As soon as The Shield split up in 2014, WWE immediately started pushing Roman Reigns as a top singles star, but the push was not accepted by fans and Roman oftentimes found himself performing to a mixed or negative reaction from the live crowds at WWE events.
There’s no denying that Roman Reigns was dealt his fair share of bad creative, but luckily he was able to turn things around when he turned heel and introduced the world to The Tribal Chief character in 2020.
While discussing his early days with WWE on Club Shay Shay, Roman Reigns noted that he would’ve liked to have said no a few more times, but he felt that he was still trying to prove himself within the company.
“I probably would’ve said no a few more times early on. But I just didn’t have the equity within the company. I wasn’t rooted well enough in the main event scene. I was still auditioning. I was still proving myself. I was still earning that equity.
This was like 14 years ago, and they’ll still quote me for saying ‘suffering succotash.’ This was so long ago. It was 12 years ago. I’ve delivered unbelievable work since then, but still, I’ll be tied to that.”
Roman Reigns also discussed Conrad Thompson recently calling him overrated, and you can get more details on The Tribal Chief’s reaction to the comments here.