After spending many years being a despised babyface who was done no favors by creative choices for his character, Roman Reigns has turned himself into the biggest star in WWE since turning heel in 2020.

Speaking on Rick Rubin's Tetragrammaton podcast (h/t Felix Upton of Ringside News), Paul Heyman explained Reigns "had enough of the creative" run by Vince McMahon during his babyface run before he took a hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic:

"The feud rivalry story with Baron Corbin over dog food and the infamous sufferin succotash promo had weighed on him enough to where he said, 'I've had enough. I've reached the cap. I can't go any further. As the big dog I've peaked. and as an athlete, I haven't peaked as a performer. I've barely scratched the surface. I have so much more to offer and since I'm taking time off, I'm not coming back as the same person.'"

Heyman went on to say McMahon was the one who came up with the idea to pair him with Reigns:

"[McMahon] says, 'I'm going to put you with somebody.' I'm thinking, 'Has he read my contract?' I said, 'Well, you know Vince, the options are kind of limited in that.' I'm trying to tiptoe into a delicate situation here where I'm about to butt heads with him. I'm thinking Ronda is pregnant. Brock's not coming back with Saudi down. He's certainly not putting me with Roman and he goes, 'I'm envisioning Roman Reigns with Paul Heyman.' I'm thinking, 'Oh my God. He's gonna pull the trigger on this. He would never pull it with Cena. He would never have allowed Cena to come to the dark side."

WWE tried for so many years to make Reigns into the next John Cena by having him cut promos with goofy comedy lines that did not suit him at all, nor did he look comfortable with it.

There were also plenty of stop-start moments with his initial push in 2015, like losing matches to the Big Show leading up to WrestleMania 31.

Reigns, who has overcome leukemia twice in his life, went on hiatus early in the COVID-19 pandemic when he was originally set to take on Goldberg at WrestleMania 36. He returned at SummerSlam and aligned himself with Heyman as a heel for the first time since the early days of The Shield.

The Tribal Chief persona was born, The Bloodline formed in the summer of 2021 and has been the best act WWE has come up with in years.

Even though it was McMahon's poor creative choices that made it impossible for Reigns to take off as the next great babyface after Cena, the WWE chairman eventually made the right call by aligning The Tribal Chief with Heyman as the top heel act in the company.

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