When the WWE has Roman Reigns battle The Undertaker at WrestleMania 33 , the former big man from The Shield might hear more boos than he has at any time in his WWE career. He is already polarizing, with a large portion of the audience booing him each week while women and kids cheer him as a hero. However, The Undertaker is one of the most beloved superstars in the WWE and fans won’t turn on him at this point in his career.
Some WWE fans have fantasy booked a Roman Reigns heel turn when it comes to his match at WrestleMania 33 against The Undertaker. However, Cageside Seats reports that there are no plans at all for a Roman Reigns heel turn.
“There are still no plans for a proper Roman Reigns heel turn, even with the Undertaker match at WrestleMania .”
The reason that the WWE won’t pull the trigger on the Roman Reigns heel turn is all because of money. While there are very vocal fans who boo Roman every time he comes to the ring, there are just as many who cheer him at every turn. It is the same reaction that John Cena receives everytime he shows up.
Kevin Owens recently said that his ultimate goal in the WWE is to get the same polarizing reaction that John Cena and Roman Reigns gets. As Owens said, it is more interesting than just getting booed or cheered by fans and means you are connecting on a larger level.
To prove this, WWE insider Dave Meltzer said that the boos from vocal fans have not slowed down the popularity of Roman Reigns. Meltzer posted on Twitter that the last numbers he heard had Roman in the Top 5 when it came to merchandise sales . He was top three ranked in merchandise sales in 2015.
A Roman Reigns heel turn would mean a drop in merchandise sales. Sure, there would be WWE fans who would buy a heel’s merchandise but nowhere near the level of a face like John Cena, Roman Reigns, New Day, or Enzo & Big Cass.
Interestingly, Roman Reigns offers huge value as a face for the WWE regardless of the people booing him at televised events. The tweet of his entrance at the Royal Rumble event was shared 6,321 times compared to the second biggest tweet sharing the Tye Dillinger entrance 1,700 times.
YouTube is also a huge indication of how popular a WWE superstar is. The video of Roman Reigns attacking Triple H in March 2016 has 23.8 million views. The Monday Night Raw match that saw Roman Reigns in a “One vs. All” match in January 2016 received 17.9 million views. Out of all the videos that the WWE released in 2016, Roman was the focus of six of the 10 most watched.
The WWE video of Undertaker choke-slamming Roman Reigns on Monday Night Raw this past week has 3.4 million views, second to only Brock Lesnar attacking Bill Goldberg , which has 4.1 million views.
It is also interesting to note that the fans who think Roman Reigns should turn heel against The Undertaker believe that it necessary because Undertaker will be the more popular of the two wrestlers. All fans have to do is look back at the two matches where Undertaker wrestled Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania to see that neither man needs to be a heel to make the match exciting.
Shane McMahon needed to win at Wrestlemania to keep his power in the WWE last year, which gave the fans all the reason in the world to cheer him over Undertaker. It doesn’t matter because fans will cheer Undertaker and also cheer when McMahon put his body on the line. Fans will cheer Undertaker this year but there will still be Roman Reigns fans who also cheer for him as well.
A Roman Reigns heel turn would most definitely make him a more interesting WWE superstar. However, as long as his fans remain in his corner, it won’t happen.
[Featured Image by WWE]