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In part 2 of his conversation with Sportskeeda, Kevin Sullivan spoke about the current state of wrestling and how he'd book Roman Reigns.
Q: Just after the fall of WCW, professional wrestling fans didn't have too many alternatives apart from Raw and SmackDown. With the likes of NJPW, ROH, Lucha Underground and others putting on a good product today, do you think this is a boom period of sorts for the industry?
A: WWE just drew a sellout crowd of 60,000 in Saudi Arabia. Professional wrestling is a part of mainstream popular culture. CNN and other outlets just covered John Cena's break-up with Nikki Bella while The Rock's movies are usually number one at the box office.
All these promotions you mentioned have great young talent coming through. If the young guys have a successful show with All In outside of Chicago, a lot of young wrestlers could try and do the same thing. I really believe this could be the next boom period after the last boom period of Steve Austin and the NWO.
Q: People such as Lance Storm and Jim Cornette have said that the hotshotting during the Monday Night Wars had an adverse effect in the ensuing years. As someone who was front and centre with WCW during that period of time, do you agree with this school of thought?
I don't think there was too much hotshotting. For me, hotshotting is when you can't follow it, and at that time, both promotions followed it week after week. Right now, the problem is people get offended by so many different things and you have to be very careful with some of the things you can say.
WWE is trying to cater to everybody and, I mean, everybody. At WrestleMania, they had a 10-year-old win the Raw tag titles and the next match had a lot of blood. I think they need to go back, not to the Monday Night Wars, but go back and bring back some believability to the product.
Since WWE is a publicly traded company, they have to be very careful with what they do. I think this gives the other companies a bit of a leg up. Unfortunately, some of them are trying to be WWE-lite. Another problem WWE has is having to produce 5 hours of television which is incredibly challenging.
Q: At the Greatest Royal Rumble, Roman Reigns failed to capture the Universal title from Brock Lesnar. Even though he isn't over and hasn't connected with the audience, Vince McMahon appears to be determined to push Reigns. If you had the book at WWE, what would you have done with the Shield member?
I would have him come out and cut a promo in his own words, not a scripted one, telling the people exactly how he feels about the way they receive him. I would make his character more true to the person and give him a bit of an edge.
I watched the highlights of the Greatest Royal Rumble. They thought that the people would cheer him in Saudi Arabia, but that didn't happen because he's been forced down their throat. I can't tell you from watching the television who he really is.
If they had some good vignettes with him and gave him an edge, it wouldn't matter if the people booed him. He just needs to get a reaction and make people want to watch him wrestle.
Before Steve Austin became the great anti-hero who didn't take nonsense from anybody, he was a villain. If they took the same path with Roman, I think he could still become a top babyface.
