Road Dogg Believes WWE Was Right Not To Turn Roman Reigns Heel Earlier
Roman Reigns turned heel several years after fans started booing him, but in the opinion of Road Dogg, WWE did the right thing by waiting.
There were several memorable moments during the rise of Roman Reigns when fans completely rejected him. At the 2015 Royal Rumble, WWE brought in The Rock to help his cousin Reigns win and the fans booed Roman out of the building.
At WrestleMania 32 in 2016 when Roman Reigns became WWE Champion by beating Triple H in front of the largest crowd in company history, Reigns was booed heavily throughout the match.
On the Raw after WrestleMania 33 in 2017, a night after Reigns beat The Undertaker in the main event when it looked like Taker might retire, Reigns was booed loudly again. The fans hated him as he said “This is my yard now.”
In August 2020, Roman Reigns won the Universal Title in the “Thunderdome Era” of WWE with no fans in attendance due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Reigns was paired with Paul Heyman as he began his run as the Tribal Chief. Over the last three years, Reigns has been praised heavily for being an incredible heel while leaving fans to wonder, what took so long?
As a WWE Hall of Famer and longtime former writer/producer in WWE (he was lead writer on Smackdown in the late 2010s), Road Dogg knows a lot about telling stories, character development and also how WWE Executive Chairman Vince McMahon thinks creatively.
Most fans assume that Vince wanted Roman Reigns as a face because he wanted him to be the next John Cena and no matter how much the fans booed Reigns, Roman was still doing his best to be a good guy.
During a recent episode of his Oh You Didn’t Know podcast, WWE Senior VP Of Live Events Road Dogg explained why the company was right to not turn Roman Reigns heel earlier in his career.
“I think you gotta let stuff sit. You got to let stuff simmer, and I know that’s unpopular in today’s day and age where I can get whatever I want and I can get it right now. But sometimes you got to sit on this and see which way the wind blows, you know what I mean? And like, boy, it blew in the right direction because look where we stand now.
Look where he stands now, as an individual, as a Superstar and the company’s better for having him, you know what I mean? It all speaks volumes to the many that during this time hated Roman, you know what I mean? It speaks volumes to them to go don’t take it so seriously.
Tomorrow’s a new day like we’re going to change things are going to change and be different and whatever you know what I mean.
People hated him, they hated him, and they hate him now but yet everybody in the sold out arena, which there are a lot of them nowadays, acknowledges him on the weekly, you know what I mean? And they listen to every word and they’re hanging on every word and every facial, even in these in ring promos, Holy mackerel, man.
The matches are secondary. Like it’s the acting and the and the writing of the in-ring promos that are award-winning in my [mind], it’s the best I’ve ever seen in wrestling.
And I’ll say that without a shadow of a doubt Roman getting down on his knee and crying and then hitting [the low blow], that hurt my heart when he started crying, because I get that man, I feel that in there with your brothers. They’re his cousins, but they were as tight as brothers that grew up together, they live together and they’re all family in there.
And they’re on top of the wrestling world. And they’re doing this. I could cry in there to be honest with you, I bust out crying.”
Up next for Roman Reigns is a SummerSlam showdown on August 5th against his cousin Jey Uso with Reigns putting the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship on the line in a match where anything goes.