This Monday night on Raw, Roman Reigns beat three other men to become the No. 1 contender in front of a surprisingly supportive audience. After a rough year filled with some ups, and and a lot of downs, it seems like Roman Reigns may finally have beaten the backlash to his ill-received WrestleMania mega push.
With Reigns seemingly on the cusp of becoming a true top star, it’s interesting to hear him reflect back on his turbulent 2015, which he recently did on the Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast. According to Roman, winning the Royal Rumble was both the best and worst thing to ever happen to him, and he was pretty much dead sure his spot was going to end up going to Daniel Bryan.
“Royal Rumble was, like, the best and worst moment of my life. Literally the best opportunity, to have the main-event of WrestleMania, but I couldn’t think that way, because I kept thinking, I’m not going to be in it. I just felt like Bryan and his momentum… and it was just going to happen to me, particularly when we went into Fastlane.”
Ultimately, though, Reigns did get his WrestleMania moment, and his main-event against Brock Lesnar was certainly memorable. More of a fight than a wrestling match. Reigns talked about his mindset going into the battle, and having the guts to punch Brock Lesnar in the face for reals.
“That was the goal, man. It’s WrestleMania. I fear, but I don’t fear other men. There’s no scared in me when it comes to defending myself or being in combat. It was my goal to make him look different. I hit him right in the mouth first. I kept punchin’ and he kept throwin’ and that’s just the way it was. It’s Brock Lesnar. He threw me around like a rag doll just like he does, and I hit hard and I hit often just like I do. It was really neat, and if we never do it again, I’m happy with that. My body finally feels okay from that, but it took a while, man.”
Moving onto a more recent feud, Bray Wyatt taunting Reigns with laser-printed screenshots of his daughter was brought up. You can blame Roman for the lameness of that angle, although on the other hand, you can’t really blame him.
“It was rough. There was a reason we did it the way we did it. I wasn’t crazy about it. You saw the picture, it was actually our PSA fatherhood picture. It wasn’t something that came from my home, so that’s why I was okay with it. If you saw, we didn’t touch on it much after. Too much is too much.”
Finally, Roman talked about his philosophy going forward, making his career what he wants it to be and how grown dudes getting mad about wrestling is kind of silly.
“I’ve been so fortunate to do so many incredible things in such a short time. I came into this business with a plan, bucket list stuff, goals to check off. I didn’t think I’d do the stuff I’ve done so far, and as quickly. But it wasn’t even perfect. It was the best stuff to happen to me, but it wasn’t even exactly like I pictured it. God willing, I still have an opportunity to make it what I want it to be. Instead of my ‘Mania sign going off and “boo” and guys flipping me off. Why are you flipping me off? What did that do? [Laughs]. Grown men, and it’s always grown men, too; 30-year-old with their kids next to them.”
We’ll see how Roman Reigns’ latest ascent to the top goes, although it certainly seems like he has his head screwed on better this time around. If you’d like to listen to the full interview, you can do that at the link below.
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