Trivia / Roman Reigns

• Contractual Purity: The reason why Reigns's suspension was such a shock to the fanbase is because he was supposed to succeed John Cena as face of the company. Obviously, you can't be the face of the company with a black mark like that on your record, especially when the guy you're replacing has been a model employee for over ten years. Many speculate that this is why Reigns started eating so many clean pins since his return — the company is starting to gradually de-push him and back other performers instead. It also had a side effect of validating the company's Wellness Policy.^note Prior to the suspension, it had been largely seen as a joke, even though actual wrestlers vouch for the testing (including Lance Storm) and state that fan conspiracies are stupid. The exceptions are part-timers, who are not tested because the testing is for health and not cheating; most of them aren't around long enough to be punished in a meaningful way anyway.
• He Also Did: He plays the voice of Kizin in Elena of Avalor, a giant plant monster with a childlike mentality and superhuman strength.
• Playing Against Type: He plays the voice of Kizin in Elena of Avalor. Kizin is a childish monster in case you had no idea who he is.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: The return of his leukemia had significantly altered both short-term and long-term plans WWE had for not only him, but also for a significant portion of the roster, including his Shield teammates Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins. The company basically had to treat the situation as if he had retired, as there was no way they could determine a time frame for his return (or if he would even be able to).
• What Could Have Been:
  • Well before The Shield and even before NXT was its own promotion, Roman Reigns returned to FCW from an injury hiatus in a Heel Badass in a Nice Suit gimmick calling himself "The Boss." This character was adapted into "The Thoroughbred" for his brief NXT run. One must wonder what WWE might look like if Roman had been able to run with and grow into that gimmick as opposed to the one we knew for years - and what implications that would have had for a later up-and-comer who presently uses "The Boss" gimmick...
    • Also, this character was meant to be an arrogant, suit-wearing heel whose soft-spoken nature hid a brutal, ruthless side that triggered whenever he entered the ring. Does This Remind You of Anything??
  • The Shield could have not been The Shield and he could have not been in it. Before it was a trio, it was supposed to be a full-on power stable and before that stable even had a name, CM Punk, Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, and Chris Hero were the planned members. Obviously, things ended up very differently. (Worth noting that Roman himself disputes CM Punk's claim here.)
  • Prior to Night of Champions 2014, where Roman was set to face Seth Rollins in a singles match, Roman developed an incarcerated hernia which required surgery, taking him out of action until December. It's believed that Roman was supposed to be on John Cena's team facing down The Authority at Survivor Series that year, in the sole survivor role that eventually went to Dolph Ziggler, who kicked out of multiple finishers and eliminated four out of the enemy team's five members single-handedly (including Seth Rollins as his last opponent) in booking that seems suspiciously like the kind of "overcome the odds" booking Roman would become known for later. Which would certainly go a long way to explaining why WWE never capitalised on what should have been a huge push for Ziggler after he won the match for his team. This would also have marked the real start of Roman's major singles push and may have gotten it off on a better foot than his infamously unpopular win at the 2015 Royal Rumble eventually did.
  • Reigns's suspension for violating the Wellness Policy no doubt resulted in a lot of plans being changed, as the company had to get the belt off him soon. That being said, it was fairly obvious they didn't want to put the belt on Rollins (the most convenient choice), as that meant the championship had to go back to a heel after a long string of heel champions and a face that was so hated he might as well have been a heel. Luckily, Reigns's next title defense was at Money in the Bank. So they had Rollins beat Reigns semi-clean for the title and then had Dean Ambrose cash in to become champion, to the delight of the vast majority of the WWE fanbase. Specifically, reports claim that the initial plan for Reigns's title reign would be that his feud with Rollins would lead to a double turn with Reigns becoming the heel and Rollins the babyface and that Reigns's title run would surpass CM Punk's modern record of 434 days.
  • Reigns was just a few weeks away from a Universal title defense at the Crown Jewel event when he announced that he had leukemia and vacated the title. This resulted in Brock Lesnar defeating Braun Strowman (freshly-turned babyface in Reigns's absence) to win back the vacant title, which Reigns had won from him less than three months prior. If Reigns had not needed to take time off, he likely would have retained at Crown Jewel and kept the title heading into WrestleMania season, meaning that Men's Royal Rumble match winner Seth Rollins probably would not have ended up challenging Lesnar at WM 35 if he even would've won the Rumble at all.
    • This is reinforced, however, by a shoot interview where he said that even if leukemia hadn't returned, he wouldn't have participated in the Crown Jewel event anyway.
    • Reigns also wanted to wrestle during his leukemia treatment, but an enlarged spleen made it too dangerous for him to have physical contact with anyone.
  • Reigns dropped out of a title match with Goldberg at WrestleMania 36 due to the COVID-19 Pandemic making it incredibly dangerous for him, as an immuno-compromised cancer survivor, to be at any kind of gathering, empty arena and closed set or not. It was revealed weeks later that his wife had also given birth to another set of twin boys, thus making it more important for him to stay home.
  • Roman's first feud after Jey was rumored to be Bray Wyatt which was teased when the newly-brainwashed Alexa Bliss death glared at him during his entrance. It was scrapped not wanting to damage the characters of either the Fiend, who was the de-facto face, or the heel Tribal Chief.
  • His testing positive for COVID hours before the 2022 Day 1 event where he was meant to defend his Universal title against Brock Lesnar. He was reportedly meant to drop the title to Lesnar in that match but Lesnar was instead added to the (originally) Fatal 4-Way for the WWE title at the last minute, winning that match instead. That change affected at least the following:
    • Rollins (rumored to have been the scheduled winner of the above match) had no match for Wrestlemania and was therefore free to take on a recently signed mystery opponent.
    • Roman kept his title, and Brock having the other title put the unification match on the table. Roman won, unifying the titles in a generational title run that continued for another two years.
    • The meat of the Bloodline saga involving The Usos and Sami Zayn occurred in 2022-2023, after the title unification.
    • The reintroduction of the World Heavyweight Championship in 2023 stemmed in part from said title unification leaving one brand without a main event champion.