Former WWE Chairman Vince McMahon wanted to keep Roman Reigns as ‘The Big Dog’ and was not initially sold on the ‘Tribal Chief’ concept that Paul Heyman pitched, according to Heyman himself. Had Heyman not won that argument, the most dominant WWE run of the modern era might never have happened.
Speaking with Chris Van Vliet, Heyman explained that when he first floated the Tribal Chief idea, McMahon pushed back on the name.
The first time I came up with tribal chief. Vince said ‘Really? You want to call him the Tribal Chief?'” Heyman recalled.
When Van Vliet asked what McMahon wanted instead, Heyman kept it simple:
Oh, the big dog, Roman Reigns.
Why Heyman Pushed For A Full Reset
For Heyman, a cosmetic rebrand was not enough. He also refused to take the on-screen “advocate” title, because that role belonged to Brock Lesnar. If Roman was changing, everything around him had to change too.
Still be the big dog. And, and I his advocate, Paul Heyman, I thought, I can’t be his advocate. It was Brock Lesnar’s advocate. We have to have to be something different to Roman Reigns. Roman Reigns has to be different. You got to pull the trigger on this. This has to be as much of a seismic shift as the Dead Man becoming the American Badass. This is a whole new character. This is a whole new persona,” Heyman said.
That comparison to The Undertaker’s American Badass run framed the scale of the overhaul Heyman wanted. New title, new energy, new presence, a completely different version of Roman.
Roman Reigns Had To Grow Into The Tribal Chief
Heyman also argued that Reigns, who is the current World Champion, could not have played the character any earlier in his career. He needed time to develop into the role.
And he could not have played this persona earlier because he was too young to do it. He needed to weather the storms to become the Tribal Chief. We grew up with him almost, almost like he was a child star, in that we saw him from his young days fresh out of college, and he grew into this Tribal Chief,” Heyman said.
Heyman covered related ground when he discussed a failed partnership with an AEW star in the same conversation.
In the end, WWE pulled the trigger. The Big Dog gave way to the Tribal Chief, and Reigns became the biggest version of himself.