Paul Heyman Claims Roman Reigns Retired In 2020 And Didn’t Plan To Return To WWE

On the road to WrestleMania 36 originally Roman Reigns was set to face Goldberg, but Roman ended up pulling out of the event due to the pandemic. Reigns then spent several months sitting on the sidelines as fans wondered if he would return.

Ultimately Roman Reigns returned in a big way at SummerSlam in 2020, and shortly after he aligned himself with Paul Heyman. Reigns turned heel, introduced the world to The Tribal Chief persona, and won the Universal Championship which he still holds to this day. However, Paul Heyman recently explained to Uproxx that Roman’s historic title reign almost didn’t happen.

“He considered himself retired. He wasn’t coming back. I was executive director of Monday Night Raw, and Roman was assigned to SmackDown. But every week I heard all the SmackDown writers and producers and personnel saying, ‘God, I just wish Roman would come back.’ And I would ask, has anybody talked to him? Yeah, he says he’s retired. He’s not coming back. No way. Thanks a lot. Done. Finished. Goodbye. So the fact that he came back for this run, for what we have accomplished, is nothing short of a miracle because as far as he was concerned, he was out.”

Since turning heel in 2020, Roman Reigns has become the top star in WWE and his momentum shows no signs of slowing down as The Tribal Chief is currently set to main event WrestleMania once again next month.