Roman Reigns Explains How Alliance With Paul Heyman Began
Roman Reigns has shared why he thought it was a good move to be paired up with Paul Heyman on WWE TV.
When Roman Reigns returned to WWE at SummerSlam 2020 after taking time off earlier in the year, there was a shocking reveal on Smackdown that showed he was aligned with Paul Heyman. One week after SummerSlam, Reigns captured the Universal Title in a triple threat match also involving “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt and Braun Strowman at Payback on August 30, 2020. Reigns ended the show by celebrating his newly won championship with Heyman by his side.
Even though there were no fans present in the Thunderdome, it was a significant moment in Reigns’ career since it was the first time he was a solo heel wrestler in WWE and since Heyman was usually aligned with heels, the pairing made sense.
Since that August 2020 triumph, Reigns has been the Universal Champion for over 700 days and also added the WWE Title at WrestleMania 38 to become the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion. While Heyman was called an “Advocate” when he was paired with Brock Lesnar for most of the past two decades, Heyman is the Special Counsel when he’s around Reigns and other members of The Bloodline including The Usos, their younger brother Solo Sikoa and honorary Bloodline member Sami Zayn.
There was a time earlier this year when Heyman and Reigns were briefly apart since Heyman went back to working with Lesnar, but that was all a swerve. Reigns and Heyman were the reason Lesnar lost the WWE Championship to Bobby Lashley at the Royal Rumble back in January.
During his recent appearance on the Logan Paul “Impaulsive” podcast, Reigns explained why he thought that his heel run should involve the legendary Heyman:
“Brock (Lesnar) was in between contracts so Paul (Heyman) was kind of wide open, and it just fit, you know? He had that open creatively. He was still just working behind the scenes from a creative standpoint and then once it opened up.”
“I mean when you’re working with someone like Brock for as long as he did with the success that they had, you need to have something that’s legitimate come through to make that move and I think I was the only one that he wanted to work with, otherwise, I think he would just stay kind of plugged in and be helping from an overall directive standpoint.”
“Once he knew, oh, I’m gonna be with Joe (Roman Reigns), it’s all good. I’m going to be with Roman, it’s all good, then we knew it was on.”
Heyman has been off WWE television since SummerSlam on July 30 after Brock Lesnar gave him an F5 through the commentary table. Heyman should return to WWE TV soon.