In an interview with CraveOnline to promote tonight’s WWE SummerSlam pay-per-view, WWE superstar Roman Reigns commented on WWE creative, his time with The Shield, his ring gear and plans to debut new gear at tonight’s pay-per-view, plus much more.
Highlights of the interview are below:
You’re from the famous Anoa’i wrestling family. What were family get togethers like? Do you guys just talk wrestling all the time or is business just business and family time is just family time?
It’s a little bit of both. It just depends on who’s there. If I’m with my dad, yeah, he’s going to talk a good bit about the business. He just kind of mentors me and tells me what he’s thinking about my stuff. But growing up and all that, family barbecues, it was all family, man, ya know? You have to picture it. We always had so many kids in our family, running around the yard, sweaty little kids jumping in and out of the pool, the front door and back doors swinging open and shut, all of the parents getting p***** off telling us to stay outside. Always coolers and coolers of beers and soda and chicken being barbecued, burgers being barbecued, it was a good time. It brings me back, actually.
What is your dream match? If you could face any wrestler from any era, whom is Roman Reigns taking on?
Oh, that’s an easy one. I’d have to go with Taker, man. It’s such an easy choice. I imagine just about everybody would say that. If you hear all the stories of him, man, he’s like a godfather or something. You know what I mean? You hear all of these really cool things about him out in the ring, in the back, and just with the boys and stuff. He legitimately doesn’t get enough credit for being a cornerstone of this business. That would be a dream come true to be in the ring with him.
Any desire to have a triple threat match with your former Shield members, Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins?
Right now, I’m biding my time. I promised Dean that he would have first crack at Seth. He told me he’d leave a little for me. The main part for me is Randy Orton has just been a pain in my a**. Even from when, that night we [The Shield] broke up, that piece of crap, Seth, handed him the chair and he wore me out with it. So I’m gonna take out Randy just by principle. I’m going to clean up the outside of the house first. I’m going to do some yard work and then I’m going to Seth and clean up the house. It’s an ‘in house’ situation.
What can we expect from your match with Randy Orton at Summer Slam?
A lot of heavy hitting. The plan is to hit hard and more often and just to tear the house down. You can say a lot about Randy Orton but he’s a multi-time champion and one hell of a performer. When he’s on; he’s on. When The Viper is in the ring, you got to be careful cause he can strike. But let him strike first, I’ll be the one to strike last.
How much influence do you have in deciding your wrestling gear?
As long as I don’t go crazy, its all me. What I’m wearing for Summer Slam, I’m pretty excited about. Its kind of the same template of vest. It’s just a different set up. Probably by Wrestlemania, I’ll debut a whole different type of vest. It’s really cool to have cool gear.
Yeah, I’d say you have the coolest gear in the ring. Its not jean shorts… or underwear.
No offense to [John] Cena. To be honest, the cool thing about Cena is he’s just in his gear all the time. He doesn’t have to get dressed. He comes off his bus and he’s it. All he has to do is pull up his kneepads. You know who is kind of a new Cena is Ambrose. Ambrose can show up in his gear like he just changes his boots. He puts on a different set of combat boots and he’s ready to go. I always joke with him that he’s the new Cena as far as gear.
How far in advance are you made aware of a wrestling angle or the direction creative is taking you?
It varies. Due to how brutal our jobs are, you just never know. If Daniel Bryan doesn’t go down, I may not have the opportunity that I have now. You just never know when an opportunity is going to change everything and completely derail what the timeline was. Sometimes you know but you can never stick to that. You’re only as good as your last performance so you just have to be on your toes.
What’s the process you go through before a match to get amped up?
My process is walking down to the locker room, laying everything out to how I like it. I’m very particular about setting up my bags and my dressing situation. I love to pull out that portable speaker and blare music even if nobody else likes it. To me, its just keeping everything the same every single night.
The interview is available in full at this link.