Vince McMahon has successfully created another Brock Lesnar-type figure in WWE over the past several years who has the ability to dominate his opponents in the ring and also has the ability to generate a polarizing and authoritative aura in the form of Roman Reigns. This process began back in 2015 when Roman won the Royal Rumble match and went on to face the beast in the main event of WrestleMania 31 (and Seth Rollins became known in WWE for cashing in his Money in the Bank contract at WrestleMania – pulling off what would become known as “the Heist of the Century”). Reigns would also be placed in the main event of WrestleMania 34 three years later with Lesnar.
I would imagine Mr. McMahon had to be a little tempted to turn Roman heel at some point between 2015 and 2018 because of just how vocal a small group of the WWE universe was becoming – voicing their displeasure with The Big Dog’s creative direction around his character. Mr. McMahon stuck to his original plan – it would mean so much more if WWE waited a few years to ultimately turn Roman Reigns heel.
This is what Mr. McMahon – and most smart business people understand – that: in order to be successful in whatever business endeavor one decides to undertake, a person’s long-term aspirations can never be sacrificed for whatever he/she wants in the short-term. Smart people are masters at resisting quick gratification by always thinking of their long-term vision first.
Vince McMahon took gradual steps to evolve Roman Reigns into the Tribal Chief that he is now. Instant gratification would have told McMahon to book Roman to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship from Brock Lesnar at ‘Mania 31, but Vince knew that so many more layers would be added to the story if it was extended for a few more years, and it worked beautifully. More meaning was added to the storyline when Roman took yet another lost to Lesnar at Mania three years later, and when he finally won the Universal Title at SummerSlam 2018.
Then there was the leukemia saga, which was an unfortunate and unexpected turn in Roman’s story. However, this absolutely endeared him in the eyes of the WWE universe forever. When the Tribal Chief made his most recent return to WWE at SummerSlam 2020, it was simply crazy how similar it looked to the night after WrestleMania XXVIIII in 2012 when Brock Lesnar returned to WWE to attack John Cena.
Maybe Mr. McMahon was intending to create the next Brock Lesnar all along and not the next John Cena as so many people thought. Roman Reigns did defeat John Cena in September 2017, but maybe that was just a steppingstone for Roman that made perfect sense given that they were both so polarizing along with John having been the face of WWE for about 12 years at that point in time. Vince McMahon could have thought to himself, “instead of making Cena the face of the company, what would have happened if I went with Lesnar? Now I can’t find out because I have basically a carbon copy of The Beast in Reigns, only Roman is much more committed to preserving the health of the business.”