During a recent interview with Wrestling Inc, WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross was asked how he would book The Undertaker vs. Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 33. JR feels Reigns should win in a heelish way and below is what he said:
“Well, the smart answer is, ‘where are you going with it?’ If you’re trying to make Reigns and you make a commitment to make him a villain, let’s say, and I know WWE doesn’t like to have this dialogue much because they seem to be very hellbent that he’s going to be their next big fan favorite star. I can help you get to the next big fan favorite star scenario. It’s very easy. You let him turn heel blatantly with a cheat-to-win move, low blowish-type thing, against Undertaker and beat Undertaker, so you cheat to beat the great Undertaker at WrestleMania.
So I would probably beat Undertaker with Reigns via heel shenanigans, cheating to gain an unfair advantage to beat The Deadman and then I would stick a microphone in Reigns’ face and tell him to be very natural, very arrogant, very cocky, ‘I told you this is my yard. It is my yard and nobody here can do a damn thing about it’ type of thing, ‘and if you guys don’t like it, you can kiss my ass. How’s that?’ Something better said than that, but make him very defiant because the longer that reign is, that run is, more specifically as a villain, when he finally turns, and it’s certainly inevitable, he will be then that massive fan favorite that WWE has tried so strenuously to sell.
To me, as a former booker person and administrator, my obligation is to make sure Roman Reigns comes out of this match better. I’ve got a 50 year old Superstar that’ll never be replicated, he’s Teflon-proof, in my view. So for Taker to have a match in hand and then lose to a guy cheating, it doesn’t hurt The Taker.
So I’ve got to look to the future and so whether I like where he is now or not, I know what Reigns can be as a top heel. Here’s what I want to do if I’m a WWE creative guy. I want to make Roman Reigns a star. I didn’t say ‘heel’. I didn’t say ‘babyface’. I want to make him a bigger star. And him having a controversial, edgy, coarse win over The Undertaker helps facilitate that goal. At the end of this run would be a heel run, which could be very successful. The guy is perfectly set up to be the next big fan favorite thing, so that would be my route to take and that’s how I’d probably do the finish of it.”
