The Bloodline’s legal counsel Paul Heyman recently sat with Rick Rubin for his Tetragrammaton podcast and discussed how far back Roman Reigns was being booked to be the man in WWE. According to Heyman, it all begins with WrestleMania XXX or the Big Dog storyline.
Paul Heyman Ties the Rise of Roman Reigns Becoming the Man in WWE to Brock Lesnar Ending The Undertaker’s Streak
For those who forgot, there was the period when The Undertaker began calling the ring—particularly the SmackDown ring—his yard. It just always remained his yard as he’d just show up when there were shenanigans or someone was being a little too cocky. After former SmackDown GM Teddy Long spammed The Undertaker to deal with annoying heels like an attack dog, he was the Big Dog.
Years later during his babyface run, Roman Reigns referred to himself as the Big Dog and they would clash. Before that, Taker faced Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania XXX in a losing effort to keep the Streak. While the Streak is done, he held the most impressive record and was still that big challenge to face—the ultimate gatekeeper, so to speak.
This really added to Brock Lesnar as he held WWE’s most legendary prize: a win over The Undertaker at WM. According to Heyman, Vince McMahon wasn’t going to have Taker retire with the Streak intact:
“I’m gonna get something out of this. I invested this much into it, and I want something out of it. He just never saw the time yet where he needed it and that was something that was going to be pulled when he needed it.” (h/t: WrestlingNews.co)
Paul Heyman also mentioned that this meant The Undertaker would have to defend the Streak and his yard. All Vince had to do was find a good, big-match challenger for that moment. Taker would win over Bray Wyatt at WM 31 while Reigns and Lesnar failed to defeat Seth Rollins for the World title. Remember at WM XXX, both superstars won their respective matches—as did Rollins.
Then WrestleMania 32 goes down: Brock defeats former The Shield member Dean Ambrose while Taker slams Shane McMahon in Hell in a Cell. We also had Reigns defeating Triple H for the World title. Taker is low on steam at this point but shows up to deal with the new Big Dog in Reigns—only to lose. Reigns would go on to defeat the other part of this trifecta—Brock Lesnar—at SummerSlam 2018.
As Heyman explained it:
“The moment the referee’s hand hits three at WrestleMania XXX, signifying Brock had conquered the streak, and we had someone in mind to be the next big thing, the company’s next big star, the guy that would pull the wagon, the successor to John Cena, the person to become the one who beat the one in 21-1. We had someone in mind, even at that time. Do you know who that person was? Roman Reigns.”
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