What if Elias replaces Roman Reigns as the face of Raw?
It was a shocking turn when Roman Reigns announced that he needed to vacate the Universal Championship and walk away from WWE.
Reigns had been built up to be the face of the company, headlining WrestleManias and other major shows, besides being booked to defeat other top-tier stars throughout the company. There was no indication from the booking that WWE intended to de-push Reigns, or that the company had prepared in advance for him to be away.
Real life intervened, though, and as Reigns grapples with leukaemia, WWE is left to soldier forward without him.
In an unlikely turn of events, Elias turned face on the same episode of Raw when Reigns announced his time away. There was little to foreshadow this turn, and the early word from the rumor mill was that his, and some other key face turns of late, were built in to compensate for characters like Bobby Lashley and Dean Ambrose turning heel, besides making up for Reigns’s absence.
But what if WWE were going a step further, and actually replacing Reigns with Elias as their top star, at least for the time being? This article speculates about what that might mean.
5. More songs about heels
Elias has largely made a name for himself built on singing original songs about whatever city WWE is performing in. Typically, the model is used to produce heat by poking at local landmarks or sports teams, or else more generically throwing the city’s name into the song’s lyrics. The gimmick is noteworthy if only for the trust WWE has demonstrated in its musical star, reportedly giving him a longer leash on the mic than most any other star of his standing to write his own material.
Picking on cities wouldn’t fit a face character, instead, singing kindly about different locales runs the risk of coming across as pandering, and thus uncool. However, turning Elias’s derision and wit toward the heel Superstars he is opposing could make sense as a way of presenting Elias as cool and lending him an unconventional spin on his wrestling promos to build rivalries.