Jim Ross does not expect Roman Reigns to end up in the greatest of all time conversation, but says that has nothing to do with what Paul Heyman brought to him.
Ross was asked about it on Grilling JR by Conrad Thompson, who spent much of this week fielding a reaction to comments he made on 83 Weeks. Thompson had described Reigns as an industry plant, argued that WWE pushed him rather than the audience choosing him, and said his career only turned when Heyman appeared alongside him. Eric Bischoff agreed with him. Thompson put the same case to Ross.
Ross started with Heyman.
“Paul Heyman is invaluable to getting talent over. He’s the Bobby Heenan of this generation, as it relates to bringing a focus to the individual that he’s managing.”
He said the choice of who Heyman works with is deliberate.
“You notice we talked earlier about tag teams and priorities and who you hire. Heyman hasn’t managed a tag team of any sincerity in years, because he knows that his time well spent is with a single, like Brock Lesnar, for example, or Roman Reigns.”
“What he does off camera and behind the scenes with his talents and with other talents is, we’ll never know. I know a lot more than a lot of people because I’ve worked behind the scenes, but he contributes mightily to the build of his talents. He helped Brock Lesnar immensely.”
He was careful about how much credit to transfer, though.
“But you’re not dealing with a raw piece of clay either with Lesnar. He was special. There’ll never be another Brock Lesnar. You look at the listing of his accolades, Conrad, it’ll never be topped ever. And Heyman made sure that he stayed special, because the more special Lesnar is, the more money Heyman makes. And I know Paul Heyman very well, and he really does like to make money, and he’s good at it.”
“He helps those guys so much with their promos and their psychology, or try this, or I don’t think you should do that. It’s amazing. It’s a gift to have him in your corner.”
On Reigns, Ross split the difference.
“Now, as far as Roman is concerned, I love the kid. I think he’s great for the business. I think he’s great for WWE. He looks like a champion. He represents well, but I don’t know what you mean by the greatest of all time or whatever. I don’t know he’ll ever be considered greatest of all time, but he’s always going to be considered as someone that had a great run, and has had a Hall of Fame career without question.”
Ross did not adopt Thompson’s industry plant framing, and did not say Reigns would have failed without Heyman.
Reigns retained the World Heavyweight Championship against Seth Rollins in the main event of SummerSlam night two. Heyman has been on screen alongside him since 2020 and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2024.
