“Acknowledge me…”
As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
- Roman is criticised for being a terrible promo cutter and smarks say he should turn heel largely because he doesn't work as a face — but an even better reason that turning him heel would be a great idea is that Roman can honestly be a simply awesome heel when he gets the chance. Just check out this SAVAGE heel promo he cut during his time on NXT
to see how good he could be. And people say this guy has no mic skills?- And in case you think this was just a random hypothetical, when Roman finally did turn heel in 2020, he proved it completely right with his awesome promo skills in his first feuds against his cousin Jey Uso and then Kevin Owens.
- His 2014 babyface singles run also showed signs of this. Particularly this segment showcases that when given material that would fit his pre-established Anti-Hero character, babyface Roman oozed sheer badassery. note
Reigns: When Roman Reigns is in the house, you're damn right Cena sucks! - Royal Rumble 2014: Kane's 13-year-record finally falls as Roman Reigns eliminates 12 men, including three wrestlers (two of them being Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose, his own teammates) at the same time, from the Royal Rumble to set a new record for most eliminations in a single Rumble. Then he managed to make it to the final two against Batista, he lost, but still doesn't make it any less awesome.
- Smarks can say what they want but Roman's match against Daniel Bryan at Fastlane 2015 was an incredible match by both competitors. In fact, this was, almost universally, considered one of the only good matches of the night (alongside Rusev/Cena). Considering how big of a Base-Breaking Character Roman is, this says a lot...
- Raw, 02/03/2015, Seth Rollins thought he could screw Roman Reigns out of a victory (with Orton's help to enable a cheated rollup) and get away with it unscathed. Beasting out, Roman charged after the celebrating Authority and dove over the top rope to slam down atop J&J Security, Kane and Rollins (Reigns weighs 265 pounds!), immediately beat the hell out of Big Show, turned only to hurl Rollins into the barrier, spear Kane, get in the ring, Superman punch Big Show (and then follow it up with a Spear) and then intercepting Rollins (who dove from the top rope to try and catch Reigns unaware) with a mid-air Spear! Rollins's head clearly whiplashed on that one, leaving Reigns atop the battered bodies of The Authority. One against all, indeed.
- His match against Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 31 was a hell of a match. For everyone that thought that Roman didn't belong, he proved wholeheartedly that he does, by surviving the onslaught from the Beast Incarnate, and even making Lesnar BLEED. TWICE! Too bad Seth Rollins had other plans…
- If Reigns showed nothing else, he showed an ability to take ungodly amounts of punishment. As if the numerous trips to, as Lesnar himself puts it, "Suplex City" wasn't bad enough, Reigns tanked THREE F-5s and still had some fight left. Neither John Cena nor The Undertaker managed that.
- He and The Big Show had a great Last Man Stand Man Standing Match at Extreme Rules. After a hellacious fight that saw some sick spots including Roman getting chokeslammed through two tables, Roman stood tall amidst the carnage by spearing Big Show through the Announce Table and then flipping the table onto him.
- It says quite a lot in that out of the first four PPV's of 2015, Roman was in the best singles match in three of them.
- August 6, 2015: Becoming the third man to deliver a clean victory over Rusev, behind only John Cena and Cesaro.
- His feud with Bray Wyatt is shaping up to be his Growing the Beard moment and seems to have ingnited a spark in Roman. The one-on-one match they had to close out the September 28 edition of Raw ended in an all-out brawl which only concluded when Roman speared Bray through the announcers' table. The crowd promptly lost it.
- Not only winning his first Hell in a Cell match with Bray Wyatt, but his and Bray's spectacular performance in the match reignited the flame in their increasingly lukewarm feud. The crowd marking out for nearly the whole duration didn't hurt matters either. If WWE is still trying to push Reigns as the next big Superstar, this was definitely a step in the right direction.
- TLC 2015: After getting screwed out of the world title again, this time by the League of Nations, Roman snapped and laid waste to the entire stable with a chair. When officials and The Authority came out to calm him down, Roman used this opportunity to beat the holy hell out of Triple H. The beatdown included several chair shots, a power bomb onto the Spanish Announcers' Table, and punctuated with an elbow right through it. All while Reigns was proclaiming that he knew he was getting fired and that he didn't care. Even the smarks who hated Reigns liked it, and the Boston crowd, which had been shitting all over the main event (to the point of chanting for NXT, Daniel Bryan, CM Punk, Seth Rollins, and even John Cena), started up a "Thank You Roman!" chant. For once, WWE managed to do something right and got the fans to care about their chosen guy! They finally seem to get that the fans don't want to hear him talk or watch him "overcome the odds" — they want to see him beat people up, especially people that they don't like!
- The following episode of RAW. Stephanie is, of course, furious about Roman attacking her husband. Reigns interrupts her promo. She calls him a disgrace, and Roman fires back, telling her that she and her entire family is a disgrace. She responds by slapping the piss out of him several times (and they were real slaps too since his face was red and a bit puffy afterward.) She then says that she won't fire him because Trips told her not to, but instead Vince McMahon himself would be doing the honors.
Then Vince McMahon calls out Reigns and demands an apology. Roman, who didn't even bring a mic with him, silently shakes his head no. Vince tells him to get on his hands and knees. He again shakes his head no. Vince then insinuates that he might beat an apology out of him if he were younger. Reigns snatches the mic away from Vince and goads him into doing it, telling him (paraphrased): "You used to talk about having those big grapefruits, but now they're old, shriveled up prunes". Before the two can fight. Sheamus intervenes on Vince's behalf and says that he'll give a match to Reigns for the title later on Raw. Vince agrees to set the match... under the condition that Reigns will be fired if he loses. And to add injury to insult, Vince offers to shake Roman's hand, before kicking him in the nuts.
Reigns looked incredibly strong, was busted open the hard way and managed to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship despite interference from Rusev, Del Rio and Vince, all of whom received a Superman Punch for their efforts (Oh yeah, he gave a Superman Punch to Vince McMahon, at a time where fans would like nothing more than to see Vince get beat up.) The Philadelphia fans, who just 11 months earlier were booing him out of the building, cheered him on the entire night, and popped loudly when he won.- TLDR: WWE have finally figured out that Reigns works best as an aggressive, anti-authority badass, he won the world title ON RAW and was cheered by the most unforgiving wrestling fans on the planet. Too bad creative screwed it up later on.
- January 18, 2016 episode of Raw: Reigns spears Brock Lesnar as the latter was about to enter the ring during Chris Jericho's Highlight Reel, laying the Beast down flat. Then the League of Nations butts in and attacks both him and Lesnar. Lesnar gets his second wind and suplexes the League of Nations out of the way. After this, Reigns hits Lesnar with yet another spear laying down Lesnar again.
- March 14, 2016: After having his nose broken by Triple H and being benched for almost a month, Reigns finally gets some sweet revenge on him after he went through a grueling match with Dolph Ziggler. When his music hits, H waits for him to come out the stands like he usually does, but he comes through the main entrance. He then proceeds to lay waste to Triple H in the most vicious and uncharacteristic beatdown that one-ups the previous one he delivered to him at TLC with a stony and unchanging expression. The fight drags backstage, with Reigns shoving away referees and security and pelting trashcans and TV screens at H. In the end, it takes the combined efforts of Mark Henry, Jack Swagger and Roman's cousins The Usos to talk him down.
- His matches with AJ Styles at Payback and Extreme Rules 2016 were amazing. Whatever you might say about Reigns's ability or lack thereof, it's clear that he and AJ have *ahem* phenomenal chemistry. "Stone Cold" Steve Austin was especially high on their Payback match, praising it as the best WWE match he'd seen in years.
- The August 15, 2016 edition of Raw put him in probably one of the toughest main event matches in his WWE career. After he slightly ruined Rusev and Lana's wedding (By Superman Punching Rusev into Lana, who was splattered with their wedding cake), Mick Foley set up a match between him and Rusev, who desperately wanted this match to defend his wife's honor. So, how is this match the toughest? While getting interviewed before said main event match, Reigns was attacked from behind by Rusev and as a result of a nasty beatdown that followed, one of his arms was 50% dinged but he still decided to fight in the match. And in said match, he took an assortment of beatings that was draining the life out of him. From more than one chairless headshots (ironically still half-nearing the number of steel chair headshots Mick Foley himself got from The Rock at Royal Rumble 1999), risk getting his other arm damaged by the steel steeps or almost fall victim to Rusev's sleeper hold. And Reigns managed to kick out like a mere six times when it seemed Rusev had him down for good. And despite he was fighting with a bad arm and his stamina was beyond drained, Reigns still managed to perform his signature moves and eventually win the match. If Roman Reigns was to ever win over his recurring Hatedom, this match did the most convincing.
- At Clash of Champions 2016, Roman became the first member of his family to hold the United States championship. While reaction was mixed, but by no means universally negative, it's still undeniably awesome that he's managed to accomplish something that no one else in his bloodline has.
- Raw, October 10, 2016. After an opening segment that involved him, Sasha Banks, Charlotte, and Rusev (which also doubled as a Moment of Awesome for both female wrestlers), the four wrestlers were put into a mixed tag team match pitting champions vs. challengers. It ended with Charlotte tapping out to the Banks Statement and Roman spearing Rusev to keep him from breaking the submission hold — LEAPING OVER THE WOMEN to do so.
- The April 3, 2017 episode of Raw has gone down as, for better or worse, a defining moment in the history of Roman's fan reception. This is because that episode saw Roman staring down what could be considered the most hostile crowd in professional wrestling history, as he had just very controversially defeated The Undertaker the day prior at WrestleMania. As for how hostile? Between the chants of "Roman sucks!" (in normal cadence, duelling with "Un-der-taker!" and to the cadence of the "New Day rocks!" chant), "Fuck you, Roman!", "Go away!", "Shut the fuck up!", and "Asshole!" among many others, and the crowd erupting into rampant booing whenever he even lifted his microphone to speak, the official YouTube video of Roman's post-Wrestlemania speech on WWE's channel was cut down to a shade over three minutes...from somewhere closer to fifteen. With all of this in mind, whatever opinion you had on Roman at the time aside, it's certainly commendable that he not only never broke character and even toyed with the audience, but still managed to relay a concise message: "This is my yard now."
- At one point, Roman gestures to his open hand and clearly mouths "Right in the palm of my hand", which sets the crowd off even worse.
- The 2017 Payback Pay-Per-View. Even despite getting utterly decimated by Braun Strowman, left coughing up blood and obviously suffering from internal injuries, Roman Reigns obstinately refuses to be taken out on a stretcher, remembering full well what happened the last time he was trapped on a stretcher and left helpless. He walks to the back on his own, manages to evade another attempted Strowman cheap shot, and even gets a few shots in on Strowman with an ambulance door, forcing him to retreat.
- November 20th, 2017, fresh off a victory with the Shield, Roman defeated The Miz for the Intercontinental Championship. That's right, Roman Reigns is a Grand Slam champion. Not only that, but for the first time in close to a year, the audience mostly cheered a high-profile Reigns victory, which might be an even more impressive accomplishment than the win itself.
- November 27, 2017. Roman did it again, defending his title from the benighted Elias to booming applause and proving that his good reception the previous week might actually be a feature, rather than a bug.
- February 26, 2018. Coming off a victory at the Elimination Chamber the previous night, Roman finally got the chance to gear up for his long-fated showdown with Brock Lesnar. To that end, he cut an absolutely scathing promo against the reigning Universal Champion, railing on Lesnar's part-time contract and well-known lack of respect for the WWE roster. Not only did the spot turn that night's crowd in Roman's favor, it immediately had a good majority of the WWE Universe proclaiming it to be the best promo in Roman's career.
- Wrestlemania 34. While he did lose badly to Lesnar, Reigns kicked out of FIVE F5s, including one through an announce table. To put this in context, in the Summerslam 2014 squash Cena only kicked out of one F5, while Undertaker kicked out of two F5s at Mania.
- It's official. After 3 years of build-up and losing two rematches, Roman finally defeated Brock Lesnar at Summerslam 2018 to capture the Universal Championship. And defended the title the very next night on Raw, having an excellent match with Finn Bálor (who has been waiting for his rematch for 2 years) and staving off a Braun Strowman Money in the Bank cash-in by teaming up with his Shield teammates Rollins and Ambrose.
- When Reigns had to relinquish the championship due to his leukemia troubles, he spoke with poise and grace when addressing the fans and vowing that he would whoop leukemia's ass and come home. In this speech, he proved without trying that he was not only capable of playing an honest babyface with a genuine struggle to overcome, but that this was in fact the reality he's lived for over a decade. Not only did everyone sympathize with Joe Anoa'i for his terrible ordeal and extend prayers and well-wishes for him to overcome his disease, many of his detractors saw, perhaps for the first time, that the real Joe was something far removed from the smug, dull, above-it-all, invincible corporate model he'd been booked and portrayed as for most of his singles career. Many actually hoped this would set the tone for his eventual return run and that he'd be able to retain the genuine love of the majority through both his performance and any influence he might have on his booking and character presentation.
- Apparently not satisfied with Defeating the Undefeatable once in Brock Lesnar, Roman did one better as of the 2/25/19 edition of Raw: beating cancer's ass, just like he promised. Four words — "I'm in remission, y'all." — and a massive celebratory pop that is truly something to marvel. Welcome back, Big Dog.
- Stomping Grounds: Finally getting a victory over Drew McIntyre and by proxy Shane McMahon, especially considering the latter developed a level of X-Pac Heat that, in a major Irony, might just have equaled or eclipsed that of Roman's at the peak of his Creator's Pet status. Want proof? People went from mixed cheers and booing when he first entered the arena to actively chanting his name and cheering loudly when he finally won. The Catharsis Factor is real.
- Then he and The Undertaker joined forces at Extreme Rules to take on Drew and Shane again. Not only did they both look good throughout the match and in victory, but the bookers made sure to emphasise Roman's respect for Undertaker seemingly as an apology for their infamous match at Wrestlemania 33. The result was that people genuinely cheered for both of them.
- An understated moment was the August 13, 2019 Smackdown, where he faced off against former Cruiserweight Champion Buddy Murphy in a short-ish but awesome singles match. Probably one of Reigns' better non-PPV matches, he won while still managing to make the relative newcomer in Murphy look like a million bucks. It may fall to the wayside because of WWE's inconsistent booking failing to take advantage, but it was the type of match that WWE could have used to immediately establish Murphy as an upper midcard singles threat had they stayed the course, and that was in no small part due to Reigns's effort.
- Being the Sole Survivor of Team SmackDown at Survivor Series 2019. His final battle against and show of respect to Keith Lee were praised as doing great work to get Keith over.
- In general, 2019 was the year Roman was well and truly Rescued from the Scrappy Heap. A return from whooping cancer's ass, a subtle but appreciable demotion to supporting hero on SmackDown, solid matches, and a renewed focus on his beating people up abilities ensured he stayed on the audience's good side.
- In 2020 came the swerve no one saw coming: Roman Reigns has finally, finally turned heel... and the months that followed the turn only proved correct what everyone had been saying for years. Roman's awesome new "Tribal Chief" heel character proved to be the best thing he'd done since his initial run in The Shield, with him regularly being described as the single best thing in all of WWE, and Roman as one of the biggest wrestling stars in the world. The prophecy has come true. For example, everything from when he first came back from his self-imposed hiatus to the setup of his inaugural defense against his own cousin Jey Uso was carefully calibrated to strip away layers of his old babyface persona one show at a time.
- His return at SummerSlam. Immediately stealing the thunder from The Fiend's victory over Braun Strowman for the Universal Championship, Roman Reigns beat the piss out of both monsters, declaring that Strowman wouldn't be where he is if not for him, and hoisting the title up in the air himself. The big story was not The Fiend had taken back his prize, but that Roman was coming for it and the day he would reclaim his yard was imminent. However, rather than inducing a groaning Here We Go Again!, The Big Dog's downright vicious demeanor got people asking questions...
- When Roman next turned up on SmackDown, he sat in the back to be handed the contract by Adam Pearce to face Strowman and The Fiend for the title at the immediate following event, Payback. Reigns confirmed he would sign the contract, wreck everyone and leave with the title... then declared that this was not a prediction, but a spoiler. Camera panned out to show, sitting beside him, was a grinning Paul Heyman. Brock Lesnar's greatest enemy had become a Paul Heyman Guy.
- At Payback itself, Reigns came out in the middle of Strowman and The Fiend's match, revealing that he and Heyman, thanks to the combination of Roman's promise, Paul's advocacy, and Vince McMahon's need for him to be in the main event at this crucial time, were able to keep the contract in their hands for two whole days. This allowed Roman to sign the contract while both monsters were down, pick their bones and recapture his yard with a flawless victory. He kept his word in totality while still showing massive opportunism which went against everything he would've done in the past.
- Pulling strings to get Jey Uso involved in the #1 contender's race for his title, Roman was pleasantly surprised to see his cousin win and become his first challenger. However, two weeks before their showdown at the 2020 Clash of Champions, they defeated former rivals Sheamus and King Corbin in a tag team match. The two cousins celebrated with a man-hug, but Uso started feeling too confident and touched Roman's Universal Championship belt. As Jey sauntered up the ramp, Roman's face turned behind his back from an elated smile to a Death Glare that, if looks could kill, would've turned the entire WWE Thunderdome into a scene out of Parasite Eve.
- And finally, the final confrontation before their showdown. Reigns, while expressing love for his cousins and giving The Usos props as the greatest tag team of their generation, made clear his position as Tribal Chief, generational leader and main provider for the entire Anoa'i family. After hearing out Jey's impassioned response, that he was tired of just being part of a set of twins and wanted to know if he could be the guy, Roman exited the stage... only to greet Jey there with a Superman Punch and follow that up with a screaming Motive Rant telling Jey that he will never take his place at the Head of the Table. This was the moment that removed all doubt as to both the legitimacy and the high-character quality of the Face–Heel Turn of Roman Reigns, as well as introduced his ability to break his opponents down with mid- and post-beating Trash Talk. Sharing both football and acting in common with (and in large part because of) Dwayne Johnson himself, Roman has always treated the microphone as an inhibitor and the fight as his outlet. However, as talking is no longer a weakness for him, he is able to turn this inverted dichotomy into a distinct trait with a purpose, creating an effect that is downright sublime.Reigns: I DON'T JUST FEED MY KIDS [WITH] THIS TITLE, I DON'T JUST FEED YOUR KIDS WITH THIS TITLE! I FEED OUR WHOLE FAMILY WITH THIS TITLE! OUR FAMILY NEEDS ME TO HAVE THIS TITLE, AND YOU WANNA TAKE IT FROM ME!? YOU GON' TAKE YOUR PAYDAY, YOU GON' TAKE THE ASS-WHOOPIN' THAT COMES WITH IT! BUT YOU WILL NEVER TAKE THIS TITLE, AND YOU WILL NEVER TAKE MY PLACE AT THE HEAD OF THE TABLE!
- As extensively covered, by the time Roman locked horns with his cousin in a title defense, nothing was left of the static Hound of Justice from 2014 to infinity besides his hollow distortion of The Shield's theme music. The ensuing match saw Jey put up a fight well beyond what anyone would've thought he had any rights to do, but Roman still make it abundantly clear that he was the top dog and would remain so going forward. Viciously dominating and dissecting his cousin while vocally lamenting the fact that he had to do so, becoming more unhinged with each refusal by Jey to acknowledge him as Tribal Chief, Reigns showed that he had become irrevocably consumed by a single-minded obsession with being the leader and provider for not only his own family and clan, but the entire wrestling business. In the end, it was Jey's still-injured brother Jimmy Uso that had to hobble down, throw in the towel, throw himself in the way, and declare Roman the Tribal Chief just to save Jey from being put out of action.
- As an addendum to this: less than two months prior, Karrion Kross, Keith Lee, and Dominik Dijakovic had already used the "throw in the towel" angle over on NXT, in particular repeating the Bloodsport/Rocky IV angle where the villainous challenger destroys the friend of the champion in the fight preceding their showdown. Normally, hardcore fans and critics of pro wrestling are notorious for noticing recycled scripts or premises, and in some cases taking a dump on whatever company or booker decided to do it and supposedly hope that no one would notice. You will have a hard time finding ANY reviewer for Clash of Champions who dared compare Roman Reigns to Killer Kross, Chong Li, or Ivan Drago. The man was so damn good even the Fleeting Demographic Rule couldn't touch him. The Dreaded became an understatement at that point.
- WrestleMania 37 was Roman Reigns' title defense against two legends hoping to culminate their comeback stories as the conquering hero, Edge and Daniel Bryan, both of whom were presented as true threats to the Tribal Chief's title reign. The three closed out night two of WrestleMania with an absolutely hellacious match that also included early interference from Jey Uso, who for his troubles was dropped with an Edgecution on the steel steps. As a testament to his heel work, Roman was consistently booed throughout the match, and at one point when he had Daniel Bryan, the less popular of the two babyfaces in the arena that evening, prone for an attack involving those same steps and/or the announce table, he looked to the crowd and received a very audible "Roman Sucks!" chant from the grown men in the front row behind the table before folding Bryan in half with a powerbomb through the table and taunting those fans back. The end of the match saw a maddened Edge hitting a one-man Con-chair-to on Bryan and, after Uso came back to attack Edge so Reigns wouldn't face the same fate, Reigns hitting a Spear and a Con-chair-to on Edge before stacking Edge on top of Bryan with both men's shoulders down on the mat, pinning them both at once to retain the title. The Tribal Chief closed out WrestleMania raising his Universal title in the air as fireworks went off over Raymond James Stadium, basking in the jeers of the crowd while standing over his two fallen foes, acknowledged by the whole world as the top heel in the industry, fulfilling his Badass Boast from two nights earlier.Reigns: I'm gon' smash 'em, I'm gon' stack 'em, I'm gon' pin 'em one, two, three.
- And sure enough, when he came out on April 23, he was wearing that Badass Boast as a T-shirt...complete with a silhouette of the page picture with Roman covering Edge and Bryan at the same time.
- While Roman Reigns getting a new theme song that is near-entirely divorced from The Shield and debuting it at WrestleMania would've been very thematic, that was not the path WWE chose. Instead, they chose a significant event on SmackDown, where there was no live crowd that would stand on bated breath to hear his new music instead of booing him immediately regardless. What was the significant event? April 30, 2021, the night Roman Reigns defended his Universal Championship against Daniel Bryan for a fourth time with Bryan's SmackDown rights on the line. In this back-and-forth contest, Daniel Bryan was the quicker, craftier, more technically savvy of the two, even at one point countering a Superman Punch with a kick that left The Tribal Chief's right arm scorched for the rest of the night. Still, Roman was no slouch in any of those departments and absolutely held the strength and durability advantage. In the end he made Daniel Bryan pass out to a left-arm guillotine, successfully banishing The American Dragon from his island of relevancy in a completely clean finish. Jey Uso would not get involved until after Cesaro came down to try to save Bryan from a post-match Con-chair-to, with The Right Hand Man making sure that Cesaro was held in place and Forced to Watch The Head of the Table cave in Bryan's skull via chair-on-chair crime. Reigns' dominance, his and Uso's ruthlessness, Bryan's skill and courage, and Cesaro's heroic valor were all on display.
- As for the theme song itself, "Head of the Table" is introduced with an ominous pounding drum, bass, and choir prelude that lasts about 18 seconds, before turning into a mix of piano, rap beat, and choir, with the first guitar riff of "The Truth Reigns" cut open and placed into it to give it a harder edge. The result is a sound fit for an apocalyptic final boss, with both tribal and mafioso vibes, all fitting the character he has worked hard to establish and thus feeling completely earned.
- As for the theme song itself, "Head of the Table
- April 3rd 2022, WrestleMania 38, Roman Reigns established his place at not only the Head of the Table in WWE, but in the entire wrestling industry, defeating WWE Champion Brock Lesnar in the main event to unify both the WWE and Universal Championships, adding to his long list of accomplishments. The visual of the Tribal Chief raising both belts as pyrotechnics go off behind him will be on promo packages for years to come.
- Brock Lesnar makes his entrance riding a tractor and staring down Roman Reigns from the bucket before the two absolutely tear into each other from bell to bell in the Last Man Standing match. Just when you've seen it all however, Brock decides to stop playing around and uses the tractor to tip over the ring. Silly? Yes. An awesome sight nonetheless? Absolutely.
- As controversial as both he and the shows in Saudi Arabia may be, there's no denying that Logan Paul stepped up to the plate at Crown Jewel 2022 and topped his already impressive performances at Wrestlemania and Summer Slam in his match with Roman Reigns, giving the Tribal Chief one hell of a fight while also hitting a very clean Buckshot Lariat and an awesome Frog Splash from the corner to the table in the process (the latter was even done while recording from his phone, and the POV footage was just as amazing).
- Acquiring The Rock as an official member of The Bloodline is already an awesome moment by itself, but on March 1, 2024, The Rock and the rest of The Bloodline cut a scathing promo for the second week in a row, verbally lashing out at Cody Rhodes. When the promo appeared to be over, and The Rock was prepared to sign off by bellowing "If you smell what The Bloodline is cooking", Reigns provides multiple unthinkable moments.
First, he interrupts The Rock's catch phrase. If anyone has ever committed this transgression in The Rock's entire career, the moments have been few enough to count on one hand. When The Rock responds with the Death Glare of all Death Glares, Roman, unintimidated, says as plainly as he can speak: He needs The Rock, first-ballot future Hall of Famer, global superstar, with as much humility as he has hair on his head, to acknowledge him. And with full sincerity, The Rock does so. Then, for perhaps the first time in his entire career, The Rock passes off his catchphrase to Reigns. Roman Reigns humbled The Rock, and it's now undeniable that The Tribal Chief's influence in WWE has officially reached astronomical heights. - April 6th-7th, 2024, WrestleMania XL is ultimately where Roman's historic reign ended, losing to Cody Rhodes in a rematch from last year's Wrestlemania. That being said, even in defeat, the Tribal Chief went out swinging.
- On Saturday, him and The Rock successfully defeat Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins in a tag team match to establish the match between Cody and Roman on Sunday will be "Bloodline Rules", basically an Anything Goes match with no disqualifications where the Bloodline (or anyone) are free to interfere. The night ends with Roman and Rock standing tall, with a dejected Cody in the ring, mirroring the same image from last year's main event.
- His entrance is a fully orchestrated rendition of his theme played by the Philadelphia school district's orchestra, truly selling the fact that despite his cousin using it as his own epithet, Roman is the Final Boss of WWE and the last obstacle that stands between Cody and finishing his story of winning the title and the man Cody has to beat.
- Roman gets a lot of flak for relying on his family members to help in his matches, but he is successfully capable of keeping up blow-to-blow with Cody for the first half of the match, even stealing his Finishing Move and then trash-talking about how bad it is at beating opponents.
- While it ultimately costed him the match, he finally pays back Seth for his betrayal a decade earlier, mirroring it with a chairshot to the back and Seth falling the same exact way as Roman did back then.
- Just the fact that it took the likes of John Cena and The Undertaker to even the playing field establishes just how much effort it took to finally dethrone the Tribal Chief from his throne that he's kept for over three years.
- When Cody thanked Roman for the matched, everyone cheered "Thank you Roman" and when Solo Sokoa took over the Bloodline after his whereabouts are unknown, people are begging Roman to come back to the point where fans are now unironically asking him to turn face. He has come a long way from being a hated Vince McMahon project to one of the most over wrestlers in the WWE.
"Acknowledge me."
