Eric Bischoff may be bored with Roman Reigns’ current character, but he still believes nobody in WWE or AEW can touch him when it comes to pure star power.
Bischoff spent part of the conversation criticizing Roman for not evolving enough creatively, but he eventually flipped the discussion and explained exactly why WWE stuck with Reigns through years of mixed reactions. In Bischoff’s eyes, Roman has something that can’t simply be created by booking — the guy looks like a star the second he walks through the curtain.
“Let’s give a little credit to Roman as to why perhaps Vince stuck with him as long as he did. When you look at Roman Reigns from across an arena, you’re looking at a star. You could be dropped out of a freaking spaceship, find yourself planted firmly inside of an arena or a stadium, and when Roman Reigns walks through that curtain, you don’t need to know his backstory. You don’t need to know how many matches he’s had this year. You don’t need to know any of that shit. When he walks through the curtain, you know you’re looking at a star.”
Bischoff said Roman’s limited schedule may actually help protect that star power because WWE has avoided overexposing him. But he also believes Reigns has a natural charisma that very few wrestlers possess, saying Roman can make an impression without even opening his mouth.
“Perhaps some of that is because he wasn’t overexposed. There’s different ways of getting people over. And when you have someone like Roman who drips charisma, he doesn’t even have to talk. He just has to look over his shoulder at you, and it makes an impression.”
That led Bischoff to make a pretty brutal comparison for everybody else on the WWE and AEW rosters. As far as he is concerned, nobody in either company has Roman’s level of natural presence.
“Who else has that? Who has that in AEW? Like, nobody. Who else in WWE has that? Nobody. That is special. That is a unique characteristic.”
Bischoff then explained that Roman can walk into a stadium packed with tens of thousands of fans and immediately own the room without Paul Heyman helping him or Reigns even saying a word.
“When you have that much charisma that you can walk into a 50,000-seat arena and control everybody’s attention without Paul Heyman and without saying a word because of the aura. And I think that’s the best way to describe Roman’s success and why he’s able to go out there and have the kind of matches he does.”
Bischoff also dismissed the idea that Roman’s limited number of matches should automatically count against him. For Bischoff, what matters is how Roman makes the audience feel whenever he does show up.
“And to only wrestle 10 times a year, whatever the number is, I don’t even think about that shit. I think about how does he make me feel when he does wrestle? Can I bank on that? And the reason you can bank on that is because Roman Reigns has an aura that nobody else has or has had in quite some time.”
That’s a massive compliment coming from Bischoff after he spent so much time criticizing Roman’s current direction. He may want Reigns to switch things up creatively, but he clearly doesn’t question his place as one of wrestling’s biggest stars. As far as Bischoff is concerned, WWE and AEW simply don’t have anyone else who can command an arena the way Roman Reigns does right now.
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Do you agree with Eric Bischoff that nobody in WWE or AEW has Roman Reigns’ level of aura? Please share your thoughts and feedback in the comment section below.
