CM Punk, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins brawl ahead of their WrestleMania 41 main event.
Credit: WWE
Seth Rollins beat Roman Reigns and CM Punk in an instant classic as Paul Heyman turned on his best friend and his Tribal Chief to become the Visionary’s Visionary.
As promised, Paul Heyman proudly walked out with CM Punk, even kissing Punk on the forehead before Punk’s famed “it’s clobbering time!” taunt. The match started with Roman Reigns passive-aggressively putting his Ula Fala necklace in the corner instead of giving them to his Wiseman. As Reigns pummeled Punk early, he creamed at Heyman in a mixture of rage and jealously.
Heyman remained conflicted throughout this entire main event, wearing his complicated emotions on his tailored sleeves and his spray-tanned face.
Reigns, Punk, Rollins and Heyman deftly mixed storytelling, emotion, false finishes and well-timed Triple Threat spots in a rollercoaster of a WrestleMania match.
The match ended when Heyman turned on both Punk and Reigns with a pair of treacherous low blows on each. Heyman is now aligned with Rollins in what should be a highly entertaining heel battery.
Heyman found himself at the center of a star-studded main event featuring three of WWE’s three biggest stars. With Heyman’s loyalty in question, I asked the Wiseman if he could truly remain loyal to Roman Reigns despite cornering CM Punk. This stipulation was cashed in as a favor that Heyman owed Punk dating back to Survivor Series: WarGames.
“Are you married? (No.) Are you in a relationship? (Yes.) Well, let’s say you’re out with your significant other, and you see an attractive woman,” Heyman began.
“And you say to yourself ‘wow, I’d really like to get with that,’ but you can’t. It’s only a thought. You have a certain loyalty to your partner that will keep you from exploring those options. And it’s the same loyalty I have to my Tribal Chief as his Wiseman. It’s also the same loyalty I have to CM Punk as my best friend.”
Heyman’s dueling loyalties are indicative of one of the most damning traits of his Hall of Fame legacy: A proud manipulator and betrayer. A consummate puppet master who always seems to know where the power lies in the business of wrestling, and never shies away from it.
Even if it’s in the shadows.
Reigns’ cinematic run as a world champion of 1,316 days started with a memorable heel turn. But this wasn’t the type of physical heel turn that led to a shocking reaction from a live audience. That was impossible given WWE’s vaunted pandemic-era shows in the ThunderDome. Instead of a Shawn Michaels superkick or a John Cena low blow, Reigns turned heel with one simple look. One simple pan of a camera.
A pan that revealed Paul Heyman.
Having represented both Punk and Reigns during historically long world title reigns, Paul Heyman seems to take more pride in Roman Reigns’ marathon world title run.
“From 2020 and on, Roman Reigns took this company out of a pandemic, and brought it to new heights that it had never seen before. Record-setting revenue. A multi-billion-dollar deal with Netflix. Sold out arenas and live gate records. That’s Roman Reigns. That’s the Tribal Chief. Roman Reigns was WWE Undisputed heavyweight champion for 1,316 days. So to answer your question, CM Punk’s reign of 434 days was impressive. I was proud to be alongside my best friend CM Punk for all of it. But Roman Reigns and the Bloodline took this company to new heights. Roman Reigns made history.”
Seth Rollins felt like the odd-man out of this equation. Not only had Rollins never been a Paul Heyman guy in the past, but he has also stood out above Reigns and Punk with some of the best promos of his career. Rollins continued to stoke the flames of tension offline, recently calling Roman Reigns a part-timer. While Heyman and Reigns have not been on the same page this WrestleMania season, they were both in agreement on one thing: Despite his relaxed schedule (something he earned as one of WWE’s biggest stars ever), Roman Reigns is not a part-timer.
“It’s funny, because a lot of people call me a part-timer,” Reigns began in a social media post.
“I think people got a lot of things to say about my schedule. I’m no part-timer. I’m a full-time cash cow. Every second that I’m breathing, I’m working. That’s how this whole thing works. Proof of concept, this business lives off me, don’t ever get it confused. Every second that I breathing, I’m working.”
Heyman added color to the part-timer analysis in an exclusive diatribe:
“Was Muhammad Ali a part-timer because he only fought a few times a year? Was seven-time Super Bowl champion, and one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, Tom Brady a part-timer? Because he only plays for five months out of the year? I’m so tired of that word ‘part-timer,’ when if you look at all the greatest athletes and performers of all time, you can easily make an argument that they all have part-time schedules.”
“I resent any distinction of Roman Reigns, the Tribal Chief, being a ‘part-timer,’ especially after he put this entire company on his back and carried them into a new era of success that had never been seen before. Look at the economics. Look at the business landscape of professional wrestling before and after Roman Reigns. Roman Reigns is not a part-timer. Roman Reigns is box office.”
WrestleMania’s box-office main event pitted three icons against each other for top star supremacy. With Rollins playing mind games by suggesting he could become the next Paul Heyman guy, speculation has run rampant that Heyman’s next betrayal will be at the expense of arguably his two biggest clients (Punk and Reigns). Heyman didn’t seem keen on an alliance with Rollins, whom he called “an agitant and a c—t.” But the Wiseman was suspiciously defensive when addressing the possibility of becoming the Visionary’s Visionary.
“What about Seth Rollins? What about Seth Rollins? I have nothing to do with Seth,” said Heyman.
“I don’t know why everybody thinks I have anything to do with Seth Rollins. I’m loyal to my Tribal Chief Roman Reigns. Just like I’m loyal to my best friend CM Punk, who I’ll be walking to the ring with at WrestleMania. I will admit that Seth Rollins has done an incredible job. I think he is one of WWE’s most talented Superstars, and I cannot deny his individual greatness, especially in recent years. He’s made some compelling cases for himself on Raw and SmackDown over the past few months, and he is a legitimate threat to win this match. There’s a reason why Seth Rollins is once again a WrestleMania main eventer. But I am a Wiseman to the Tribal Chief. I am a best friend to the best in the world. I have no connection to Seth Rollins, whatsoever.”
Of course, this turned out to be a complete lie. Paul Heyman did turn his back on his best friend and Tribal Chief. Paul Heyman did align himself with a man whom he called a c—t and an agitant. And at the end of WrestleMania Saturday, Heyman and Rollins joined forces.
In the span of one calendar year, Seth Rollins went from a shield to the sword that stabbed his opps in the back.
All quotes were received firsthand unless otherwise noted.
