Paul Heyman has recalled Vince McMahon’s reaction to Roman Reigns being christened “The Tribal Chief” and revealed what the former WWE Chairman wanted to call Reigns.
Reigns’ character and on-screen persona took a dramatic turn in 2020 when he returned from a hiatus during the pandemic and adopted the “Tribal Chief” character, with Heyman serving as his “Wiseman.” Heyman stated on “Insight” how the character came together and how he convinced Vince McMahon to go with the “Tribal Chief” moniker.
“Well, you know, it’s just the little things that go into it. The first time I came up with Tribal Chief, [I was asked by Vince McMahon] ‘Really? You want to call him the Tribal Chief?’ [McMahon wanted to call him] ‘The Big Dog’ Roman Reigns with his advocate, Paul Heyman. I said, ‘I can’t be his advocate. I was Brock Lesnar’s advocate. I have to be something different to Roman Reigns. And Roman Reigns has to be different.’ If you’re going to pull the trigger on this, this has to be as much of a seismic shift as ‘The Deadman becoming the ‘American Badass.’ This is a whole new character. This is a whole new persona.”
Heyman then went on to explain why Reigns couldn’t have been “The Tribal Chief” earlier in his career, as his character was still young.
“And he could not have played this persona earlier because he was too young to do it. He needed to weather the storms to become the Tribal Chief. We grew up with him, almost like he was a child star, in that we saw him from his young days fresh out of college, and he grew into this Tribal Chief,” stated Heyman.
The WWE Hall of Famer had collaborated with Reigns behind the scenes, but they could never team up on screen due to Heyman being Lesnar’s mouthpiece, a situation that changed after the pandemic and ultimately led to the Reigns–Heyman pairing.
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