Paul Heyman On Roman Reigns’ New Theme Song: ‘It Was The Final Step Away From The Shield’

Paul Heyman says Roman Reigns’ new theme song was the final step away from his time in The Shield.

Roman Reigns debuted nearly nine years ago at the 2012 Survivor Series event as a member of The Shield alongside Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose, now known as Jon Moxley.

When the group broke up in 2014, Roman Reigns kept the majority of the remnants of the group including the vest, the mannerisms, and the music.

Facing Daniel Bryan on the April 30 episode of Friday Night SmackDown, Roman Reigns finally debuted new entrance music to match his new Tribal Chief persona. Now, his special counsel, Paul Heyman, is opening up about what this latest move means to Roman’s character in an interview with Complex.

“It was the final step away from The Shield. That’s what it was. One of the things that Roman Reigns and I spoke about, with all final decisions being Roman Reigns’. I am Special Counsel to the Tribal Chief, and that’s not just a public persona on television. Behind the scenes, I’m Special Counsel to the Tribal Chief. And one of the many things that we were both desirous of, A. Change the mannerisms. B. Change the presentation. C. Change the hairstyle. D. Change the look.

“He took off the vest, and rightfully so. He changed the music. It was time to change the music. That was The Shield’s theme. Now it’s evolved. Now it’s Roman Reigns’ theme. Now it has nothing to do with The Shield or the members of The Shield. It has evolved. It’s better. We’re not resting on what it was. We are invoking the future. We’re not reminding you of the past. With respect to the past, we’re bringing it forward.”

He continued, “So it’s funny that you mentioned my swagger, coming out with Roman to the new music. Everything about the Roman Reigns presentation needs to circle around Roman Reigns. If you watch Peaky Blinders, everything revolves around how it affects Tommy Shelby. If you had watched the Sopranos, no matter what the side storylines were, it always ended up, how does this affect Tony Soprano? And that’s a central character in any kind of entertainment presentation. And that’s Roman Reigns. So, when it’s the debut of his new music, and there is a certain swagger that Roman Reigns has walking out to the ring, isn’t it incumbent upon all those around him to be in step with that persona so that we are presenting a united front, so that I am simply an extension of the swagger with which Roman Reigns approaches the squared circle.”

Currently, Roman Reigns is building towards a match against Cesaro at WrestleMania Backlash but is also dealing with the returning Jimmy Uso and the internal conflict that resides inside Jey Uso.

Fightful has live coverage of SmackDown every Friday beginning at 8 p.m. eastern