{"id":57295,"date":"2018-03-28T14:04:17","date_gmt":"2018-03-28T19:04:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=57295"},"modified":"2018-03-28T14:04:17","modified_gmt":"2018-03-28T19:04:17","slug":"editorial-latest-media-interview-with-reigns-reveals-another-reason-hes-just-not-good-fit-to-be-a-top-babyface","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2018\/03\/28\/editorial-latest-media-interview-with-reigns-reveals-another-reason-hes-just-not-good-fit-to-be-a-top-babyface\/","title":{"rendered":"EDITORIAL: Latest media interview with Reigns reveals another reason he&#8217;s just not good fit to be a top babyface"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-3616009809\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p>Can we face the facts, WWE? Your top babyface in the company gets a stronger heel reaction than your top heel in the company. At this point, I don\u2019t know that there are any heels in WWE who have true heat, other than, maybe, Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens. Even so, those guys are still rather beloved bad guys. Maybe Tommaso Ciampa is on his way to becoming a true heel down in NXT, but fans still have those proverbial smiles on their faces as he snatches their signs and rips them up in their faces. No, in the modern era, I have yet to see any truly angry fans threatening to jump the barricade at any heels like they did with Shawn Michaels in the late-&#8217;90s. However, I do see that kind of angry fan spark with WWE\u2019s top babyface. His name is, you guessed it, Roman Reigns.<\/p>\n<p>This Frankenstein experiment has just gone on long enough. There isn\u2019t a thing WWE can do, okay?<br \/>\nLately, I\u2019ve noticed some fans of WWE hoping that, just because Roman cuts one good promo on Brock Lesnar, Roman is on his way to becoming universally liked and, even, cheered. I was one of those fans. For a while, I was rooting for Roman to get over. I went against the grain of hatred for Roman. Why not? The guy has the look and athleticism necessary to be a megastar. But, I recently had a revelation. I\u2019m here to tell you it\u2019s not going to happen for Roman Reigns as a babyface.<\/p>\n<p>I hate to be ruthless here, but I\u2019m facing the facts. Listening to Roman talking on an episode of the Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast, I felt no attraction to him as a guy that I want to root for. When talking about his shortcomings in pro football, Roman stated, \u201cI wanted to be, like, a man of influence, somebody you could say, \u2018Oh yeah, he\u2019s a role model! Or, a superstar!\u2019\u2026 somebody that is a bit of a household name. I felt like I had that in me.\u201d To me, this didn\u2019t sound like something a modest good guy would say. I would think Daniel Bryan would just want to wrestle. I would think The Undertaker would just want to wrestle. I would think &#8220;Stone Cold&#8221; Steve Austin would just want to wrestle. But, Roman Reigns wants to be glorified in households. Even if that\u2019s something a wrestler wants for himself, that\u2019s not something you publically say if you\u2019re trying to get over as a babyface. Am I wrong? Do people respect someone who just wants fame?<\/p>\n<p>There is a reason Daniel Bryan and the \u201cYes Movement\u201d are over to a tremendous ovation from fans. The guy is modest, determined, talented, modest, and, most of all, modest. He\u2019s even modest too! Can we say the same for Roman Reigns? Well, history tells us we can\u2019t, unfortunately. During that same interview on the Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast, Roman not only paints himself as a man worthy of praise and glory, but he also even mentions that he was better than his teammates during his CFL career. There\u2019s a reason people don\u2019t like Tom Brady, folks, just like there\u2019s a reason people don\u2019t like Roman Reigns. It all boils down to modesty. It\u2019s even evident in the way he carries himself. It seems like he truly thinks he\u2019s the best in this line of work, just like he did in pro football. This is a great trait to have as a heel, but WWE is intent on making him their glorified babyface.<\/p>\n<p>I know the WWE isn&#8217;t trying to paint Roman Reigns as squeaky clean and all. They want him to be more edgy like Stone Cold. It\u2019s even more obvious lately with the whole thing about Brock Lesner supposedly being Vince McMahon\u2019s \u201cboy\u201d as well as the law enforcement\u2019s arresting of Roman. It\u2019s all way too familiar.<\/p>\n<p>The problem with this is that the character of Stone Cold was being played by Steve Austin. A character like that doesn\u2019t do as well if he\u2019s played by anyone else. Chris Jericho even stated on Austin\u2019s WWE career documentary, \u201cThe things he did, the choices he made, the little nuances he added put that character over, nobody could\u2019ve played that character like he did.\u201d A Stone Cold character needs someone who fits that mold, like Steve Austin. An Undertaker character needs someone to fit that mold, like Mark Calaway. Those guys are able to be edgy babyfaces and get away with it because they can somehow execute it in a way that relates to the fans.<\/p>\n<p>WWE needs to face the facts with the Roman Reigns character. He\u2019s played by a man who carries himself as an alpha in a heelish manner, whether he realizes it or not. In my high school, no one actually liked our star quarterback because he carried himself like he was above everyone else and cocky. There\u2019s a difference between being cocky and being confident. Even if you are good at what you do, if you\u2019re cocky about it, people aren\u2019t going to get behind you.<\/p>\n<p>Roman talks himself up more than he puts his peers over, and by peers I also mean the WWE fans. Every successful babyface who ever lived has included the fans and acknowledged them as a good source of strength for his or her being one of the best. Roman never does this. Granted, he would probably get booed out of the building if he did, but even if he just acknowledged the niche market of fans, like children, that would help him quite a bit, I think.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-3517186495\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>The guy doesn\u2019t even have a nice catchphrase. Bryan has the \u201cYES!\u201d chant, Austin has \u201cGimme a hell yeah!\u201d, and The Undertaker has \u201cRest in Peace.\u201d Roman\u2019s catchphrase is one that he actually stole from The Undertaker, one of the greatest of all time, and it doesn\u2019t work for him at this early point in his career. The reason the phrase worked so well with The Undertaker when he debuted it was because Taker had been an established megastar for around ten years. Roman has only been in the spotlight for about three years, maybe four. Nevertheless, no true wrestling fan is going to respond positively to Roman claiming the wrestling ring is his yard when we live in a world inhabited by the likes of Kenny Omega, A.J. Styles, Kazuchika Okada, Daniel Bryan, etc. The list goes on.<\/p>\n<p>So, could Roman Reigns ever be accepted as a great babyface in WWE? If you ask me, the facts are all there. He just doesn\u2019t have that genuine good-guy nature about him that could make it work. Based on his real-life interviews, he still comes off as a bit arrogant and full of his own you know what. Do you know what all those ingredients make a recipe for? A solid heel. If he goes heel, I don\u2019t think he should ever go babyface again. He has a true quality for not being liked. I really don\u2019t like to sound brash or sound like I hate the guy. I don\u2019t hate Roman Reigns. I just don\u2019t see a likeable character in him. I relate him too much to the jerky high school jocks that I grew up resenting.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s time for WWE to face the facts. The Frankenstein\u2019s monster that is a babyface Roman Reigns needs to pull that lever and blow it all to atoms. How long can this really go on? Here\u2019s to hoping Lesner vs. Roman doesn\u2019t kill the WrestleMania main event.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>You can contribute a guest editorial for consideration. Send to <a href=\"mailto:pwtorch@pwtorch.com\">pwtorch@pwtorch.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>NOW CHECK OUT THIS RECENT ARTICLE:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2018\/03\/24\/nxt-tracker-the-street-profits-assessing-and-predicting-the-prospects-of-nxt-wrestlers-main-roster-future\/\">NXT TRACKER \u2013 The Street Profits: Assessing and predicting the prospects of NXT wrestlers\u2019 main roster future<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-3393435533\"><div id=\"pwtor-2705524107\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Can we face the facts, WWE? Your top babyface in the company gets a stronger heel reaction than your top heel in the company. At this point, I don\u2019t know that there are any heels <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2018\/03\/28\/editorial-latest-media-interview-with-reigns-reveals-another-reason-hes-just-not-good-fit-to-be-a-top-babyface\/\" title=\"EDITORIAL: Latest media interview with Reigns reveals another reason he&#8217;s just not good fit to be a top babyface\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1859,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opnionandanalysis","category-guesteditorials"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Reigns_3x2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57295"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57415,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57295\/revisions\/57415"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}