Ever since Roman Reigns debuted in WWE in 2012 as part of The Shield he has been positioned near the top of the card. However, it took another eight years for him to be fully embraced as a top level singles star.
Although Reigns racked up an incredible list of accolades, he was never truly beloved in the way that former megastars had been. But that all changed in August 2020, where he upon returning from a hiatus he turned heel and won the Universal Championship. Incredibly he has held the title ever since.
Paul Heyman The Key To Roman Reigns – Dan Lambert
After smashing back onto the WWE scene at SummerSlam, Reigns aligned with Paul Heyman before claiming the World Championship at Payback the same month. This partnership laid the foundations for what has since become The Bloodline, and fans believe has taken the Tribal Chief to a whole new level.
One person who agrees with that viewpoint is is former AEW star Dan Lambert. Speaking in a new interview with Bill Apter for Sportskeeda, the MMA veteran compared Reigns to a UFC fighter immediately being thrown into title contention.
“Man, you want to talk about a guy [Roman Reigns] who found his groove. There were certain times where, and I don’t know if it was just the learning process when you come in and you’re immediately shot to the top. You almost don’t get the time to learn all the little tricks in your craft. It’s just like an MMA guy coming in there and his first fight is for the UFC Heavyweight title. That’s not the way it works. You need to fight lower-level guys and learn how to fight, get comfortable in the cage and get some ring time and then you’re not doing a lot of five-round fights until you’ve done three-round fights.”
Lambert went on to suggest that pairing with Paul Heyman was a true turning point for the star, describing his work as part of The Bloodline as “incredible.”
“Reigns just got better and better and better. I don’t know if it was the grouping with Paul Heyman and working with him that elevated his game in my eyes. If it was just finally getting that nice, long run at the top where you hit your groove. The stuff he’s doing now with The Bloodline, incredible”
Roman Reigns will be back in action on the December 30th edition of SmackDown when he teams with Sami Zayn to take on John Cena and Kevin Owens.
H/t to Sportskeeda