Paul Heyman believes that Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns should be honored with an Emmy Award for his contributions to WWE.
Heyman recently told Variety’s Joe Otterson that no WWE Superstar has ever been nominated for an Emmy Award for their work within the company, but he hopes to change that with Reigns.
Heyman has been Reigns’ “special counsel” or “Wise Man” since Reigns debuted his Tribal Chief persona in 2020, and according to Heyman, Reigns’ work since then puts him in the same league as actors like Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad’s Walter White) or the late James Gandolfini (The Sopranos’ Tony Soprano), in that Reigns has crafted a “layered, nuanced persona.”
Heyman praised Reigns for his portrayal of The Tribal Chief, saying he should be recognized by the nearly 20,000 members of the Television Academy who vote on Emmy nominations.
“I will honestly state that I’ll put Roman Reigns and his portrayal of the Tribal Chief up against anybody right now in how he has approached a reality-based character of the top star of the industry,” Heyman said. “And the fact that he’s not recognized by the people that are there to reward such performances with an award, to me, is disconcerting.”
Heyman stated that he and Reigns have meticulously crafted The Tribal Chief’s story over the past two and a half years, and revealed two of the character’s influences: James Cagney’s Rocky Sullivan character in the 1938 “Angels with Dirty Faces” film, and Marlon Brando’s portrayal of Colonel Walter Kurtz in the 1979 “Apocalypse Now” film.
Heyman compares Reigns’ rule over The Island of Relevancy as The Tribal Chief to Kurtz’s rule over the tribe he commands in the seminal Vietnam War film.
“These people that worshipped him that he ruled over, that gave him anything and everything, that wanted to sacrifice for him, put such a pressure and burden — and that’s the word that we always use for the Tribal Chief is the burden — the burden of the responsibility, the burden of the obligation to fulfill the the destiny and the vision for and the obligation and the responsibilities and the accountabilities of the Tribal Chief. He resented them so much for placing that burden on him,” Heyman said.
He continued, “[Roman’s] character is based on the concept of being relevant. That relevancy in and of itself is the opioid that he’s addicted to. That being one of many would be would be the same as being assassinated.”
Heyman continued by saying that he and Reigns are both determined to do things in pro wrestling that have never been done before.
“We’re trying to present a body of work that exceeds all boundaries and limitations that have been imposed upon this industry, either self-imposed or imposed by the predetermined notion of what this business is by the outside world, as evidenced by the fact that we’re sitting here today talking about the unfathomable concept of the Emmy Awards, because a year ago we would have been laughed out of the conversation, but this is what we strive for,” Heyman said.
