Roman Reigns, Conrad Thompson & The Overrated Conversation
There I was, browsing social media, and I see that there’s a bunch of discourse about Roman Reigns, his overall career, and where he should (and shouldn’t) rank when it comes to pro wrestling’s all-time great performers.
I read some tweets, then read some more tweets. There were lots of opinions being thrown around, coming from just about every corner of the wrestling world.
After doing a bit of research, I discovered that the entire debate started because of something that none other than Conrad Thompson said on one of the many podcasts he co-hosts.
During an episode of 83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff, Conrad went off on Roman, calling him “probably the most overrated main eventer in WWE history,” saying that he doesn’t think WWE’s fortunes would change at all if Roman were to disappear tomorrow.
Since the clips of his comments began circulating on social media, Conrad has been going back-and-forth with a lot of fans in an attempt to defend his thoughts.
His main points in his back-and-forth tweets seem to revolve around his opinion that, unlike every other “top guy” in WWF/WWE history, Roman has been heavily dependent on a manager during the majority of the last six years.
“Stone Cold” Steve Austin didn’t need a manager once he broke away from Ted DiBiase. The Rock didn’t need a manager. Hulk Hogan didn’t need a manager. John Cena didn’t need a manager. “Macho Man” Randy Savage didn’t need a manager. Randy Orton didn’t need a manager. Bret “The Hitman” Hart didn’t need a manager. Shawn Michaels didn’t need a manager.
The list goes on and on and on.
Yes, some of those names have had managers at various points in their careers, but their success wasn’t solely based on the work that those managers did. Savage was a legend with and without Miss Elizabeth. Hogan was a legend with and without Jimmy Hart, and the same goes for Bret Hart.
Conrad’s point is that Roman was only able to reach a certain point in his career until he was paired with Paul Heyman. He feels that it’s Heyman, not Roman himself, that deserves the credit for everything Roman has accomplished since 2020.
The people seem to be split down the middle on that point.
What is undeniable, no matter what side of the debate you land on, is that Roman Reigns from 2020 forward is an entirely different Roman Reigns than we saw before 2020.
How much credit does Paul Heyman deserve, though?
He has been fantastic in his role with The Bloodline. There’s no denying that, but when you think of the best manager/wrestler pairings in pro wrestling history, what is an immediate thing that links every duo?
Paul Bearer did almost 100% of the talking for The Undertaker. Jim Cornette did most of the mic work for The Midnight Express. Paul Heyman himself did damn near all of the talking for Brock Lesnar.
It’s one of the biggest and most obvious benefits of managers in wrestling. You take a wrestler that may not be the best on the microphone, pair them with someone who can do the talking for them, and it is a proven recipe for success time and time again.
That’s not the case with Roman Reigns and Paul Heyman. Sure, Heyman did his share of talking during promos and backstage segments, but Roman was doing a lot of the talking, and that’s a major part of why his “Tribal Chief” stood out so much in the first place.
I’ve said this repeatedly… Paul Heyman is the greatest manager in pro wrestling history, and I don’t think it’s particularly close anymore. However, I do think that the Roman Reigns character we’ve seen over the last six years is a character that would’ve succeeded on his own, or even with another manager.
The more I think about things, though, the more I do have to focus on the first half of Roman’s WWE career. When The Shield first debuted, everyone was super excited to see Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose on the main roster, and rightfully so. Tyler Black and Jon Moxley were some of the biggest independent wrestling stars of their generation, and they had both done some really fun and entertaining work while in FCW and NXT before getting called up.
I was surprisingly one of the first people to publicly state that Roman Reigns would be the biggest star of the three Shield members when all was said and done. The reason I say it’s a surprise is because… well… look at him! There wasn’t a chance in hell that, in a Vince McMahon-led WWE, Roman wasn’t going to be pushed to the top.
Once Roman was pushed to the top, it really was every bit as bumpy a road as Conrad Thompson says it was. He was pushed, pushed again, pushed some more, and pushed yet again, all without ever truly being accepted by live crowds.
You could make the argument that Roman wasn’t truly accepted as a top babyface until the night he revealed to the world that he had leukemia. That night was clearly bigger than pro wrestling, and thankfully, the WWE Universe reacted as such, even after he returned and revealed that he was in remission.
So, my first major question is this…
How much does the failure of the first half of Roman’s run as a main event talent affect the success of the second half of his run as a main event talent, and vice versa?
What is “overrated,” anyway?
Roman was the poster boy of an era in WWE history when the company was going creatively bankrupt, led by an aging Vince McMahon, who had long since run out of any good ideas, both in and out of wrestling.
At the same time, he has become the poster boy of an era in WWE history when the company was going through an unprecedented unknown that was the COVID pandemic, keeping interest on the product with the incredibly well-received Bloodline story, making sure that said interest remained high as the world opened up again and fans were allowed to attend shows once more. Year in and year out, he has been the top guy during the most financially successful period in company history.
By the way, these post-COVID years have been breaking every record for revenue and income in the books, but do you know what records those years were breaking? The years prior to COVID… you know, the years when Roman was first reaching the top. I’m not saying… I’m just saying.
Does WWE like to label him as one of their all-time greats? Yes. They sure do. He is having one of the longest runs at the top of anyone in company history, has been involved in the main event of more WrestleManias in history, and has been the face of the company for their 11 most money-making years ever. Those are things that are facts. We’re not talking about subjective things like who had better matches, who cut better promos, and things like that.
Is he one of WWE’s all-time greats? Yes. He sure is. You don’t have a list of accomplishments like that and not get to be involved in the GOAT conversation. He’s not at the top… and he might not even be on the Mount Rushmore… but he’s in the conversation nonetheless. If YOU have Roman at the top or on your Mount Rushmore, that’s fine. I don’t think I can have him ahead of John Cena, Hulk Hogan, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, and The Rock when it comes to strictly WWE careers, though.
If you were to say he’s overrated, I’d allow your argument if you’re talking about how much weight that first half of his run at the top carries.
The MOST overrated, though? As the great philosophers Daryl Franklin Hohl and John William Oates once said… I can’t go for that.
Roman isn’t overrated like, say, Bob Backlund. I get it… Bob Backlund was a tremendous technical wrestler, coming to the pro game after a successful career as a collegiate amateur wrestler. That’s cool and all, but even in the prime of his career, his style was seen as “slow” and “boring” by many wrestling fans. By the time he returned to the WWF in 1992, he was still an excellent technical wrestler, but he looked like he had stepped out of a time machine that brought him there from the 1930s. Throw in the fact that the man featured very little charisma for the majority of his career, with almost no ability to cut promos, and you have someone who is as close to “forgotten” as that era gets. He didn’t have the pizazz that “Superstar” Billy Graham had, or the overall dominance that Bruno Sammartino had, and the most memorable part of his title reign is the fact that he dropped the belt to The Iron Sheik, which then set up the birth of Hulkamania a month later.
I’ve even seen people make lengthy arguments that The Undertaker might be the choice for the most overrated “top guy” in company history. You know the debate against him… despite the longevity of his career, he was never once THE guy. A lot of his “special attraction” years were spent with him having bad matches against bad opponents in bad feuds. I had to think about it, and he was probably with the company for about six years before he even had his first remotely good match. Is that strictly his fault? No, but that’s not the point of activities such as this. If Roman gets punished because of Vince McMahon’s poor decision making, and if Bob Backlund gets punished because of the era he happened to be born in, then Taker gets punished for the writing he was given.
Anyway, my point is that I find it silly that Roman is even mentioned in a conversation about the most overrated main event performers in WWF/WWE history. Even discussing subjective topics in a highly subjective art, that’s an asinine “take.”
Since we’re all here, we might as well discuss the other portion of Conrad’s opinion. He said that the WWE’s fortunes wouldn’t change at all if Roman were to disappear tomorrow.
There’s a couple ways you can approach that argument.
One way is to point out that WWE had a revenue number of $1.709 billion in 2025, with an operating income of $896.5 million, both of which are all-time records. Those numbers mean that WWE would be able to operate on the same level, no matter which “piece” you took away. If Roman disappeared tomorrow, the WWE machine would continue moving along. The same could be said for CM Punk, Cody Rhodes, Rhea Ripley, Seth Rollins, Drew McIntyre, LA Knight, Oba Femi, Becky Lynch, Randy Orton, Kevin Owens, or anyone else even remotely close to the “top” of the card. Same goes for Paul Levesque on the creative side of things, as well as Dwayne Johnson on the corporate side of things. Whether you love WWE or hate everything they do, the numbers don’t lie.
Does that make everyone I just mentioned “overrated” in this debate? Should we be bashing them all for podcast views? Pointing out that a single cog (no matter how big the cog) in a multi-billion dollar wheel wouldn’t be enough to stop said wheel isn’t saying much.
To further that point, look at what happened to the company when ALL of their iconic names left, either through retirement or moving on to another company. Bruno Sammartino, Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart, Steve Austin, The Rock, Shawn Michaels, The Undertaker, John Cena, and on and on and on… when they left, did the company fall apart? There were even some “doom and gloom” types that wondered if the company could possibly shut down without the star power and money-making abilities of these stars, but again, the machine continues moving right along.
This entire discourse is so weird to me, but there are two parts of it that really stand out above all else.
One, have you listened to live crowds at any point recently when Roman is in the building? Does that sound like the reaction to someone that is “overrated?” He is still the biggest star in the business by leaps and bounds, and he will remain so until the day he retires. Live crowds from all over the globe are treating the man like one of the all-time greats. That’s what matters the most to WWE, and that’s how it should be. The average ticket-buying fan’s reaction should matter much more than that of a podcast host, a wrestling columnist, or someone who tweets about wrestling all day.
What has really had me scratching my head, though, is Conrad’s seemingly mega shift in the way he views Roman Reigns. Admittedly, I don’t listen to as many of Conrad’s podcasts these days as I used to, but almost everything I’ve ever heard him say about Roman, The Bloodline, and everything over the last few years has been positive, with glowing reviews left and right.
Maybe someone reading this will be a regular listener to all of Conrad’s work, but has something changed with how he views Roman? What happened? It went from total praise to all but calling Roman a fucking bum. Did Roman not sell him one of his title belts? Was Roman supposed to be a guest on a podcast, only to no-show? Did he just decide he wanted more podcast views and social media clicks? Will we ever find out the true reason behind all this? Why is Jadakiss as hard as it gets?
Honestly, this is yet another example of the huge difference between opinions on Kehlani’s internet and the opinions of the live, in-person wrestling fans. There has always been a huge gap between the two groups, but to me, it seems like that gap is only getting wider as time goes on. One of the most egregious examples of it in recent times was the way Jey Uso was received as he was pushed to the World Heavyweight Title. If you read anything about him online, it was almost always negative, with people being tired of the “yeet” catchphrase, and saying he can’t wrestle, and so on. Then, when you watch him appear on WWE programming, you see crowds all over creation losing their minds for him, and not just during his entrance, either.
It’s the “hot take” society we live in. People get any sort of platform, no matter how big or small, and they need to push forth their outrageous opinions in an attempt to get views, clicks, and God forbid, make a little money because of it.
Trust me, even with the platform I’ve been afforded for the last couple decades (!!!), I understand the pull of something like that. If I titled my column “Why Rhea Ripley Is A Star,” it’s going to get a certain amount of attention, but if the column is titled “I’d Rather Perform My Own Colonoscopy Than Watch A Rhea Ripley Match,” it’s going to get a lot more people taking notice. I’ve always been someone who has taken pride in avoiding titles like that, and in avoiding weird contrarian-like opinions, but again… I understand why it’s an attractive option for some, particularly when financial gain is on the line.
For now, I’m going to enjoy Roman Reigns and his work until he’s no longer around. He’s 41 years old, and continues to have a growing attention from Hollywood, so there’s no telling how many more years he’ll be a wrestler.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go perform my own colonoscopy.
Do you think Roman Reigns, in the grand scheme of things that encompasses his entire career, is the most overrated main event performer in WWE history? In your opinion, do you even think he’s overrated at all? As always, feel free to hit me up in the comments section below, on Twitter (@HustleTheSavage), or on Bluesky (@aaronhyden.bsky.social), and let me know what’s on your mind.
Now, let’s switch things over to my Weekly Power Rankings before closing it out with the list of songs I was listening to as I put this column together.
Weekly Power Rankings
Kyle Fletcher vs “Speedball” Mike Bailey: With the loss, Speedball now falls to 0-9 in AEW matches where he competes for singles titles, including 0-4 (for four different titles) over the last two-and-a-half months. He still seems like someone that is going to overcome the obstacles at some point, but it’s still something interesting to follow.
CM Punk & Kevin Owens: Two of the best “talkers” of the last 20-some years, building their upcoming match against each other in the best way they know how… promo work. Great stuff from both men here. Combined, Punk and KO have been pro wrestlers for nearly 55 years, and have wrestled almost everywhere there is to wrestle… and yet, this will be the first time they ever share a ring together for a match. That blows my mind.
Will Ospreay vs Mark Davis: A really fun battle between two men who know each other very well, going back to their days as stablemates in United Empire. Ospreay continues to build towards the biggest match of his life, and this was a smart way to get him one step closer.
Kendal Grey vs Lola Vice: If I were to make a list of my current favorite wrestlers, Kendal Grey is either at the very top of the list, or she’s competing for the top spot. Everything she does seems to win me over more and more, and she is becoming someone I truly enjoy seeing on a weekly basis.
Tatum Paxley: She finally made her main roster debut, and what a spot to do it in… during the main event of Smackdown, coming to the aid of Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss, forming a very interesting and intriguing trio to feud with Fatal Influence, who currently hold the WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles. If she is able to do the things she was able to do in NXT, Smackdown crowds are going to love her.
Andrade El Idolo vs Komander vs Tommaso Ciampa: Another match featuring a fun clash of styles, and if you’ve paid any attention to my work, you know how much I love matches of that nature.
Becky Lynch & Stephanie Vaquer: Two huge returns in one segment, and just like that, the Raw women’s division is reloaded. It’s great to see both women back again.
Ricochet, Bishop Kaun & Toa Liona vs “Hangman” Adam Page, Bandido & Brody King: In last week’s Weekly Power Rankings, while congratulating Ricochet, Kaun, and Liona on winning the AEW Trios Titles, I almost made a joke about how the titles didn’t matter and their reign as champions would probably only last a week, anyway. Guess what happened? Their reign as champions only lasted a week. Damn, I wish I would’ve kept the joke in. The match was really fun, but the titles just aren’t what they used to be.
Royce Keys vs Jacob Fatu: Two big, badass dudes beating the hell out of each other. Nothing more, nothing less. What more do you need here?
Adam Copeland, Christian Cage & The Young Bucks vs Jon Moxley, Daniel Garcia, Pac & Wheeler Yuta: Lots of spots in front of a raucous, appreciative crowd. I’m glad that Adam Copeland was able to check “wrestle in Arena Mexico” off of his career bucket list, as well.
Mistico, Chris Jericho & Darby Allin vs Kevin Knight, Kazuchika Okada & Hechicero: So many different in-ring styles here, and they all came together nicely to put on an entertaining match in front of… yes… a raucous, appreciative crowd.
Brad Baylor & Ricky Smokes vs Myles Borne & Tavion Heights: I write about how Tavion Heights deserves more in his career, and then he wins the NXT Tag Team Titles with Myles Borne the following day. Coincidence? Yes. Cool moment? Yes. Coincidence? Yes.
Je’Von Evans vs “All Ego” Ethan Page: Hey, Je’Von wasn’t wrestling Rusev in some way, shape, or fashion! Hooray for something “different!” It’s progress. I’ll take it.
Ace Austin vs Claudio Castagnoli: In no universe was Claudio ever going to lose this match, but once again, that’s modern television wrestling for you… wrestlers go out there and have a good match on television, with the match lasting a bit longer than it probably needed to, and the expected outcome eventually takes place. It has been nine-and-a-half months since Ace has won a singles match on AEW television, so it’s not like you should expect him to win matches like this.
Big Cass: He made his rumored return to WWE, showing up with the company for the first time in over eight years. It was a little odd seeing him, though, as those aforementioned rumors stated he would be returning alongside Enzo Amore, but there was no Enzo in sight here. Even with Cass being in the best physical condition of his career, and with an impressive run in AEW (when they remembered he was on the roster), there are a lot of fans who feel he can’t succeed in WWE without Enzo. We’ll see how that all plays out, but for now, he looked like a solid monster heel in showing up and attacking Je’Von Evans. Those two should be able to have some really good matches against each other.
This Week’s Playlist: “Paradise” by Brandon Flowers… “Still” by KAROL G & Bruno Mars… “Madness” by Ceremony… “4.3 Forty” by Knox… “Where The Quiet Devours Me Whole” by Like Moths To Flames… “GOING UNDER” by Sueco & Paledusk… “All That 2 Me” by one vo1ce… “Here I Go” by one vo1ce… “Before U Go Tomorrow” by one vo1ce… “I Got A Man” by Positive K… “Goin’ Crazy” by Natalie… “Wat Da Hook Gon Be” by Murphy Lee & Jermaine Dupri… “Beautiful” by Roy Woods… “An Open Letter To NYC” by Beastie Boys… “It’s Tricky” by Run-DMC… “Walk This Way” by Run-DMC & Aerosmith… “Rock Box” by Run-DMC… “Down With The King” by Run-DMC, Pete Rock & CL Smooth… “Can’t Truss It” by Public Enemy… “The Breaks” by Kurtis Blow