After taking a hiatus just before WrestleMania 36, Roman Reigns returned to WWE at SummerSlam 2020 to help kick off the ThunderDome era of the product.
Since then, Reigns has been the top highlight on WWE SmackDown, solidifying his spot as the Tribal Chief and the Head of the Table. While fans credit the likes of Bayley and Sasha Banks for carrying the company through the pandemic, Reigns isn't having it.
"That's my legacy coming out of the ThunderDome. Hands down, without question, it can be debated for great content on social media and WWE.com to put these polls and try to make an argument. But there's no argument. There's been nobody to ever carry the WWE product like I have over the past year and I stand on that. You can throw anybody out. We can try and be nice and say, 'Oh, Bayley! She just got hurt. She was the best.' Come on, let's not lie to ourselves. The Tribal Chief has carried the WWE for well over a year now and there's no denying it," Reigns told Brent Brookhouse of CBS Sports.
With live crowds returning for Friday's WWE SmackDown, Reigns discussed how his mindset will have to change from performing inside the ThunderDome.
"I don't think I can just be stuck in any mindset or any pattern," Reigns said. "Like anything, there's some greatness to being able to evolve and to change. Sometimes there's some growing pains that come with that mindset that you have to get through to find that promised land. For me, I don't think it's something I have to stay concrete with. There's some things I'd like to keep in mind and some of these tools, the ThunderDome was a challenge and you had to show different layers and you had to source different tools and sharpen those tools and work on different parts of the craft. There's a lot of positive things we can carry forward to a live crowd and there's other things we have to adjust and evolve in real time week-to-week.
"Things like the dialogue in-ring, with a live crowd is going to be different, but is also something that can be enhanced. There's different things, such as chants, that can happen within the moment and that's something I'll be able to use to my benefit and use as an interaction tool. The tech is still the same, there's ring mics and the cameras have microphones that can be turned up to pick up the dialogue for the fans at home. At the same time, we want to enhance that live experience and showcase that to people watching at home to influence them to want to come to the actual show. It's something you have to keep in mind but I don't think there are any negatives. It's nothing but positives."
Reigns will be in action on Friday's SmackDown, teaming with The Usos to battle Edge & The Mysterios.
Reigns will also be defending his WWE Universal Championship against Edge at WWE Money in the Bank on Sunday. You can view the current lineup for WWE Money in the Bank by clicking here.
