Paul Heyman said this week that he had to fight for Roman Reigns to be referred to as The Tribal Chief when Reigns turned heel in 2020. During an appearance Tuesday on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Heyman laid out how then WWE chairman Vince McMahon initially pushed back on the name and still wanted to call Reigns The Big Dog.
The first time I came up with Tribal Chief, [Vince said], 'Really? You want to call him the Tribal Chief?' ... I said, 'Well, I can't be his advocate as Brock Lesnar's advocate. We have to have something different to Roman Reigns, and Roman Reigns has to be different.
You got to pull the trigger on this. This has to be as much of a seismic shift as The Deadman becoming The American Badass.
Heyman's instincts proved to be correct. Reigns went on to have the most successful run of his career under the Tribal Chief moniker. That included a 1,316 day reign as world champion, which is the fourth longest reign in WWE history and the longest since 1988.
While the Tribal Chief character was initially villainous, it made Reigns more popular than ever before. It finally gave WWE the returns it was looking for after pushing Reigns as a top guy for several years. As Tribal Chief, Reigns also built one of the most successful stables of all time in The Bloodline, and it continues to thrive on WWE programming to this day. A new nickname is a big part of the equation when it comes to Reigns' success since 2020, and fans have Heyman to thank for it.
The Rock Praises Rollins' Finishing Move
WWE legend The Rock named Seth Rollins' Stomp as his favorite finishing maneuver in pro wrestling. During an interview this week, The Rock chose Rollins' finisher when asked which signature move would be able to take out the villainous Te Kā in the upcoming live action Moana movie.
I would say Seth Rollins' Stomp. It's my favorite. I took it at WrestleMania.
I am a glutton for punishment, so I, there's some finishing moves I loved taking. His is so iconic and I took that. It's a wild, just a face stomp into the mat. It was cool.
Featured names
- Roman Reigns
- The Tribal Chief
- The Rock Hypes
- Seth Rollins
- Heyman Discusses
- Biggest Fallout
- The Tribal Chief
- Proxima Nova
- Fallback Helvetica
- Fallback Arial
- Brock Lesnar
- The American Badass
- The Bloodline
- The Rock Praises
- Finishing Move
- The Rock Praises
- Reported Plans
- Cruiserweight Champ
- World Cruiserweight
- False Finish
- Dominik Mysterio
- Lince Dorado
- Triple Threat
- Having Fenix
- Grading Monday
- After Giannis
- Biggest Draft
- Giannis Originally
- Wanted Knicks
- Blazers Hire
- Landing Spots
- Hold Supplemental
- Heat Trading
- Giannis Trade
- Grading Julius
- Randle Trade
- Nickname Biggest
- Players Shams
- Giannis Giannis
- Trade Takeaways
