Two former WWE champions have looked at Oba Femi in the same week and reached opposite conclusions.
Matt Hardy, on The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy, would leave him exactly where he is.
I mean, I think he’s too over. I think people like him, especially with this character…he’s this monster. Just to point out the obvious, just him being black, and being so popular, I think it’s very good to have a character like that be a big baby face and represent your company. I wouldn’t change him as a baby face right now.
Raj Dhesi, who wrestled as Jinder Mahal, went the other way in a hot takes video on Instagram, reaching for the template WWE used on Brock Lesnar in 2002.
Turn Oba Femi heel. Just like Brock Lesnar was when he was when he debuted, have him destroy everybody and let the crowd naturally turn him babyface. Put him with Paul Heyman.
The Lesnar comparison is not accidental. Femi closed out a trilogy with him inside Hell in a Cell in the SummerSlam Night 1 main event on August 1, winning in 11:39 with Fall From Grace after kicking out of a tombstone on exposed wood. Lesnar came back to the ring afterwards, raised Femi’s hand, and told the crowd Femi was the future and he was the past. It turned out to be Lesnar’s last match. He confirmed his retirement days later and WWE has since moved him to the alumni section of its site.
Femi has run the full arc already. He was a heel in NXT and a very effective one, and has been a babyface since arriving on the main roster at the Royal Rumble. The trilogy with Lesnar went WrestleMania 42 to Femi, Clash in Italy to Lesnar, SummerSlam to Femi.
He has also already brushed up against Heyman, telling him to pass on his thanks to Lesnar. A program with Bron Breakker has been building since their face-off on the August 3 RAW.
