During a recent episode of The Masked Man Show podcast, former WWE creative writter Brian Gewirtz explained why Roman Reigns turned heel and John Cena didn't:
āWhen it came to Roman [Reigns], the model was John [Cena], right? Because there wereĀ plentyĀ of times when the writers would come in and be like, āCan we just turn John heel?ā With the, āLetās go Cena, Cena sucks. Can we do it? Can we pull the trigger?ā And it was something Vince [McMahon] never wanted to do. He considered it, he always considers all ideas but ultimately he didnāt wanna do it and I think in the end he was like, to put it bluntly he was like, āThank God I didnātĀ listenĀ to you,ā as far as turning John heel because John was the standard-bearer and made a ton of money for the company and Make-A-Wish andĀ merchandiseĀ and everything, you know?ā
āIt wasnāt, āLetās go Cena, Cena sucksā with Roman. It was pretty heavily boos even if youād always get the reports from the live events and it would be like, āOh, the crowd popped for the finish and they popped on his entrance and yeah, there was aĀ sectionĀ of people booing but blah, blah, blah.ā At some point, obviously thatĀ mindsetĀ of, āWe gotta keep Roman babyface, we gotta keep John Cena babyfaceā shifted and in this particular case, itās like similar to when [Hulk] Hogan turned heel in WCW. Itās like that was the right move to make and teaming him with Paul [Heyman], that essentially established it.ā
āDo you remember that time where he was a tweener where heās like, āIām not a good guy, Iām not a bad guy, Iām just THE guyā and it was neither here nor there in terms of what he was supposed to be. Itās like you come down with Paul Heyman and you just ā again, itās all about commitment and you commit to being a heel, thatās gonna have such a more highly effective way to convey that character than just kind of, āLet the audience decide.ā Sometimes, we need to decide and kind of plant the flag in the ground and let the audience react to it. So, Iām so happy for Roman to be able to be a heel now and thrive like that because youāre seeing it, heās loving every second of it, you could tell. At least that is what it seems like.ā
Thanks to PostWrestling.com for the transcription.