Roman Reigns explains what he did to finally convince WWE to turn him heel and align with Paul Heyman
Roman Reigns returned to WWE TV at the climax of SummerSlam and has been on fire ever since.
The Big Dog exploded on the scene with The Shield in 2012 but when he embarked on a solo career two years later, WWE fans rejected his push.
Vince McMahon forced him down the throats of fans and insisted he would be their babyface hero whether they liked it or not.
Heading into WrestleMania this year, Reigns was set to take on Goldberg for the Universal title, but he decided just days before the event that he was going to take a break from WWE and put his family first during a global pandemic.
During his appearance on Corey Graves' After The Bell podcast, Reigns explained how he arrived at his decision.
“I think the most defined thought I had was I made a lot of sacrifices on behalf of my family and this is one area that I’m not going to make that sacrifice.
"I will sacrifice my career. I will sacrifice the performance. Hell, I’ll sacrifice the audience if I have to in order to protect my family. I will quit and hang up the boots. I’ve done everything I could do in this business.
"There’s isn’t an accolade or a moment that I haven’t had, whether it was a WrestleMania moment all the way to a house show. I’ve experienced everything you could possibly experience.
"So, it was about putting my family first. If I had to retire and that’s what would be asked of me, I was willing to do it. So for one of the first times in a long time, I put my family first. There was nothing that was going to change my mind.
"I needed to go away and wait until we were in a better place of understanding of the process knowing exactly what this virus has done and how it’s affected everybody.
"The way WWE has taken care of me to make me feel safe and make my family feel safe that I’m going out and then coming back in has been huge and critical to get me back in the ring."
Reigns has suffered with leukaemia twice in his life and his compromised immune system makes him vulnerable to the coronavirus.
He was right to take those extra steps, but now that he is back and has aligned with Paul Heyman, it's given WWE a jolt they badly needed.
Heel Roman Reigns has proven to be money thus far and the 35-year-old says it was something he wanted to do for a long time. Ultimately, it's what lured him back.
“This is something I wanted to do. It was an opportunity to be able to connect a lot of dots. It was a bit of a lure as well to get me back in, but for me, I didn’t want to just show up and walk different and talk different.
"I wanted a whole new presentation and we are going to continue to gradually do that. I thought what better way than to align myself with essentially a high powered attorney. If you take the top athlete in the world and mix him with a head mafia boss character, that’s who I am.
"The mob boss will go out there and do the hit himself but you have to have somebody dotting the ‘I’s†and crossing the “T’s†for you who understands the ins and outs and can add that new layer to the whole character and the personality.â€
