Roman Reigns continues to sit atop WWE as World Heavyweight Champion, but his current character is once again drawing heavy criticism from Eric Bischoff.
On the latest episode of 83 Weeks, Bischoff revisited the subject after his comments from last week generated significant buzz, when he sided with Conrad Thompson in criticizing the OTC following his win over Seth Rollins at SummerSlam.
Bischoff was clear, though, that his issues with the character have no bearing on the respect he holds for Reigns as a person.
“I respect the hell out of Roman. I look up to him in a lot of ways, as a human being. Look what he’s overcome. My opinion of his performances have nothing to do with the respect I have for the man.
I’m bored with him. I don’t see anything new from him. I don’t see a character evolving. We’re not seeing any evolution. We’re seeing maintenance, and it’s good. It’s definitely working from a financial perspective, so there’s nothing wrong with it. There’s just nothing compelling about it.”
The former WCW president also drew a comparison to Ric Flair, acknowledging that a character overhaul isn’t necessarily required for Reigns to remain a top star.
“By the way, why does he have to change? Ric Flair wrestled the same match over and over and over again. They were phenomenal. But Ric’s character never changed. Didn’t have to. And I think that’s where Roman is. It doesn’t mean that I can’t be bored with it. Those two things are not mutually exclusive.
You could be dropped out of a spaceship, find yourself planted firmly inside of an arena, and when Roman Reigns walks through that curtain, you don’t need to know his backstory. You know you’re looking at a star. He doesn’t even have to talk. He just has to look over a shoulder at you, and it makes an impression. Who else has that? Who has that in AEW? Nobody. Who else in WWE has that? Nobody. That is special.”
