Its almost been a dozen of months for WWE Superstar Roman Reigns. As the road from winning the 2015 Royal Rumble to failing to make up the expectations at WrestleMania. Roman will be company's one of the top listed superstar for years to come.
Reigns teams with up Dean Ambrose against the Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper on Sunday at WWE SummerSlam which will take place on August 23, 2015 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York City, New York. CBS Sports hooked up with Reigns for an interview on his short-lived NFL career, WrestleMania match and upcoming SummerSlam showdown.
Q: At SummerSlam, you will be reuniting with your old pal from The Shield, Dean Ambrose, to take on Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper. You guys have had great matches in the past. What can fans expect this time around?
Roman Reigns: "It's just gonna be a Wild West shootout. I couldn't even try to explain what to expect. I have no clue to be honest, so I'm preparing for a little bit of everything. You throw a whole bunch of combustible objects like Ambrose and the Wyatts into the situation with me, let's just say there's a lot of action and a lot of emotion. It's gonna be a hell of a ride. I'm looking forward to it."
Q: You had a rocky relationship with the fans after your Royal Rumble win was met with a lukewarm response. Did that bother you at the time, or does it still?
Roman Reigns: "You know, it's tough. As a performer, a professional wrestler, I go out there and I just want to put a smile on people's faces. I just want to make people happy, you know what I mean? It's all good intentions. So when it doesn't got exactly right, it can be tough because I care. To put it as simple as possible, I care, you know what I mean? I could go out there and just cash it in, but I want to be the best. I want fans to take every ounce of energy away from me as possible. That's what I'm trying to emit. That's what I'm trying to give to each live event. So it's tough when it's not perfect or exactly how you thought.
"When it comes to all of this, despite all the hate or the negativity that I've gotten, I've always had my supporters. I've always had the Roman Empire behind me. They never falter. They're always there supporting me. Kind words to pick me up if I'm feeling down. So I just gotta thank all my fans and everyone who stuck with me, the supporters, you know. I couldn't do what I do without them."
Q: At WrestleMania 31, we saw you main event against Brock Lesnar for the WWE title. Despite not winning, you showed the fans you had the talent to hang at that level. What did you take away from that match, and from WrestleMania as a whole?
Roman Reigns: "I took home a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I'm never proud of losing a match, or any moment that I didn't come out on top. That's always the goal, to win and better my family and my future, especially in the ring. So that's a tough pill to swallow. But at the same time, I was very grateful for the opportunity and in hindsight, I feel like I learned so much from those moments and those weeks building up into it. On the other end, the only thing I wanted was respect. That's all I wanted is just respect. I think as a man, that's not asking for too much. I'm willing to fight for every ounce of it. WrestleMania was a great start and hopefully as the weeks go by I'll just continue to earn respect.
Q: Your family's history in the wrestling business is extensive. What was it like growing up with not only Sika as your father, but with so many other members of your family in the wrestling business?
Roman Reigns: "It was great, it really was. It's always a good thing to be proud of where you're from and your family. I've always been very proud of the accomplishments of my relatives, my father and my uncle and all of the other wrestlers that have come through our family tree. But at the same time, it's a rough life. It's a busy life. So as proud as I was of my father and everyone else, it's tough when you don't see your family members. It's tough when they're always on the road. So there are a lot of sacrifices. But it's all for the betterment and it's all for the future. It's all for our family and to feed mouths and to put roofs over heads.
"It's hard to understand that at a young age, but I just thank God that I can see through the eyes of so many family members and see from their perspectives no"w. It makes me appreciate everything everyone's ever done in our family.
Q: Not counting yourself, whose matches do you most enjoy watching?
Roman Reigns: "It's tough. There's a lot of great performers out there. I think I still stick with the main guys I'd compete with when we first came in, the brothers from The Shield. We came in this thing all like-minded, and we've all kind of carved our own path and have our own niche; we always still think on a very similar level. Anytime I can watch Dean or Seth [Rollins], or you can even put Cesaro in that category. We rode a lot with him back in the day. Those are all guys I like to call peers and I like to watch their stuff as well."
Q:When you look at Seth Rollins as WWE champion, what do you think of the job he's doing?
Roman Reigns: "To put all of our beef and our animosity aside, I can't lie to you: I think he's done a good job. A lot comes with being the WWE champion. There's a lot of responsibility and there's a lot of dates and a lot of towns that you have to make, a lot of appearances. Every single day you have to be on your A game. You have to lead. You have to carry. I can't speak on his personal choices and how he carries himself, but I know he's carried that title like a man would. He's worked his butt off to get where he is and he's worked his butt to maintain where he's at. He better enjoy it before he runs back into me, I know that."
Q: With NFL training camps and preseason under way, I was wondering if you could tell me a little bit about your experience in trying to make it into the NFL coming out of Georgia Tech in 2007.
Roman Reigns: "I tell you, I wished I had some more experience than I did going in. It was tough for me, you know. It was such a quick process. It just didn't happen the way I thought it would. You play for so many years and there's so much riding on the line. For all these young men going into the league, I just wish them the best of luck because it's a crazy, crazy moment to try to capitalize on. Most of those guys have played for 15 years or so. So to capitalize on that much time spent, it's gotta be nerve-wracking.
"I wish I could have gone back and had a different scenario, a different chance, a different opportunity, but for me, I found the team that I needed to be on. That's kind of what they say in the NFL, is it only takes one team. Hopefully a lot of those guys can find a home out there. It didn't work out for me. I enjoyed it though. It was a cool, bucket-list situation to put on an NFL uniform, to be at practice, to use their facilities and just see it from an inside perspective. I was very grateful for that."
Q: What advice would you give to the NXT roster on how to make it to the WWE main roster, and what to expect when they get there?
Roman Reigns: "Well, just do what you're doing. NXT, they have a great formula and a good system. As you can see from the past couple of years now, all this talent that's coming up, they're doing something right down there. So I'd say to continue to do what they're doing. Continue to create that NXT identity. It's starting to catch like wildfire, so I think the biggest advice I can give any of those guys and girls coming up to the main roster is continue to do what you do. Make it translate, because if it's working on NXT then it will probably work on the main roster on Monday Night Raw and Thursday night Smackdown, so just stick to your guns, believe in yourself and continue to do what you do. Because you're gonna get a lot of pressure. You're gonna get pulled in a lot of directions. You're gonna have a ton of competition. Just believe in yourself and do what you do."
Q: Hypothetically speaking, if you got to put one person or tag team into the WWE Hall of Fame next year, no questions asked, who do you select?
Roman Reigns: "Oh, that's tough. Three Minute Warning. Yeah, I'd stick with the family. I wish his career was so much longer, but I definitely think Umaga's one of the best of all time. I wish he would have had a little more time to hold the titles and put in a few more years of work, but in my opinion, one of the best big men of all time. Nobody more intense. Nobody more athletic. So charismatic. We lost one way too early. I'll go ahead and throw my brother in the same boat as far as being a great performer and try and give those guys the nod, you know?"
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