reigns has already been pegged as the future of the WWE, and for good reason. But Steve Austin knows that a brief run as heel would set Roman up for an even brighter future as the company’s top babyface.
And that’s the bottom line, because Stone Cold said so!
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