Paul Heyman was recently interviewed by TV Insider and was asked to compare working with his former client, Brock Lesnar, and Roman Reigns, who has been dominating WWE Smackdown with Heyman by his side. He felt this was a difficult question, saying:
“It’s very hard to differentiate the vision and goals and desires of Roman Reigns behind the scenes [from those] on camera at the moment. They are one and the same.” He then explained, “Roman Reigns accomplished a body of work in his first eight years on the main roster in WWE that will go down in history. To his enormous credit, he looked back at that body of work and felt very unfulfilled and unsatisfied because, much like Brock Lesnar and Ronda Rousey, Roman realised history will be unappreciative of Roman Reigns’ contribution to the narrative of WWE 25, 50 and 100 years from now.”
Heyman went on to talk about where he see the ‘Big Dog’s’ career heading, and how the best is yet to come.
“As he enters his prime, Roman decided to challenge himself to put forth a body of work that would make the past eight years pale in comparison—make people realize that the past eight years was the warmup for…the true Hall of Fame, legendary portion of his career.“
Since Reigns made his return to WWE at SummerSlam in August, he’s begun drawing on his Samoan heritage. This has included demanding his family, most notably The Usos, recognise him as their ‘Tribal Chief’. When asked about this change, Heyman discussed how Reigns had never denied his heritage but wanted to perform at a level where it didn’t matter what that heritage was.
Now that he has risen to the top of WWE on his own merits, Reigns has decided to embrace his roots as a Samoan and member of the Anoa’i family, which also includes Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. Heyman said:
“Now he can come forth with: This is my heritage. This is my legacy. These are the expectations that are thrust upon me on a daily basis. I not only live up to them. I exceed them. Now he sets the standard for the next generation. He has established a body of work nobody can deny. It becomes a prevalent part of his presentation to acknowledge the history of his family and enormous responsibility and accountability that come with it.”
The interview also covers Heyman’s thoughts on the WWE ThunderDome, the recent WWE Draft, and whether we’ve seen the last of Brock Lesnar in a WWE ring.
Reigns will defend his Universal Championship against his cousin, Jey Uso, in the first ever ‘I Quit’ Hell in a Cell match at WWE Hell in a Cell this Sunday, October 25th. Check back at ITRWrestling.com for full coverage of the event.