Stone Cold Steve Austin is in the club that believes Roman Reigns needs a heel run.
Right now WWE is trying like all hell to make Roman Reigns the top babyface of the company, but as we’ve seen for the better part of the last year, it’s simply just not working. Over the course of the last few months wrestling fans have called for Reigns to turn heel to freshen his character up, and we thought it might be coming back at Survivor Series. It never did, however, and they’ve stayed the course with him ever since.
Casual fans aren’t the only ones who believe that Reigns needs a solid heel run before he can be the top man in the company, though. No, none other than Stone Cold Steve Austin is on that train as well.
During the latest edition of his podcast, Austin had this to say about the eventual success of Roman.
"“I predicted this all along. The kid has got to have a heel run before he’s going to be universally loved because that’s just the way that I see it.” Austin admitted, “I’ve always said that I think the guy needs to be a heel first, but, nonetheless, that’s not my call. That’s the booking committee’s call or Vince [McMahon]’s call.”"
You’re not gonna find a lot of people who will argue that sentiment from Austin right there. Especially fans who have watched wrestling for a long time know that Reigns, much like The Rock in 1997, needs to turn to the dark side for a while before everyone will truly embrace him as the company’s top babyface and draw.
But, like Austin also said there, that’s not up to any of us, or even Reigns himself. Ultimately that decision comes down to Vince, who seems to have no intention of turning Reigns anytime soon.
(h/t Wrestling Inc.)