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At this point, what more is there to accomplish for Roman Reigns in WWE?
He's already hit 1,000 days as Champion, surpassing Pedro Morales for the forth-longest championship reigns in the promotion's history, and after main eventing the last three WrestleManias, he's effectively entered unprecedented territory as the sort of champion WWE had to christen a new title to keep things interesting.
Well, in the humble opinion of Paul Heyman in an appearance on Pat McAfee's namesake show, the “Wise Man” of The Bloodline and Reigns' closest confidant, at this point, the “Tribal Chief” is just competing with himself, building out his game like other GOATs like Michael Jordan.
“That’s really Roman’s greatest challenge in life, is topping himself, that the Roman Reigns of tomorrow has to be better than the Roman Reigns of today, and the Roman Reigns two days from now needs to be better than the Roman Reigns tomorrow. So the only true challenger to Roman Reigns is himself, that he has to be constantly better. He can never truly peak because one he peaks, that’s it. We’ve reached the apex, and it’s time to go do something else. But in challenging himself to be greater tomorrow than he is today and greater two days from now than he is tomorrow, then we are constantly evolving, and The Tribal Chief gets better and better,” Heyman said via Fightful.
“So he’s looking to be the GOAT, and tomorrow eclipse that level to create an unprecedented level, like an expanding universe is always bigger than it was a moment ago. So he’s never gonna rest on his laurels. It’s like the story of Michael Jordan showing up to practice at eleven o’clock in the morning, and the coach one day showed up at 12:30 because it was a one o’clock practice, and he looked at him and went, ‘MJ, practice begins at eight be.’ Michael said, ‘Yeah, I should be here tomorrow at ten instead of eleven, right?’ That’s the point. You gotta out-do and out-work and out-perform and out-class and out-champion and out-great everyone else, including and especially yourself.”
Now granted, no offense to Mr. Heyman, but the NBA isn't scripted, with MJ's accomplishments the result of his hard work, the drafting of Scotty Pippen, and the decision to swap out Doug Collins for Phil Jackson with the clipboard. Still, it's clear Reigns is largely basing his career off of Jordan at this point, right down to his shoes and logo-adorned tracksuits he wears down to the ring; if he continues on with this dominance, it's clear Reigns will go down as the MJ of modern day WWE, which is a pretty incredible thing to be.
Paul Heyman believes Roman Reigns is on an all-time great run.
Elsewhere in his appearance on the Pat McAfee Show, Paul Heyman discussed just how incredible Roman Reigns' run in WWE had been, leaving any conversations about who has had a better title run firmly in the twos behind the clear one.
“Undisputed. Steve Austin didn’t hold the title for 1,000 days. John Cena didn’t hold the title for 1,000 days. The Rock didn’t hold the title for 1,000 days. Come on. In this era, with this much pressure, with this level of competition, with a murderers’ row of heavyweights that have come after him?” Heyman said via Fightful. “How many title defenses against Brock Lesnar? Defeating John Cena, stacking Edge and Daniel Bryan on top of each other in the main event of WrestleMania, admittedly just getting by Cody Rhodes? Come on. Look at the roster that has been defeated by Roman Reigns. It’s an all-time great, legendary roster.”
Is Heyman correct? Is Reigns' run so gosh darn good that WWE Universe will tell his story in the same way as Hulk Hogan, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and John Cena before him? Is Reigns' run actually better than any of those modern-day legends because of not only his level of competition but also because of the intentional drama built into The Bloodline's story that hits on beats previously unimaginable in the poppy, brash world of Sports Entertainment?
Only the value of hindsight can provide that answer, as fans still don't even know how The Bloodline's storyline will end, but considering just how much storytelling Reigns, Heyman, The Usos, and Solo Sikoa have packed into their weekly segments, especially as the “Tribal Chief” has become less and less of a fixture of weekly television, proves the greatness of the angle and how it really may be a GOAT run after all.