Ah, yet another Roman Reigns piece, you must all be throwing your fists up in the air with pure jubilation right now. The Big Dog has been on quite the journey over the course of the last month, with both his personal and professional life dealing him some interesting hands as far as his progress is concerned.
From defeating The Undertaker at WrestleMania 33 to dealing with the death of his brother, the fans deserve to cut Roman some slack after what he’s been through, lately. In fact, if anything they should probably be cheering him because all of the signs is pointing towards the former WWE Champion having finally turned heel after all this time.
Some of you may think that’s a crazy statement, but wouldn’t it be so typical of WWE to pull a stunt like this gradually as opposed to turning him in one big moment at Mania? They’ve done it several times before in the past, and there’s a chance that this could even just be Vince testing the waters before Roman loses it and brutally attacks a babyface. We can all dream, right?
With that being said, here are five hints that Roman Reigns has turned heel.
#1 Promo with Angle
On this week’s edition of Monday Night Raw, which quite a few of these entries will be based around, Reigns showed a side of himself that we haven’t seen in quite some time during his promo with Kurt Angle. After the Raw GM declared there to be a fatal five-way number one contender’s match, The Big Dog decided to let Kurt know how he felt about that decision.
Roman said that there was no need for a number one contender’s match because he was the rightful owner of that title following his attack on Braun Strowman. During this, he delivered his message in quite a sinister and heelish way, and it doesn’t seem very heroic for a babyface to turn down the opportunity to prove himself in a match.
He’s not finished with you yet, sir.
#2 Strowman attack package
The video package that summed up Roman’s attack on Braun may well have been done to make him come across as a heroic good guy, but in reality, everything about it felt off. The timing, the music and the portrayal of the beatdown all made it seem like Roman had gone to a place he’d never been to before – and that there was no way back.
Reigns' whole demeanour seemed off from the start, and it's rare that we see this side of him. The way it was built up felt like they were trying to send a message to the fans when it comes to his alignment, and if that’s the case it’ll be extremely interesting to see how Braun is presented upon his eventual return.
The Demon King cometh.
#3 Balor match
There’s no doubt about it – Roman was wrestling as the heel during his match with Finn Balor. From the overly aggressive kicks to the way he was throwing Finn around, Roman came across as a bit of a bully during this and it was summed up perfectly with the finish of the bout.
Roman pulling away Finn’s foot from the top rope doesn’t really feel like something a babyface would do, with the commentators even playing up the idea that it was a desperate move on his part. That may not mean much and Vince might still be conflicted on which way to go with him, but there was definitely something different about him here.
Here comes The Beast.
#4 Lesnar plans
The initial plan for Great Balls of Fire seems to have been Braun Strowman vs Brock Lesnar in a match for the Universal Championship. Whilst alignments don’t necessarily come into play here it’s clear that Braun would’ve been the heel in this situation, meaning that Lesnar would’ve continued in the direction of a face turn.
If they want to keep those plans in place, which is likely, then surely Roman taking Braun’s place in the match would make him the heel of the situation? Of course, there’s no guarantee that he’ll walk away from the fatal five-way as the winner but if you look at the other four competitors, they’ll probably divide up into Rollins-Joe and Balor-Wyatt feuds following Extreme Rules.
Now onto a slightly more serious topic...
#5 Rosey interview
A few months prior to his unfortunate death, Reigns’ brother and former WWE superstar Rosey took part in an interview where he discussed all things pro wrestling. When asked about his brother and how he’s getting on right now, Rosey had some interesting things to say about the former WWE Champion.
He claimed that he’d love for Roman to turn heel as he thought that he’d excel in the role. Now that isn’t concrete evidence that the company are going through with it, but there’s a chance that Reigns asked for the character shift up in order to honour what his brother originally desired.
