Paul Heyman discussed Roman Reigns’ WWE hiatus during the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020 in an interview with Raj Prashad of Uproxx.com.
“He considered himself retired. He wasn’t coming back. I was executive director of Monday Night Raw, and Roman was assigned to SmackDown. But every week I heard all the SmackDown writers and producers and personnel saying, ‘God, I just wish Roman would come back.’ And I would ask, has anybody talked to him? Yeah, he says he’s retired. He’s not coming back. No way. Thanks a lot. Done. Finished. Goodbye.
So the fact that he came back for this run, for what we have accomplished, is nothing short of a miracle because as far as he was concerned, he was out.”
Reigns would return at Summerslam 2020 and then win the Universal title shortly thereafter at the Payback PLE.
