Roman Reigns On If He Would Prefer Turning Heel, Wanting The Shield To Have A Babyface Run, More
WWE Superstar Roman Reigns was recently a guest on Cheap Heat. Among other things, Reigns talked about using the crowd's negative reaction to his WWE Royal Rumble (2015) victory as motivation, getting mixed reactions from the WWE Universe, and where he ranks The Shield among the all-time best professional wrestling factions.
According to Reigns, he used the poor reception to his Royal Rumble match victory in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as fuel.
"I think it just pushed me. Any time, as a performer and you're in a live situation, and you're dealing with that sort of backlash, it's going to trigger emotions. But, I think, like, anybody who is dedicated and wants to get better at their craft and wants to be the very best in the business, they're going to turn that into motivation and that's what I did. I took that moment, as some people would take it as a negative, but not me. At the end of the day, X amount of thousands of people are screaming, booing at the top of their lungs, and I'm the center of attention, so I must be doing something right. And when it comes to the Royal Rumble, man, nobody Royal Rumbles like me."
On the subject of a possible heel turn, Reigns said that he enjoys the mixed reactions he garners and would prefer that to just getting a chorus of boos from the audience as a heel.
"I mean, when you win and you're whooping a lot of ass, you're not that angry. Do you know what I mean? Like, I've been successful and whatever we've been doing, it seems to be working and it seems to continue to have loud reactions and nobody has been to more [professional] wrestling shows than me and the other guys on the roster." Reigns added, "I understand reactions and that's one thing that you can be as informed within the [professional] wrestling community and the internet as you want, but there's one thing that I know and that's listening to what kind of reactions are happening. 'Who's in the crowd? Are they kids? Are they women? Are they men? Are they men my age? Are they men older than me? Are they men younger than me?' So there are a lot of different things that are happening there."
Reigns continued, "the one thing I like about my situation and if I think I were to commit to one, 'I'm a bad guy now – I'm pissed and I'm going to try to take everybody out' then it's only one, like, 'boo'. Do you know what I mean? But when I'm out there, there's all kinds of noise. There [are] all kinds of chants. It's pandemonium, man. That's how I like it."
As for his run with The Shield, Reigns claimed that 'The Hounds Of Justice' are a top five faction in professional wrestling history. Moreover, Reigns suggested that the difference between The Shield and all other groups is that the members of The Shield were largely unknown. Also, 'The Big Dog' professed that The Shield was split up too early as they could have had a good run as babyfaces.
"I think we're definitely in the top five. It's tough because you have different situations within companies with nWo, DX, the whole company war, the ratings war, and stuff like that. The difference between The Shield and everybody else is we didn't have names. Seth and Dean, they were kind of indie darlings, so they had a little bit of an internet buzz, but as far as casual fans and mass media, nobody knew who they were. Nobody knew who I was. I didn't have any [professional] wrestling following, so for us to come in and make a name for ourselves, I think that speaks a lot. And to come in to the position that we came in, working right away with top dogs, and then, slowly taking over the main event scene. I still, to this day, feel like we broke up too early. I really do. I think we had a really nice babyface run in us, but it just is what it is."
Click here to check out the interview. If you use any of the quotes from this article, please credit Cheap Heat with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Source: Cheap Heat