Roman Reigns was already one of wrestling’s top stars before his heel turn in 2020. He had already held the world title multiple times and picked up victories over opponents such as The Undertaker, Brock Lesnar, and John Cena. However, his new Tribal Chief persona earned him universal acclaim from critics and fans like he had never seen before. Still, Paul Heyman believes that we have not seen the best of the Universal champion yet.
The former ECW owner recently appeared on Corey Graves’ After The Bell podcast. Heyman who has been around the wrestling business for over three decades discussed how one has to keep evolving to stay relevant in the industry. He then explained that we haven’t seen the best of Reigns because he keeps evolving:
“I’ll say this selfishly. Again talking about evolving personas, evolving characters, evolving personalities evolving box office attractions, you haven’t seen the best of Roman Reigns yet. Roman Reigns a year from now will be far greater than Roman Reigns is today. Roman Reigns this Friday will be better than Roman Reigns last Friday.
Roman Reigns, next Friday will be able to look back at this Friday’s appearance and say ‘Wow, I can do that so much better’ and he will. I’ll include the Usos in there as well. The Usos as a tag team are so infinitely better now than they were six months ago and six months ago they were already the best tag team in the past 20 years.”
“The Big Dog Was An Audition To Become The Tribal Chief”
Paul Heyman listed all the accolades of The Big Dog before 2020. He mentioned how the former Shield member was a top star from the get-go and he had main evented multiple WrestleManias even before turning heel and joining forces with the advocate. Though according to Heyman, everything he had done before that was just an audition for his current role:
“Roman Reigns was a main eventer from the day he started in 2012 on the main roster. Through 2020 Roman Reigns main evented 4 WrestleManias and that was just the audition to become The Tribal Chief. It was the appetizer for the main course. He had to have that resume, that background, that experience. To come from top attraction, competing with John Cena for the top spot, multi-WrestleMania matches with Brock Lesnar, a victory over The Undertaker, only two people can claim that – Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns. That was the lead-up to The Tribal Chief.
The Tribal Chief is far bigger box office, a far more compelling personality, a far more riveting persona than the Big Dog. No offense to the Big Dog but the public wasn’t ready to accept the greatness. And Roman Reigns didn’t know how to put it all together and create this package of greatness. This ability to reach greatness and break through the limitations on his greatness. To make a viable claim to be ‘I am the greatest of all time, I am the goat.’ And now he is. As the Tribal Chief. Who is still evolving, who is still emerging.”
If you use any quotes from the article please credit SEScoops with an H/t for transcription
This article has been edited for clarity
