Roman Reigns appeared on First Take this week ahead of his Undisputed WWE Universal Championship match against Jey Uso at SummerSlam on Saturday night in Detroit. It was, apparently, supposed to be a standard promotional appearance ahead of WWE’s second biggest live event of the year, and then, Stephen A. Smith walked backstage and saw that Paul Heyman was there.
According to Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated, Smith was the driving force behind Heyman appearing on set. This was because once Smith found out Heyman was in the building, he made it a point to get him involved.
Smith saw Heyman when he greeted Reigns. That led to a discussion with his producer, and the decision was quickly reached that Heyman should also appear on the show.
Smith’s producer made that request to Reigns, who approved of the addition. That ultimately led to Heyman’s ingenious insults of Bobby “The Brain” Heenan and the “Mouth of the South” Jimmy Hart on First Take.
It ended up being an excellent idea by Smith, in large part Heyman appearing alongside Reigns just felt right. It helps, of course, that Heyman knocked his appearance out of the park, calling himself the “greatest of all time” while a 100 percent captivated Smith egged him on.
"Screw him he's dead."
– Paul Heyman on Bobby Heenan being the GOAT Manager
(First Take) https://t.co/VMTHMwq3e0— WrestlePurists (@WrestlePurists) August 1, 2023
Whether or not this was all a means to an end for Smith so he can achieve his well-documented goal of appearing at WrestleMania remains to be seen, but we have to give it to him: this was very good television.
