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Roman Reigns’ Financial Failure in WWE as Top Guy Before Heel Turn Compared to John Cena; Deets
Roman Reigns and John Cena have been commercial assets for WWE. But their booking was different and it gave WWE a lesson. Read on to know what it is.
For years to come, there will be an unending debate around who the bigger WWE superstar has been. Roman Reigns or John Cena? While the modern era fans would place their bets on Roman Reigns, the Gen Z fans would side with Cena. And why they shouldn't be. The Cenation leader carried the WWE on his shoulders for nearly a decade, when bigger superstars had left the WWE.
But there is a stark difference in the way the company booked these two. While Cena remained a babyface for his entire WWE career, Roman Reigns was turned into a heel after his babyface run backfired, and the crowd didn’t like it. WWE persisted for nearly 5 years with Reigns, but the crowd would just not buy it.
Cena, being a babyface, was the big merchandise seller for the company, and this is also why he wasn’t ever booked. Wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer, in his latest tweet on X, highlighted how WWE was right about not turning Cena into a heel while it was the opposite case for Reigns.
What did Meltzer say?
Meltzer highlighted the fact that Roman was never a merchandise draw during his entire babyface run, nor was the arena seller. On the other hand, Cena as a face was a huge success in WWE, even matching the merchandise sales of Stone Cold Steve Austin.
Meltzer writes, “Roman wasn't the merch draw Cena was nor the arena draw during that period. If you read my writing, I was begging them to turn Roman, and never did for Cena. They were two totally different issues. Cena was a huge success as a face, the biggest since the glory days, Roman was not.”
Meltzer said that he implored the WWE to turn Roman Reigns heel because his face run was outright rejected by the fans. He backed himself for never pitching a heel turn for Cena because he was commercially viable for the company.
Roman Reigns’ run as heel
When the ‘Big Dog’ returned as a heel to the company in 2020 at SummerSlam, he was warmly accepted. On top of that, aligning with Paul Heyman added more magic to Roman Reign’s character. Since then, he has been hustling in his role, prolonging his WWE Championship run to nearly 1,316 days. He lost it to Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania 40. But even then, though he hasn’t been around, there have been Roman Reigns chants in WWE. Now, the fans are eagerly waiting for his return.
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