Roman Reigns’ new theme music is his final step away from The Shield

It’s been a long time coming, but Roman Reigns finally debuted his new theme music on the Apr. 30 episode of SmackDown. That enormous moment was the beginning of the end for Daniel Bryan, who was gone from WWE by midnight.

In an interview with Complex, Paul Heyman talked about how he and Roman are all about evolving and moving the business forward. They have no interest in looking back towards the past. With that context in mind, Heyman said that Roman’s new theme music was a necessary step towards finally severing ties with The Shield:

“It was the final step away from The Shield. That’s what it was. One of the things that Roman Reigns and I spoke about, with all final decisions being Roman Reigns’. I am Special Counsel to the Tribal Chief, and that’s not just a public persona on television. Behind the scenes, I’m Special Counsel to the Tribal Chief. And one of the many things that we were both desirous of, A. Change the mannerisms. B. Change the presentation. C. Change the hairstyle. D. Change the look.

He took off the vest, and rightfully so. He changed the music. It was time to change the music. That was The Shield’s theme. Now it’s evolved. Now it’s Roman Reigns’ theme. Now it has nothing to do with The Shield or the members of The Shield. It has evolved. It’s better. We’re not resting on what it was. We are invoking the future. We’re not reminding you of the past. With respect to the past, we’re bringing it forward.”

Paul may think that Roman is completely done with The Shield, and that sure looks like the case right now. But we did get a tease of some conflict between Reigns and Seth Rollins on last night’s (May 7) episode of SmackDown. It’s not the sort of thing that will suddenly have them squaring off in the ring against each other in a heated war. But don’t be surprised if they are going at it by SummerSlam 2021, when WWE looks to return to the road.