Chris Jericho adores Roman Reigns as a person and recognizes his value as a performer. He’s also an obviously smart pro wrestling mind, so it’s worth listening to him talk about what he believes the issue is with Reigns’ relationship with the fans and what WWE can do about it going forward.
As told to Chris Van Vliet in the video above:
“He’s like a modern day John Cena. For years, fans just boo Cena because they think it’s the cool thing to do but not paying any attention to what he’s really doing. That’s what Roman is now. They just see Roman and instantly start booing because it’s the in thing rather than just shutting up and watching this guy for what he is which is a great performer. And that will come. Obviously maybe if he turned heel... but if he turned heel, all the people that booed him would start cheering him, you know what I mean? So, I think it’s just a matter of time, staying the course. He needs some good, good heels to work with, heels that want to be heels, or can be heels.
”A guy like Samoa Joe, I mean, he’s a big, tough ass kicker who is a great promo. He looks tough. What’s to hate? What’s the heel about Samoa Joe? I’m not saying that in a bad way but dude, I loved Samoa Joe before I ever met him because I just like... that guy he kicks people’s asses. I like that. It’s like Brock Lesnar -- how can you ever cast Brock Lesnar as a heel? He’s a big, giant, ugly guy who beats the hell out of guys and wins all the time. What’s to hate about that?
...
”Honestly, if it was me as a heel, I could get it over. Maybe Miz, like those type of heels. I don’t know if people would buy The Miz in that place, though. But you need some kind of a real cry baby cowardly heel against Roman Reigns. I had an idea that I wanted to do that I pitched to Vince: I wanted to throw a fireball in his eyes and blind him. An old school Memphis idea, yeah. But we never did it. But something like that, maybe, would help.”
Try to argue with that, Cagesiders.