When Roman Reigns returned to WWE in August of 2020, he wasn't the same old “Big Dog” fans had come to know and despise, instead opting to become a leaner, meaner, more aggressive “Tribal Chief” with none other than Paul Heyman walking by his side. Together, the pairing formed one of the most dominant factions in all of professional wrestling, folded in The Usos and eventually Solo Sikoa into The Bloodline, and went on to field such a long championship reign that it required Paul “Triple H” Levesque to christen a new strap to keep things interesting.
But why? Why did Heyman decide to join forces with Reigns when he already had Brock Lesnar as a client? Well, as it turns out, he didn't have Lesnar at the time, as Paul E. Dangerously explained in an interview on Rick Rubin's Tetragrammaton podcast.
“The pandemic hits. Now Brock's an expensive meal ticket. He was right in 2004, leave, become a much bigger star in the outside world, come back, get paid outside world celebrity, money, and schedule. So without being able to run live events, and without Saudi, and that enormous deal coming in, budgeting for Brock Lesnar in an empty arena several times a year doesn't make business sense. So when Brock's contract came due, and we're in the middle of the pandemic, it doesn't make any sense for WWE to do what they had done every year, which is, ‘Yeah, we know this was your final year, but if you'd consider, we're gonna throw more money at you. Give us another year of this. This was a year where that wasn't going to happen, because there was no way to get a return on the investment. So Brock went back to Saskatchewan, and in his mind, that was the end. He was done,” Paul Heyman said via Wrestling News.
“I'm still there as Executive Director. Roman Reigns has taken time off with his condition. He's not exposing himself to this pandemic that we don't have a grasp on how severe it can be quite just yet and at the same time, he's had enough of the creative. These things are running concurrently. The feud rivalry story with Baron Corbin over dog food and the infamous sufferin succotash promo had weighed on him enough to where he said, ‘I've had enough. I've reached the cap. I can't go any further. As the big dog I've peaked. and as an athlete, I haven't peaked as a performer. I've barely scratched the surface. I have so much more to offer and since I'm taking time off, I'm not coming back as the same person.'
“This is where I make my move. This is where I do for me what Lesnar did for himself when he conquered the streak. Something has to become my defining moment and then propel forward from there. The catalyst to something completely different. Four WrestleMania main events to his credit, a run on top since 2015, and one could even say always near the top from 2012 to 2015, but something has to be generational here, something has to define him as Austin, Rock, Sammartino, Hogan, a transformative personality that can then ultimately make the case, I Roman Reigns am the greatest of all time.”
With Lesnar presumably finished in the promotion, Heyman knew eventually, he'd be called upon to manage a new performer. Fortunately, he had a plan to keep his mystique alive, as after being attached to too many “Heyman Guys” over the years, the idea of pairing up with another mid-card star in the hopes of making a new Superstar wasn't his ideal plan during his third decade in the wrestling industry.
For Paul Heyman, working with Roman Reigns was perfect timing.
Continuing his conversation with the unofficial fourth member of the Beastie Boys, Paul Heyman explained that thanks to his expert negotiating, he was able to limit the number of performers he was allowed to work with on-camera for WWE. Fortunately, when Reigns decided to return to the ring in 2020, the timing lined up for a pairing that now looks like a stroke of genius.
“Vince removes me as executive director in June of 2020, and I thought I had a bunch of months left on my contract, and I was gonna ride it out, and we'll see where we go from there. There were limited options in my agreement as to whom WWE could put me with. When I had the leverage, I wrote that in because we had reached a point with the cachet of being Brock Lesnar's advocate that anybody else you put me with could either make them instantly a star, or you're watering me down, and ultimately hurting the other person, because they don't belong with me. They don't measure up to where you're used to seeing my character bring someone down to the ring, which is either the main event of WrestleMania or close to it. One of the few names on this list was Roman Reigns. Another was Brock Lesnar, obviously. Another was Ronda Rousey. Ronda Rousey was having a baby. Brock Lesnar wasn't coming back with Saudi being down. That kinda left Roman Reigns in there,” Heyman said.
“So Vince calls me in the middle of August and he says, ‘We're gonna take you back into television. I'm thinking, ‘Oh, oh. He's gonna make me a commentator and Jim Ross isn't here. What is a commentator in 2020? How can I be disruptive? How can I be evolutionary in the process? How can I redefine this role because I don't just want to settle in and do what's been done already. Even by me, I want to do this differently. I said, ‘Okay, well, what do you got in mind?' He says, ‘I'm going to put you with somebody.'I'm thinking, ‘Has he read my contract?’ I said, ‘Well, you know Vince, the options are kind of limited in that.' I'm trying to tiptoe into a delicate situation here where I'm about to butt heads with him. I'm thinking Ronda is pregnant. Brock's not coming back with Saudi down. He's certainly is not putting me with Roman and he goes, ‘I'm envisioning Roman Reigns with Paul Heyman.' I'm thinking, ‘Oh my God. He's gonna pull the trigger on this. He would never pull it with Cena. He would never have allowed Cena to come to the dark side.”
Would The Bloodline have worked if Heyman wasn't a part of it? Would fans have completely bought into this new heel iteration of Reigns without a generational talker standing next to him, eliminating the need for any “suffering succotash son” moments, or would this angle have gotten over regardless? Fortunately, fans won't have to imagine that universe, as this one is much better.
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