Roman Reigns has established himself as the leader of the locker and the poster boy for the WWE. His heel turn has taken the WWE by storm which fans were eager to see for a long time.
For nearly more than four years, the fans wanted Roman Reigns to be a bad guy. Due to the reluctance of the WWE management to turn Reigns heel, the fans booed Reigns while being pushed as a baby face. Reigns took a leave of absence during the initial months of the coronavirus pandemic to spend time with his family. When he returned as Summerslam 2020, he turned heel and went on to capture the Universal Championship in a triple threat match against The “Fiend” Bray Wyatt and Braun Strowman a week later at Payback.
Great timing, @WWERomanReigns. #WWEPayback @HeymanHustle pic.twitter.com/GeeFGzOb1b
— WWE (@WWE) August 31, 2020
Roman Reigns has been more compelling as a bad guy than a babyface in his current run as the Head of the Table. Reigns had reportedly wanted to turn heel a long time ago. He discussed in an interview with Ryan Satin of Fox Sports that he had to convince WWE to let him turn heel and said that the pandemic was the best time to do so.
Roman Reigns was presented as a top babyface in his initial singles run. He was probably the most hated babyface ever. John Cena was another wrestler who was “polarizing” in his own way but his rise to the top of WWE stardom was widely respected, admired and accepted by the fans. The initial problem with Roman Reigns was the forceful push to be the good guy when fans were clearly not interested. Vince McMahon realized that he couldn’t do the same thing with Reigns what he did with John Cena.
In the same interview with Ryan Satin, he explained that his wish to be a heel had been there since the days of the Shield. He added that Seth Rollins should have been the one to be the babyface while he should have been the heel of the group. Roman Reigns is having the run of his lifetime with Paul Heyman and he seems set for the main event of his sixth WrestleMania appearance.
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