Roman Reigns made a thrilling return at the end of SummerSlam 2020 that marked the beginning of his greatly successful heel and Universal Championship run.
Reigns attacked Bray Wyatt and Braun Strowman after the former defeated The Monster Among Men to become the new Universal Champion. On the ensuing episode of Friday Night SmackDown, he began a partnership with Paul Heyman. Two days later, he defeated Wyatt and Strowman at Payback to win the Universal title. And he's held on to it ever since.
Reigns had been away from television for nearly five months before his return at SummerSlam. Reigns, who has battled leukemia twice, decided to remove himself from his WrestleMania 36 match with Goldberg for health and safety reasons amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Strowman was named Reigns' replacement, and he defeated Goldberg to capture the Universal Championship.
Before he returned to television, Reigns had two special requests for WWE: To work with both Heyman and Michael Hayes. The Universal Champion explained why during an appearance the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast (h/t Post Wrestling):
"I’ve said it before, I don’t think — I’m sure I could do it but I don’t think I would wanna do this without him (Paul Heyman) in my corner, and he’s one of very few, you know? There’s — I had two requests. I wanted to work with Michael Hayes, that’s my guy.
He’s been with me from The Shield days and even before that with my family and a lot of the people around me have been in relations and in close contact with my family, even before my time as a performer, back when I was just a kid. So they have a great history with my family and they’ve taken to me like family, like blood and those are two guys who are critically in my process – Michael Hayes and Paul Heyman."
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It's safe to say that WWE has no regrets about honoring those requests. Reigns is enjoying by far the greatest individual run of his career. His work with Heyman plus Jimmy and Jey Uso has been brilliant in just about every aspect.
Reigns is on a historic run right now. Not only is he nearing a full year as the Universal Champion, but Reigns has not been pinned in over 600 days. Having got past legends Daniel Bryan and Edge, Reigns will next defend his title against John Cena at SummerSlam 2021.
A Career-Changing Run For Roman Reigns
WWE spent several years trying to push Reigns as the next top face of company, but it didn't exactly sit well with the fans. But his run as a heel has been extremely well-received by the WWE Universe. WWE had to try something different, after all. Reigns has more than flourished in his new role with Heyman and The Usos.
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