Roman Reigns was able to improve even WWE’s roughest creative ideas, according to former company writer and producer Chris Dunn.
During his appearance on the Public Enemies Podcast, Dunn was asked whether he ever saw Reigns stuck with material that was not working and whether The Tribal Chief was able to elevate it once the idea reached television. The question came after the hosts brought up Reigns’ infamous dog food feud with King Corbin, a storyline that Dunn made clear he was not trying to defend.
Dunn explained that a major part of working on WWE creative was dealing with ideas that were already moving forward, whether the writers loved them or not. Sometimes, the job was not turning a weak concept into something great. It was simply trying to keep it from becoming a complete disaster on television.
“There are so many bad ideas and sometimes you’re moving forward with a bad idea. So, it’s like, how do you either make a bad idea as good as possible and watchable?”
“Sometimes, like, it sucks to say this, sometimes getting bad to watchable is the job.”
When the conversation shifted specifically to Reigns, Dunn praised him for consistently raising the level of whatever WWE handed him.
“Roman always made things better.”
Dunn pointed to Reigns’ feud with John Cena as a period where he felt Roman reached another level, both as a performer and as someone willing to speak up when creative needed work. Dunn also said fans often do not realize that when a bad storyline reaches television, the original version may have been even worse before talent and creative tried to clean it up.
“I think that especially after his Cena feud, he really took off in a big way.”
“Roman would go and he would advocate, you know, if there was an issue, but I think you see it, like, Roman — and you see it now especially that he has so much control over his creative — like, Roman always elevates whatever he’s in.”
“If something’s, like, really bad, like a lot of times, like, the initial idea was much worse.”
Reigns eventually became the centerpiece of WWE through his Tribal Chief run, but Dunn’s comments suggest his ability to carry difficult material was already recognized before he reached that level of control. That kind of trust does not happen overnight, and it certainly does not happen unless the talent repeatedly proves he can survive ideas that would sink other performers.
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