Roman Reigns puts a lot of value into his relationship, on-screen and off, with Paul Heyman.
Reigns and Heyman aligned in August 2020 following Roman's return to WWE at SummerSlam after being on hiatus due to the pandemic before WrestleMania 36. The partnership between the two has paid dividends for both men as Heyman has stepped into more of a background role and Reigns has asserted himself as the head of the WWE table.
Speaking to CBS Sports, Reigns discussed how much Heyman has helped his character on television and behind the scenes.
"He's just a pleasure to be around," Reigns said of Heyman. "Not only that, to be able to work with him? A lot of people just look at him as this creative genius and someone who is masterful on the microphone. But, the attention to detail is in every area, from anything that I need. This man has gotten me towels from the hotel to make sure they're big enough, to picking me up custom steaks from the butcher last week. This guy does not cut his corners, he really is all hands on deck. It's not just what he does from a creative standpoint or on camera, and he's the greatest of all time with what he does in promoting and selling his athletes and how much demand he puts on the matches he's involved in. He really does anything under the sun to make sure that the talent he's working with is completely comfortable and focused on what they're doing. It's been a pleasure to work with him."
Roman continued by saying, "If something happens and we're no longer on screen together, I don't think I'll ever want to work without him one way or another. Even if we're not a pairing on television anymore, I will still want and need him at television to work with me. Even throughout the week. We'll start texting throughout the week to get ideas and figure out the message we want to get across. It's a weekly battle where we don't always get our way, but we try our best to do that. It's definitely a really neat scenario as far as brainstorming and creative spitballing in trying to push the envelope and create the most sophisticated narrative every week. We say it every week: attention to detail. Those details are what make the product and hook people. We don't want to insult our audience and make them think we feel they're stupid; we know they're not. Especially our hardcore fanbase, they've been watching professional wrestling and sports entertainment for a long time, they've seen it all. So we constantly think about what we can do to be different. What we can do to be better. And what we can do to achieve greatness every single week."
Reigns has been universally praised for his work as WWE Universal Champion on SmackDown.
He is set to defend that title against Kevin Owens in a Last Man Standing match at WWE Royal Rumble on Sunday, January 31. You can view the current lineup for the Royal Rumble event by clicking here.
Fightful will have live coverage of WWE Royal Rumble beginning at 6 p.m. ET on Sunday.
