Roman Reigns on Getting Into Wrestling, Crowd Reaction, WrestleMania

WWE Superstar Roman Reigns spoke with The Washington Post in advance of WWE hitting the Verizon Center for the WrestleMania XXX go-home edition of “Monday Night Raw.”

Reigns first spoke about breaking into the wrestling business coming from such a well-known family.

“It was a process. Of course, immediately the thought was: “He’s Samoan, so let’s run with that.” But then I think they saw my personality, being more of a cultured guy, going to college, playing ball, things like that, just the kind of guy I am, you know, just be me — don’t try and focus on a nationality or an ethnicity or anything like that. Just be myself.”

He was also asked about the positive crowd reaction to his and other members of The Shield’s matches, often invoking “This is awesome,” chants.

“I try to live in the moment. When you’re in a singles match, you’re in there, and the guy’s on top of you, and you’re in a hold and you’re being smothered: You’re in the fight at all times. But when we’re doing these team fights, you have a little time to take in the moment and just absorb the energy of the crowd.

Especially with the crowds nowadays. They’re very opinionated; you can almost sense that the crowd has taken a leadership role within their own product. This is what they take joy in and take pride in. And if they’re not into something, they’re going to let you know. If they’re into something, same thing: They’re going to let you know.”

Reigns then discussed the whole mantra of WrestleMania, and what it means for the younger stars.

“It’s Mania first. We want to get there the right way, and we want to just tear the house down. We wanna burn it down, put cracks in the wall, just demolish that place and have an awesome match.

As far as the next day? There’s going to be some gaps. There are going to be a bunch of big names that are gonna compete [at Wrestlemania] and then not be there on Monday. That’s when guys like myself, the rest of the Shield, Cesaro, the Usos .?.?. there’s a bunch of guys who want this and are willing to work every single day. If I’m a fan of the WWE, I would feel safe to know that your entertainment is in the right hands.”

The whole article can be found here.

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