Kemo
03-10-2019, 08:24 PM
On the very same night that Roman Reigns revealed that he was once again battling leukemia, WWE would pull the trigger on turning Dean Ambrose heel. Ambrose and Seth Rollins, Reigns’ Shield partners, would successfully capture the WWE RAW tag team championships prior to Ambrose assaulting Rollins.
Rolling from a harsh, real-life announcement, and then folding aspects of it into a storyline would always prove to be a divisive creative choice. It’s something that Reigns is acutely aware of.
Speaking with Yahoo! Sports, Reigns reflected on that night, relinquishing the Universal Championship, and then watching this new chapter to the Shield’s legacy unfold.
“[…] it’s hard,” Roman confessed. “The majority of the time, we’re just factoring in Roman, the character, but who I really am, Joe, was all over that first segment. We really broke the fourth wall down and it was so real it changed the dynamic of the crowd and emotion. It’s like hitting a wall almost in a car wreck, getting that kind of news.”
He continued, “For me, as Joe, it was hard to tell, but as Roman, I just thought ‘next man up’ like in any professional sport or form of entertainment, the show must go on. I felt comfortable with that fact that we need to continue to entertain our fans, push these storylines and our product. As long as I was on board with it, it wasn’t going to be tasteless. I think it came off great, it had such a huge impact that night.”
Thankfully, Roman Reigns has since returned, announcing he is in remission. In another interview, he discussed this ‘show must go on’ mentality, so it’s no surprise that he was understanding of WWE’s intentions.
Rolling from a harsh, real-life announcement, and then folding aspects of it into a storyline would always prove to be a divisive creative choice. It’s something that Reigns is acutely aware of.
Speaking with Yahoo! Sports, Reigns reflected on that night, relinquishing the Universal Championship, and then watching this new chapter to the Shield’s legacy unfold.
“[…] it’s hard,” Roman confessed. “The majority of the time, we’re just factoring in Roman, the character, but who I really am, Joe, was all over that first segment. We really broke the fourth wall down and it was so real it changed the dynamic of the crowd and emotion. It’s like hitting a wall almost in a car wreck, getting that kind of news.”
He continued, “For me, as Joe, it was hard to tell, but as Roman, I just thought ‘next man up’ like in any professional sport or form of entertainment, the show must go on. I felt comfortable with that fact that we need to continue to entertain our fans, push these storylines and our product. As long as I was on board with it, it wasn’t going to be tasteless. I think it came off great, it had such a huge impact that night.”
Thankfully, Roman Reigns has since returned, announcing he is in remission. In another interview, he discussed this ‘show must go on’ mentality, so it’s no surprise that he was understanding of WWE’s intentions.