WWE.com Roman Reigns on Monday Night Raw.
UPDATE: On the July 10th episode of Monday Night Raw, it seemed fairly clear that Roman Reigns has not fully turned heel. For one, not only did Kurt Angle not discipline him; he actually put Roman Reigns in a match to determine the number one contender for the Universal Championship. In a segment, Roman argued somewhat convincingly that what he did was not any more extreme than what ocurred in the attitude era. And on commentary, Booker T defended Roman, saying that Roman did exactly what he was going to do. No other commentators were that negative about Roman, simply suggesting that he had taken things too far but not painting him as a straight up heel.
At WWE’s Great Balls of Fire pay-per-view, Roman Reigns may have finally turned heel. This, at least, is how many viewers are interpreting the end of Reigns’ match and backstage segment with Braun Strowman. After being defeated fair and square, Reigns tried to straight up murder his opponent on live television. So was this a heel turn or not?
Those who believe that Roman turned heel tonight point to the commentary as their primary argument. The WWE commentators talked about what Roman Reigns did in somber voices and acted concerned about Braun Strowman’s condition. At no point did they attempt to justify what Roman did to Strowman or chalk it up to The Big Dog proving that this is his yard like they typically do. When Roman retired The Undertaker, a beloved icon of wrestling, some fans thought this would cement his heel turn, but the commentary team hyped this up as Roman being dominant; tonight, they sounded quite different.
The way the segment was talked about on Raw Talk afterwards also did indicate that viewers are meant to look at Roman in a somewhat negative light now, or at least look at his actions at Great Balls of Fire that way. Peter Rosenberg said on the show that Roman is now “completely unhinged.” Renee Young agreed, saying, “I could not believe that he did this.”
Finally, take a look at the language used to describe this event by WWE.com. The homepage of the website describes the events of Great Balls of Fire by saying, “Reigns snaps and nearly destroys Strowman in horrific ambulance crash.” In addition, the preview for Monday Night Raw states, “Reigns took things way too far by crashing the ambulance into another vehicle with The Monster Among Men in the back in the aftermath of their contest…” It goes on to say that Kurt Angle will likely “be ready to hold The Guy accountable rather than reward him with a title match at The Biggest Party of the Summer. ”
This would be what’s known in wrestling as a double turn, when a face turns heel and a heel turns face at the same time. Braun Strowman certainly came out of tonight’s segment looking much more sympathetic than ever before, while Roman looked less sympathetic than ever. The show also spent several minutes showing Strowman getting out of the ambulance and refusing help from Kurt Angle, again suggesting that it was important to depict him as someone who was victimized but fought back against all odds, just like a hero does.
But it’s not a sure thing that Roman is a heel now. It seems that once every few months or so, Roman gets a bit too cocky or does something unlikable, and fans become convinced that this is the fabled heel turn, only for him to go back to being a face immediately. Most recently, after WrestleMania 33 and the subsequent episode of Raw, everyone was pretty convinced that Roman had turned heel by retiring The Undertaker and arrogantly declaring that this was his yard. He even stood in the ring for about 10 straight minutes on Raw basking in the audience’s hate and smiling, which the majority of fans interpreted as being the beginning of a heel storyline. But the WWE never ended up following through on this, with Roman continuing to be booked as a face for the subsequent months, and the heat he gained from retiring The Undertaker was not utilized much.
Roman Reigns literally attempting murder is certainly the height of all of this, but there are arguments against the idea that this was a full on heel turn. For one, while the WWE commentary team certainly took what Roman did seriously, they did not fully admonish him. The commentators said that Roman had lost it, but they never said anything about him being a sore loser; they just seemed to feel that he went too far, something that faces can do while remaining faces.
Even on Raw Talk, though Renee Young and Peter Rosenberg seemed shocked by what happened, they still talked about Roman differently and in less damning terms than they talked about someone like Big Cass, who they said has a “chip on his shoulder.” Nothing like this was said about Roman, and one would imagine that if Roman were to fully turn heel, it would be pretty obvious, and Renee Young would say on Raw Talk that what he did was horrible. Even the WWE.com description of the night’s events is somewhat favorable to Roman; instead of saying something about how Roman just couldn’t handle a loss, for example, the recap said, “The Monster Among Men quickly closed the door to earn the win, but Reigns, to borrow his rival’s old phrase, wasn’t finished with his opponent. ”
Plus, a key part of this is the fact that Braun Strowman attacked Roman Reigns in a similar fashion a few months ago, so it’s not as if Roman Reigns went after someone innocent out of nowhere; the argument could be made that he was getting his revenge, not being a sore loser, and that’s likely the argument that will be made on air if Roman remains a face. Finally, there are plenty of examples in WWE history of a face seemingly trying to murder a heel but remaining a face, like when Shane McMahon essentially tried to kill Kane during their feud by rigging a limo to drive straight into a semi-trailer truck.
For what it’s worth, Dave Meltzer reported on Wrestling Observer Radio today that he asked around backstage about whether Roman had turned heel, and no one would give him an answer.
“I do not have the answer, and I’ve asked, and I’ve kind of gotten riddles back,” Meltzer reported.
Meltzer personally was not convinced that Roman Reigns is a heel now, but he was pretty convinced that Braun Strowman is a babyface after Great Balls of Fire.
“They’re trying to make Braun Strowman into a babyface monster, I think…” Meltzer said.
While some read Roman Reigns’ actions as the actions of a heel, then, right now everything’s still pretty up in the air, and it all depends on how things are handled on July 10th’s episode of Monday Night Raw.