#5 He will become the wrong sort of heel
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The Babyface/Heel dynamic just isn’t what it used to be back in the Hogan era, partly due to the after effects of Attitude era talents like Stone Cold and The Rock. Saying the things a babyface would normally say is no guarantee you’ll get over as one.
It might even be more accurate to say that the WWE has ‘those the fans like’ and ‘those they don’t’, regardless of what their character does – this is the new babyface/heel dynamic. In this sense, Roman is already a pretty effective heel – fans love to boo him and want to see him lose matches.
If you turned him heel now, one of two things would happen and neither of them would be desirable:
He could either just become a de-facto babyface, with fans cheering for him in order to be subversive, much like they boo him now even though they are supposed to cheer. In the long run, I guess this could help, as it will be easier to transition him back to a babyface in the future.
However, there’s always the possibility that the same thing will happen and the guy will just have a very long and awkward career where he consistently gets the wrong reactions.
The second option is that because his mic skills are too limited to get people to hate him, he becomes the wrong sort of heel and receives the much dreaded ‘X-Pac heat’ (or Stephanie McMahon heat, as a modern day example). This is where fans boo you because they just want you to go away, they’re not even interested in seeing you get your comeuppance anymore.
It’s a very subtle difference in terms of reaction, but you can really tell. This would be disastrous for all involved. Roman would probably never be able to become a babyface ever again, and the babyfaces working with him wouldn’t get much of a rub either. Being an awkward babyface is much better than being an awkward heel – just ask Sheamus or Batista!
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