What if Roman Reigns Works?

>>2273217
He is working. He's not a babyface, he's a meta-heel spokesperson, readily flaunted to the media with his marketable look, and used to antagonize "internet fans".

>>2273217
There's a way to make Roman workable, and it's not what they're doing now. They need to introduce a monster heel and have Roman squashed by him - just absolutely wrecked. Then they need to have him come back and try to take out the monster unsuccessfully - over and over again. Make it an obsession. Force his moveset to evolve. Turn the Superman Punch into the first move in a FMOD instead of the finisher. Turn his personality from (generic wrestledude #109) into someone that almost literally gets high on fighting someone he knows is stronger/better than him.

>>2273217
Meltzer said it perfectly he' not John Cena but they're booking him like Cena. He has got the look and decent mic skills just lacks the charisma and wit of Cena, Punk or Dwayne

>>2273232
But that is literally what they're doing with him and Strowman.

I mean, even after a match last night, AND getting surprised by a run in, AND getting superman punched twice, he still flattened Roman with one (1) Davey Boy Powerslam when Roman attempted the spear.

>>2273232
That could work. Personally, I always thought he'd work as a Triple H type heel. Fans who didn't think he deserved to be in the main event as soon as he was, and resented how strong he was pushed because the people backstage love him. Sounds familiar. Have Roman be a heel, go on a reign of terror, then tear his quad so he has to be off of TV for months. Bring him back as a big deal.
I mean, I guess you don't have to injure him but I'm having fun with this.

>>2273243
WWE do that a lot. They wanted another Hogan, so they turned Luger into Hogan. When that didn't work they turned Diesel into Hogan. When Cena got over as a main eventer they took all the edge out of his character to pull him closer to Hulk Hogan. Every now and then they decide to try building different guys, like Ultimate Warrior and Randy Savage, but then give up on them and go back to their Hogan because they've only ever really wanted Hogan.

>>2273285
I've always seen the modern top babyface mold as being more akin to the Rock.

>>2273217
He's a heel
they showed last night that Jericho and Owens were faces all along by having KO heel turn
it was all a long term work to cement Jericho as a face, KO as a heel, and Roman made sure JeriKO was always cheered on despite cheating.

He's booked fine. He can still sell a bunch of merch now, as his character isn't a heel, but they are booking him like a heel already. They weren't expecting him to get cheered when he came out at #30 and eliminated Undercarder.

Record high revenue

You can argue they may sell more if he was booked to 100% cheers but it's a moot ppint

RECORD
HIGH

>>2273351
Roman reportedly doesn't sell that much Merch. There are a dozen wrestlers in the company on par with him, and other acts like The New Day which outsell him.

>>2273368
Record high revenue because they have a record high TV deal. Almost all other areas of business are doing poorly or not growing, but their massive TV deal is covering it up. Unless Roman is the only reason why WWE hasn't been cancelled, he's got nothing to do with it. Which is sad, because he's got the talent to be doing more for the company if they handle him properly.

>>2273217
I don't hate him because he sucks. I hate him for not reaching the potential he has. He needs better mic skills. He needs new music. He needs to drop the Samoa bullshit. He needs a new angle. His work is miles better than what he started with. I don't even want to hate him. But the more they push it, the more I will fight it.

>>2273415
>Roman reportedly doesn't sell that much Merch
Is there any place to go to actually see numbers on this?

>>2273443
It was on a Wrestling Observer Radio in between November of last year and January this year (also various bits of info between late 2014 and now). He's a strong merch seller, usually 3rd or second highest, but they've got more people with strong merch numbers than they did a year ago. The gap is pretty small. Obviously Cena is still number 1 by a wide margin. But Reigns, New Day, Bayley, Ambrose, AJ Styles all sell pretty close numbers. Seth Rollins was big for a while when he returned, but he's not consistently high. There are a few other names that were big merch sellers for a more short-term deal like Rollins, but I can't remember them right now.

>>2273535
Not that any of this matters. Vince believes he's a massive draw, and that turning him heel will ruin everything like turning Stone Cold did. As long as Vince believes something is true, it doesn't matter what the numbers are.