By now, we’ve all seen Roman Reigns’s new commercial above. He’s a blue-eyed sad man, unsure of himself, and the opposite of the handsome and unnaturally damp prince we see each week. Snickers gave us the opportunity to chat with Reigns a little to talk about his family, his upcoming match against Brock Lesnar, and yeah, of course, how super strong he is.
On preparing for the biggest match of his career thus far:
There’s no question this is the biggest match of my life. This is, you know, pretty much my whole life going into this. This is what I’ve been working for for a long time now, so I’m super excited. You know, the main thing is to just stick to my guns and have fun.
On that dastardly Paul Heyman interrupting his visit to SportsNation:
Uh, I didn’t mind at all. I think the punching machine was actually happy because I was about to break that thing. Back in my day, I’ve broken a couple of those in Pensacola, Fla., so not only was I going to break the record, but I was gonna break the machine, as well.
On whether or not his family will be there for his big match:
I do! I do. I have my wife and daughter, and my mother and a few of my siblings and a whole bunch of other family members, as well. The majority of family lives on the west coast so its kind of a great homecoming, and such an awesome moment that I’m going to be able to share with so many of my relatives.
How his daughter feels about his match against the absolutely terrifying Brock Lesnar:
Awww, she’s fine. She has faith in her daddy, and she knows I’m going to go out there and do everything I can to bring that title home. I mean, she’s so excited about the opportunities I have. We were able to go to the 49ers facility, she was able to see the Snickers commercial I did, and there are so many awesome things I’ve been able to do.
And, of course, the completely organic segue into how you can enter the Snickers ‘Who Are You When You’re Hungry?’ Contest:
That’s the awesome thing about today, is that anything can happen when you’re hungry, and that’s what we wanna ask you, who are you when you’re hungry? If you have the crazy hungry alter-ego, you just have to enter this contest, and you have to check out the Snickers Facebook page. You’ll get to see my Snickers commercial, and my alter-ego, and if you’ve watched anything I’ve done in WWE, you’re gonna be shocked. You’re gonna be like, “Wait, this isn’t adding up. Who is this guy?” And then you’re gonna see me bite into that Snickers bar, and everything comes back.
You know, it’s funny. You enter an interview expecting a guy to use his talking points (he had been at it for two hours before my turn came up), but you don’t really expect to come away liking the person a little bit more.
Roman Reigns is the epitome of a square peg right now. His new shirt basically tells us that he’s gonna be something big whether we like it or not, and it’s hard not to bristle under that kind of attitude. I think we often forget that while we’re supposed to be invested in these characters, these are also just regular dudes trying to do their best. I’m not gonna lie, the most enjoyable part of the conversation was hearing his shift in tone when talking about getting to see his family, and them being there for his big moment. That’s the kind of likable, relatable, genuine stuff that Roman Reigns the character just doesn’t have right now, and to be honest, it’s kind of a bummer.
Maybe you should buy a Snickers for the sad, handsome prince, and keep your fingers crossed that whatever happens with his match against Brock Lesnar, we get more of that charismatic punchy dude we loved from The Shield, and less… whatever it is they’re trying to make us love right now.
