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Uncover the compelling journey of Roman Reigns and why it took him seven years to fully step out of The Shield's shadow. From their dominant debut to the group's eventual split, we trace Reigns' evolution and the pivotal moments that defined his career. Discover the challenges he faced, the key decisions he made, and how he ultimately transformed into "The Tribal Chief." We also examine the lasting impact of The Shield on his career and how Reigns managed to carve out his own legacy in the WWE.
You can also visit our site: https://www.sportskeeda.com/wwe
#romanreigns #sethrollins #jonmoxley #theshield #wwe #wrestling #sportskeedawrestling
Play now to find out - https://www.sportskeeda.com/wwe/brainbuster-wwe-player-guessing-game
Uncover the compelling journey of Roman Reigns and why it took him seven years to fully step out of The Shield's shadow. From their dominant debut to the group's eventual split, we trace Reigns' evolution and the pivotal moments that defined his career. Discover the challenges he faced, the key decisions he made, and how he ultimately transformed into "The Tribal Chief." We also examine the lasting impact of The Shield on his career and how Reigns managed to carve out his own legacy in the WWE.
You can also visit our site: https://www.sportskeeda.com/wwe
#romanreigns #sethrollins #jonmoxley #theshield #wwe #wrestling #sportskeedawrestling
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SportsTranscript
00:00The man Roman Reigns is, is partly my fault.
00:04Nearly 12 years ago, we came down those stairs.
00:08We were brothers, forged from the same fire.
00:16I taught him everything I know. I am partly responsible for the man that he is.
00:31But I could have never imagined the monster that he has become.
00:43Roman Reigns was always the handpicked star who was meant to have the biggest breakout from the shield.
00:49Nobody would have expected the eventual dominance of all three in professional wrestling,
00:54but there's no doubt that history will remember Roman Reigns as the most accomplished of the trio.
00:59But when it came to the post-shield days, he was the one struggling the most to get off the ground.
01:04That was because of the massive expectations put on him when he wasn't ready.
01:08But while Seth Rollins was quick to detach himself from the shield, as was Dean Ambrose,
01:13why did it take Roman Reigns so long?
01:15Specifically, why seven years to fully remove the elements of the shield from his character?
01:21We have to go back a decade ago to 2014.
01:25Stand back, there's a new wrestling quiz coming through.
01:29Check out Brain Buster, the daily quiz that tests your WWE knowledge with winning streaks, stats, and more.
01:36It's time to see if you're up for the challenge.
01:40When the shield split up, Roman Reigns was the one who kept the shield theme song,
01:44even though it was a modified version of it.
01:46He was also the only one to still have the tactical vest.
01:50In hindsight, it's easy to see that WWE was trying to give Roman Reigns the shield aura to make him cool.
01:56But in reality, it was a crutch that backfired big.
02:00As the post-shield years rolled on, Seth Rollins emerged as one of the undisputed top five wrestlers in the world.
02:06Even in 2016, Dean Ambrose had a hot streak because he was far more authentic than what Roman Reigns was presented to be.
02:14It's surprising and also not surprising just how many years WWE went on by keeping the tactical vest and shield theme song of Roman Reigns the same,
02:23with little to no regard for actual character progression.
02:27We didn't even need the benefit of hindsight to see that WWE should have had a couple of transitional years between 2015 to 2017 where there wasn't a long-term top guy.
02:38They had Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose to easily fill the spot of top guys in 2016,
02:43while Roman Reigns had enough heat to become WWE's top villain right away.
02:48In a perfect world, The Undertaker's Wrestlemania streak would have been intact and Roman Reigns would have been the one to end it
02:54and retire him at Wrestlemania 33, cementing him as the ultimate villain before eventually building him up to be the ultimate good guy.
03:02The fact of the matter was that Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose didn't need to maintain any elements of the shield post June 2014.
03:11Neither did Roman Reigns, but the powers that were at the time desperately clung on to any element of the shield to keep Roman Reigns cool,
03:19even when he semi-transitioned from wearing a tactical vest to the types of t-shirts you'd see on WWEshop.com.
03:26When the shield reunited in 2017, it wasn't bad per se.
03:30We're not going to spew out revisionist history and say that fans didn't love it, because they consistently got good reactions.
03:37But the nostalgia-driven reunion was quite obviously a way to save Roman Reigns and give him a boost in popularity.
03:43This proved to be more of a temporary band-aid to a wound that was desperately waiting to be addressed.
03:49It was reflected in the aftermath of the first shield reunion when Roman Reigns was booed at Elimination Chamber 2018
03:56because fans wanted to see the organically hot and popular Braun Strowman headline Wrestlemania 34 instead.
04:02We're not implying that any of this was Roman Reigns' fault, though.
04:05On the contrary, we would argue that none of this was his fault because he was just doing his job and doing what was asked of him.
04:12It's crazy to think that it took a real-life illness, Roman Reigns' battle with leukemia, for fans to finally warm up to him.
04:20But even in 2019 when he returned, there was another brief shield reunion that led to the conclusion of Dean Ambrose's WWE run.
04:28It played no actual impact in Roman Reigns' run later that year.
04:32The fact that it isn't as well-remembered just goes to show you that regardless of how many shield reunions were attempted,
04:38it'll never replicate the lightning in a bottle run that Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose had between 2012 and 2014.
04:46For Roman Reigns and almost all of WWE, 2019 turned out to be an incredibly underwhelming year,
04:52with some fans calling it the most boring year of the PG era.
04:56Even during this time, his presentation was yet to change.
05:00What was really left for him to get rid of was the tactical vest and his theme song.
05:04He was yet to move on from the shield over five and a half years after their breakup.
05:10It's important to remember that both Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose had already shed the last bits of their shield persona over five years prior.
05:17It took Roman Reigns quite a few years, all the way until 2020,
05:21to be able to wield enough backstage influence that he could go straight to the boss and demand a complete change in direction.
05:28That change would happen courtesy of the pandemic, with Roman Reigns changing his appearance while retaining his theme song.
05:34Now, with a completely changed personality, he began wrestling shirtless and showcasing his Greek sculpture of a physique,
05:41something that nobody else in WWE had, further adding to his aura.
05:46This was when there was a calculated, precise change to everything about his character.
05:50For pretty much the first time in his career, Roman Reigns had a greater say in what he was or wasn't going to do.
05:58The result of this was a step-by-step process to establish the Tribal Chief character.
06:03In May 2021, nine months into his Universal Championship run,
06:08Roman Reigns took the final step in his evolution and changed his theme song,
06:12fully detaching himself from the shield after a month shy of seven years.
06:17This was probably one of the most important theme song changes in WWE history.
06:22Paul Heyman did an interview with Complex shortly after Roman Reigns got the new theme,
06:27and said that it was the final step away from the shield.
06:31Both the Wise Man and Roman Reigns desired four changes.
06:35A change in mannerism, a change in presentation, a change in hairstyle, and a change in look.
06:42The new theme song fell into the first two categories.
06:45Considering that Roman Reigns' run as the Tribal Chief has turned out to be his magnum opus,
06:50the Head of the Table song perfectly represented that.
06:53The biggest reason why Roman Reigns took seven years to detach from the shield
06:58boils down to WWE's constant use of the shield's popularity as a crutch to get fans to accept him.
07:04As it turns out, it was really one of the biggest reasons why Roman Reigns struggled to attain the same acceptance
07:10that Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose had already achieved years before.
07:14It isn't that Roman Reigns' shield story is completely, 100% done.
07:19It's just that in recent years, the shield has been used as a ghost of the past
07:23that occasionally comes back to bite Roman Reigns in a big way.
07:27Like when Seth Rollins used their past in their 2022 Royal Rumble feud
07:31by entering with the shield's music and tactical vest.
07:41Or when Sami Zayn hit Roman Reigns with a steel chair when he had his back turned.
07:45Or even Rollins' involvement in the main event of Wrestlemania 40
07:48that directly led to the Tribal Chief's downfall.
07:51The difference between then and now is that Roman Reigns has fully come into his own.
07:56In that same interview we mentioned earlier that Paul Heyman did with Complex,
08:00the wise man put it best.
08:02He said that the new theme song was better than the shield's theme
08:05because it belongs to Roman Reigns and nobody else.
08:09He said that they weren't resting on what was,
08:12they were invoking the future and not reminding you of the past.
08:15He said, with respect to the past, we're bringing it forward.
08:19And boy oh boy, did they succeed.
08:22Thank you so much for watching.
08:24If you liked this video, we suggest you check out our video
08:27on the insane psychology of Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns.