Roman Reigns Explains Why He Was Almost on the Verge of Leaving WWE

Roman Reigns is one of the biggest stars in WWE these days and is having the best run of his WWE career. That's all thanks to his reinvention into The Tribal Chief and the Head of the Table alongside Paul Heyman and The Usos, who form The Bloodline. All of this came into play when Reigns returned from his hiatus, and since then fans have had the most authentic and entertaining version of Reigns yet. Reigns talked about his journey to this point in an interview with ESPN, and during that conversation, he revealed that both he and Heyman might not have come back to WWE if they hadn't been given permission from Vince McMahon to executive this storyline in a mostly unscripted way.

This storyline with Brock Lesnar has been building for quite some time, but like Reigns' own evolution the story has changed quite a bit over the years. They already met in 2019's WrestleMania 34, but back then fans were still not on Reigns' side. Then Reigns took time away due to the pandemic, and the report says that "both Reigns and Heyman said they might not have returned to WWE unless they were given permission by WWE CEO Vince McMahon to execute this story in a mostly unscripted fashion", which looks to have worked out for the best.

As for that conversation about stepping away, Reigns said "We didn't have enough information [about COVID-19]. We didn't have a proper protocol for protection. I think I made the very smart choice in stepping back and kind of game planning and figuring this thing out and seeing where it went."

Both Heyman and Reigns were okay stepping away, but if they were going to come back, they wanted to do something special. "I just kept going back to 'power,'" Reigns said. "I just want to be viewed as the most powerful superstar of all time, when it comes to WWE and sports entertainment. I just really wanted to convey this portrait of strength. Almost like a Mafia-style power. Not only is it respect, but they fear me."

That's why authenticity was invaluable."I just knew if I'm gonna make this what it needs to be, I have to be able to connect to it," Reigns said. "And nobody can really write that for me. I have a writer and they do put stuff on paper. But that doesn't necessarily mean I want to use it and/or even want to look at it. So, it just depends. A lot of times I will read it, and if I'm not into it, then I'm just not into it. And I've gotta make it mine. "

Heyman is beyond impressed with Reigns' current run, and calls him the owner of this era. "In terms of a great run, in the modern era to hold the title for almost 600 days? It's unheard of," Heyman said. "And there he is on TV every Friday owning SmackDown, the likes of which we haven't seen since Stone Cold [Steve Austin] and The Rock owned the Attitude Era [in the late 1990s] One man owns this era, and that's Roman Reigns."