On the latest episode of Out of Character with Ryan Satin, WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns spoke on his upcoming SummerSlam main event match against John Cena.
“I think it’s a brilliant idea,” Reigns stated. “If I was him, I’d do the same thing. If I had a couple of movies to promote it and I wanted to make an impact, I’d find the biggest star in sports entertainment and I’d tried to pick a fight. So I think it’s a very clever, very business savvy idea he had. It’s just not going to go the way he wants it.”
Many in the pro wrestling world have acknowledged that Reigns is doing the best work on his career, especially with his promos. Reigns discussed the pressure of being on the mic and getting better in that aspect.
“As an athlete, that’s what I’ve been my whole life,” Reigns said. “I’ve never had much trouble finding my footing within the ring and the physical aspect of the performance, but I think, like anything, finding your voice, it’s a whole different monster, and it’s probably more difficult, especially when you’re dealing with a very large scale public speaking scenario like we do on a Friday Night SmackDown or Monday Night RAW.
“Doing in front of millions of people and a whole globe of people watching, it can be intimidating at times, but I think, with everything, you take your experiences, you take that passion to get better at anything that you’re doing and that drive to be the very best and hopefully, you can, make some waves and gain some ground and get better at it.”
If Cena were to beat Reigns, he would break the record for most world title reigns in WWE history. Reigns explained why it’s important for him to defeat Cena at SummerSlam.
“Just right off the bat, obviously, if I don’t beat him, I lose the Universal Championship, and that throws a huge wrench in the whole game plan and what we’re trying to do going forward,” Reigns pointed out. “I think what’s special about this run that I’m on and the stories that are told is I, in just under a year now, have made the Universal Championship the most important championship in WWE, the most important championship in sports entertainment.
“When you put as much equity and as much value as I have on that championship and really placed it at the pinnacle of this industry and showcase the juice that comes with it, the power, the respect, the money, if you’re a superstar who wants to perform in a wrestling ring on a WWE stage, especially, you should be gunning for the Universal Championship. So for me, it’s tied into my character and the stories that I tell on Friday nights, very much so. I think if some act of God were to happen and I did lose, it would change the whole dynamic of what I’m doing.”
Now that crowds are back, Reigns has been booed in a consistent basis, which is the reaction that is being sought after as opposed to when he was booed as a babyface. Reigns talked about the audience reaction he gets and what he credits that to.
“We have a very fast food oriented audience nowadays. It’s a ‘what have you done for me lately’ situation,” Reigns noted. “Everybody wants kind of some change as soon as they feel like they’ve gotten the portion that they were looking for. For me to still be almost a year now and for it to still to be interesting, for it to still be compelling, it just goes into, not just the performance, but just the hard work and the brainstorming and everything that goes in to being able to develop these types of stories.
“That’s what I hang my hat on right now is I’m the best storyteller in sports entertainment today, and that’s all entertainment is, it’s storytelling. We live in a world of storytelling now with social media. I mean, on Instagram, you literally have stories and people want to know, by the minute, what’s going on. To be able to do that on the highest level and consistently do that, can’t nobody else say it but me.”
