Yes R26... here is synopsis. It's off the top of my head, so a few things may be a little off...
Roman Brady "died" after a fight with Stefano on a cliff on one of Steffy's islands.
About a year later (give or take) everybody wanted "The Pawn". The Pawn was a bandaged man who Victor and his henchman (Alex, Savannah, and Nurse Honeycutt) wanted to control and the ISA was also desperate to discover what the Pawn was.
Patch (then a bad guy who worked Victor) got the Pawn away from Victor and Nurse Honeycutt, and kept him hidden as leverage to get money from Victor.
The Pawn de-bandaged himself and got away from Patch.
The Pawn went to a soup kitchen where he met Marlena and called himself John Black after seeing the name on a plague on the wall.
Marlena helps John Black try to remember who he really is. He has Roman memories, but he also has a big phoenix tattoo on his sexy back. So Marlena is turned on and frightened at the same time, but begins falling in love.
We eventually learn that John Black is Roman Brady with a new face, a few inches taller, hairier, and sexier. And John also remembers that he's Roman. This is all took place during a location shoot in West Virginia, I think. Doc brings him home as Roman. Little Carrie is the only one who doubts that he is Roman, but eventually she comes around.
Fast Forward to about 1991. Doc is back from the grave and Roman is torn between Marlena and Isabella. Meanwhile... we discover a man who looks like original recipe Roman is being held in some type of jail. This man is shown video of Doc and Roman and he asks who is this impostor with his wife and kids. Freeze frame... end credits. (Remember those?)
Real Roman gets out of that jail comes to Salem... Drama and confusion ensue. Eventually we learn that he's Roman and fake Roman goes back to being John Black. We also learn this was all a big Steffy plot to destroy his greatest enemy Roman Brady. So John goes with Isabella. Real Roman gets back with Doc and they all lived happily ever after.
Then we have a story where we learn that John was really Forrest Alamain, Lawrence Alamain's presumed dead little brother.
Fast forward to about 1993, Isabella is dead from cancer and Marlena and Roman are having problems because Doc is working too much and things don't seem right between them. John and Marlena get stuck in pit for weeks thanks to Stella Lombard, and then are rescued, and guess what... old feelings resurface. John and Marlena start fucking and have a steamy affair. They break things off, Marlena is pregnant, Sami gets into the hospital computer and changes the paternity results, and John gets involved with a mystery woman named Kristen Blake. We learn that Kristen is Stefano's adopted daughter and is engaged to Stefano's son Tony (who is now retconned back to being his son again). It is also during this time we learn that Stefano tortured John and turned him into the Pawn and that John is Stefano's greatest enemy. The feud with Roman and Roman being his greatest enemy is pushed to background and then sort of forgotten. And ever since it's been John versus Stefano.
