Paul Heyman has recalled Vince McMahon’s response to Roman Reigns being christened “The Tribal Chief” and revealed what the previous WWE Chairman desired to call Reigns.
Reigns’ character and on-screen persona took a dramatic turn in 2020 when he returned from a hiatus through the pandemic and adopted the “Tribal Chief” character, with Heyman serving as his “Wiseman.” Heyman stated on “Insight” how the character got here together and the way he convinced Vince McMahon to go along with the “Tribal Chief” moniker.
“Well, you already know, it’s just the little things that go into it. The primary time I got here up with Tribal Chief, [I was asked by Vince McMahon] ‘Really? You would like to call him the Tribal Chief?’ [McMahon wanted to call him] ‘The Big Dog’ Roman Reigns along with his advocate, Paul Heyman. I said, ‘I can not be his advocate. I used to be Brock Lesnar’s advocate. I actually have to be something different to Roman Reigns. And Roman Reigns needs to be different.’ For those who’re going to tug the trigger on this, this needs to be as much of a seismic shift as ‘The Deadman becoming the ‘American Badass.’ It is a whole latest character. It is a whole latest persona.”
Heyman then went on to elucidate why Reigns couldn’t have been “The Tribal Chief” earlier in his profession, as his character was still young.
“And he couldn’t have played this persona earlier because he was too young to do it. He needed to weather the storms to develop into the Tribal Chief. We grew up with him, almost like he was a baby star, in that we saw him from his young days fresh out of school, and he grew into this Tribal Chief,” stated Heyman.
The WWE Hall of Famer had collaborated with Reigns behind the scenes, but they may never team up on screen on account of Heyman being Lesnar’s mouthpiece, a situation that modified after the pandemic and ultimately led to the Reigns–Heyman pairing.