Wrestling News

Home

Quizzes

Newsletter

wwe.com

Roman Reigns Asked Former Ring Of Honor Star For Help After 2017 John Cena Feud

Originally posted on Wrestling on SI | By Joe Baiamonte | Last updated Jul 4, 2025 12:30 PM ET

While Roman Reigns may have gotten the better of John Cena on each occasion they've met on Pay-Per-View, The Original Tribal Chief was left seeking additional help behind the scenes after his initial feud with the 17-time World Champion, back in 2017.

Rolling into No Mercy of that year, pre-Bloodline era Reigns was still attempting to distinguish himself as The Guy in WWE. Vince McMahon's aim had been to cement Reigns as his next walking tall babyface, following in Cena's footsteps now the former Doctor of Thuganomics was proving to be heavily sought after in Hollywood, much like The Rock before him.

However, Reigns was still being roundly booed in arenas across the country and, in September 2017, was paired with Cena for a 'Dream Match' at No Mercy. The bout was supposed to be a baton passing moment to propel Reigns towards a WWE WrestleMania main event with then Universal Champion Brock Lesnar. And while that match would indeed end up headlining 'Mania 34 in New Orleans the following year, it would prove to be a disaster.

The match with Lesnar was night and day from the classic that closed out WrestleMania 31 three years prior. The crowd, exhausted after sitting in the New Orleans Superdome for almost seven hours, groaned at Reigns being booked to kick out of endless F5's before The Beast eventually elbowed his skull into oblivion and vanquished the challenger with a final F5 to bring a close to one of the most ill received main events in 'Mania history.

But things could have been different for Reigns had a key creative team member at the time not been released in 2017.

In a recent appearance on Café De René, former Ring Of Honor tag team champion Jimmy Jacobs reflected on his time as a writer for WWE, where he worked on Shane McMahon's program with Kevin Owens, as well as the Reigns vs Cena storyline.

“I had a difficult time working for Vince (McMahon). I just wanted to be able to play… I didn’t get fired because I was bad at my job. The last two things I was working on -- on SmackDown, it was Kevin Owens versus Shane McMahon and on Raw, it was John Cena and Roman Reigns and after that John Cena/Roman Reigns story, Roman came up to me and wanted me to be his writer moving forward."Jimmy Jacobs

Reigns' first feud with Cena (they would meet again at SummerSlam in 2021) was quite the humbling experience for the future Tribal Chief, as Cena would cook him on the mic weekly whenever the pair threw down on the microphone.

While Jacobs doesn't mention that Reigns was looking to work with him because of any distaste for the way his writing was being handled at the time, it's not too hard to imagine that was the case, given how readily Cena disposed of The Big Dog in their promos. The scripting for Reigns in this era was questionable at best.

However, Jacobs would soon be fired after taking a photo with The Bullet Club outside of the Toyota Arena in Ontario, California before Monday Night Raw while Cody and Brandi Rhodes, Hangman Page, The Bucks and Marty Scurll were filming the 'Raw Invasion' episode of Being The Elite.

(H/T Fightful for the transcription)

This article first appeared on Wrestling on SI and was syndicated with permission.

More must-reads: