5 Times Roman Reigns could have turned heel in WWE
Roman Reigns is currently off WWE programming due to a high health risk as a result of his leukemia. And it seems like the company is taking him off everybody's minds as well, not even mentioning the Big Dog's name on RAW or SmackDown. Hopefully, that helps to boost Reigns' WWE return, whenever that may be.
He might slot right into the Universal Championship picture, as he was originally planned to walk out of WrestleMania with the title. And despite the increased crowd support since his return from fighting leukemia last year, there will likely be some negative reaction to a potential Universal Title victory for Roman Reigns.
WWE had the solution to all of the boos for The Big Dog at the palm of their hands, especially since they were hell-bent on making him the face of the company. They just needed to turn him heel.
Why should Roman Reigns have turned heel?
Now, a Roman Reigns heel turn wouldn't work anymore because he literally returned after fighting cancer. He will always remain a babyface for that reason. But WWE failed to make him an effective babyface before then, feeding him some bad promos and cringe-worthy jokes that turned the fans against him.
And due to the fans going against The Big Dog, they missed a huge opportunity by failing to turn him into a bad guy to rebuild his goodwill amongst the WWE Universe.
A temporary character change would have given Reigns more freedom to express himself and considering his solid promo skills, it would have brought the fans on his side. A spike in popularity as a heel would have helped him greatly as it did to The Rock and 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin.
Roman Reigns has had a couple of heelish moments in WWE, evidently enjoying himself while doing so. However, he hasn't turned heel completely since The Shield broke up in 2014. WWE should have countered the negative reaction to him by allowing him to be a villain.
They had several opportunities to do so as well, between his two WrestleMania matches against Brock Lesnar, in 2015 and 2018. Here are five times WWE could have turned Roman Reigns heel.
#5 Right after WrestleMania 31
Fans have been clamoring for Roman Reigns to turn heel ever since WWE messed up on his rise to the main-event scene. Their biggest misstep came in the 2015 Royal Rumble match, as crowd favorite Daniel Bryan was dumped out early in an attempt to get the crowd behind The Big Dog.
It went terribly wrong, as the Philadelphia crowd booed the entire remainder of the Rumble match. Their boos were especially directed towards Roman Reigns. Even The Rock could not save the day, as he was booed out of the building when he raised his cousin's hand.
Reigns still had a WrestleMania match against Brock Lesnar and questionable build-up aside, it was a brilliant match. When it looked like he would manage to beat The Beast and win the WWE Championship, Seth Rollins cashed in his Money in the Bank contract and escaped 'Mania with the title.
The "heist of the century", along with the fans booing him so vigorously could have caused Roman Reigns to snap and turn heel. WWE would have been smart to do that as an attempt to cleanse his character from the horrible jokes and the Royal Rumble win he failed to recover from.
It would have made for a good redemption story for Reigns as well, with him finally earning the fans' support en route to beating Brock Lesnar at the next WrestleMania to win the WWE Title.