Vince McMahon waited a long time to turn Roman Reigns heel
The WWE Universe likes Roman Reigns. But it’s pretty conditional. He was actively rejected by the fans when he was a babyface.
His long-awaited heel turn was just never coming. That was until his return to WWE at SummerSlam last year.
Speaking on The Masked Man Show (h/t Ringside News), former WWE writer Brian Gewirtz revealed why Vince McMahon waited so long to turn ‘The Tribal Chief’ heel.
He stated that it was because the boss saw Reigns as the face of the promotion, just like John Cena was.
Gewirtz mentioned that just like Cena, Reigns was pushed to be the babyface despite the fans’ wishes.
“When it came to Roman [Reigns], the model was John [Cena], right? Because there were plenty of times when the writers would come in and be like, ‘Can we just turn John heel?’ With the, ‘Let’s go Cena, Cena sucks. Can we do it? Can we pull the trigger?’ And it was something Vince [McMahon] never wanted to do.”
There was a time when McMahon had a similar decision to make with John Cena. He stuck to his guns then, and Cena was wildly successful as the promotion’s face.
This same feeling held McMahon back from turning Reigns heel. Nevertheless, ‘The Big Dog’ turned heel. And what a decision that has turned out to be.
Reigns is on the best run of his career and is head and shoulders above any talent on SmackDown. His run as the WWE Universal champion seems unstoppable as his rivalry against Kevin Owens continues.
In hindsight, it is understandable that Vince would want to push Reigns as a face but his wild success as a heel would probably make him realize that turning him was one of the best decisions that the company has made in recent times.
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