Roman Reigns says WWE came through its most turbulent stretch with its place in the business intact, and he is still standing at the center of it. The man who became the Tribal Chief in 2020 and the Head of the Table after aligning with Paul Heyman says the company was turned upside down during his half-decade run, but he stayed steady at the wheel.
Reigns said WWE was in the middle of its most turbulent time of all-time as the company moved toward being bought by Endeavor and formed TKO. He said that with the business changing around him and the headlines following every turn, he kept his focus on the ring and the story he was telling, like a captain in rough seas.
“Everything that was going on with our company in the media, but like any captain in rough seas, just steady at the wheel, doing my thing,” Reigns said. “No matter what, all this distraction and all this noise, no matter what happens, as long as I’m locked into my character and my story, and I go out there with the most compelling art form of pro wrestling and sports entertainment, none of this other bullshit matters.” He added, simply, “I was able to do that.”
That confidence fits the way Reigns has framed the pandemic era as the top of the mountain for WWE, even as the company went through a sale to Endeavor and the fallout from media coverage of Vince McMahon’s resignation after a sexual assault lawsuit. He also said WWE has no competition, a line that matches the scale of the position he has held since 2020.
The next major test comes at WrestleMania 42, where Reigns will challenge CM Punk for the WWE World Heavyweight Title. That match gives his latest comments a sharp edge: after years of saying he held the company together through upheaval, he now walks into one of the biggest stages in wrestling with the same claim on the line.
