Paul Heyman Looks Back On How He Began Working With Roman Reigns In WWE

It's hard now to imagine Roman Reigns without his "Wise Man," Paul Heyman, by his side. Over the past 1,300+ days with the "Tribal Chief" as Universal Champion, Heyman has been essential in the progression of The Bloodline lore — especially when Reigns is absent — and remains the only non-family member with the faction. But it took a lot of uncontrollable changes to bring the pair together, as Heyman explained during "The Rich Eisen Show." 

"Roman and I had been talking about working together for many, many years," said Heyman. "The timing was never right. In that WWE was presenting him as the 'Big Dog,' as the big hero, this WrestleMania main event to follow in the steps of John Cena, and I was the advocate for Brock Lesnar, leaving that position would have been insane. I also then became the executive director of 'Monday Night Raw.'"

Brock Lesnar finished up with WWE in 2020, dropping the WWE title to Drew McIntyre at WrestleMania 36. That left Heyman as an advocate without a client for the first time since 2012, and he was further removed from his role as "WWE Raw" executive director in June, leaving him without a role. 

"So in August 2020, when I'm Brock Lesnar-free, I'm no longer the executive director of 'Raw,' so I'm in the ocean of obscurity at the moment... Roman Reigns agrees to come back to WWE if he's allowed to portray himself, and we get the chance to work together. He rescued me from the ocean of obscurity, pulled me onto the island of relevancy with him, and we have been together ever since."