WWE has been pushing Roman Reigns as the face of the company for years now, but it’s no big secret that the fans weren’t always behind him. However, Roman’s career has reached new heights ever since he returned in 2020 and took The Tribal Chief persona.
Originally Roman Reigns was supposed to challenge Goldberg for the Universal Championship at WrestleMania 36. However, he pulled out of the event due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Roman later returned a few months later as a whole new character.
Sheamus recently discussed WWE’s Thunderdome era during an interview with Daily Mail, and he pointed out how the change of pace actually benefitted talent like him and Roman Reigns.
“That makes a big star… let’s be honest, before he went away with Covid, people didn’t give a s**t about him. He was the big baby face who was wrestling Goldberg and nobody really cared.
I think in the same way it benefited me to come back and wrestle in that empty arena at Thunderdome where people got to see how physical I really can be and allowed me to have that more freedom and settle into my own skin and just say: ‘screw it, I’m going to go out there and have fun, do what i’m gonna do.’ In the same sense it benefitted him, because he was at a point where it was forced down people’s throats and he got to go away and come back in this different character.
Obviously there’s the luxury of getting all the storyline time and everything. I feel like he’s made the most of the opportunity he’s had, but I feel like there’s guys on the roster begging for that amount of time to tell their own stories and that’s one of the only things that’s going.
The rest of the roster needs story time too. With MSG [Madison Square Garden] a couple of weeks ago, they went 20 minutes over. So me and Theory had two segs which ended up turning into three small segs on the floor, you know, so that’s tough as well to go out and do that.
It’s definitely benefited him a lot and Heyman and the story they have to tell, all within that family and stuff, but as I said there’s plenty of other people on the roster that could do with story time as well. I’m not taking anything away from him, I’m just saying.”
