Roman Reigns discusses potentially facing The Rock and names two other possible contenders.
Reigns was already one of WWE's top stars when he won the Universal Championship at Payback 2020. But throughout the subsequent two-plus years, Reigns has cemented his status as a genuine superstar. He has reigned supreme over WWE, and his performances often draw plenty of praise, both in the ring and in non-wrestling segments. Reigns defeated Brock Lesnar to unify WWE's world titles at WrestleMania 38, and fans have increasingly speculated about a potential match between Reigns and The Rock ever since. The clash between the two stars has been buzzed about for years, but a recent report from Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer suggested that The Rock indicated wouldn't be able to get in shape in time for WrestleMania 39.
During an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Reigns was directly asked about potentially facing The Rock. He seemingly brought up the report and, when Fallon visibly looked confused that The Rock could doubt his fitness, Reigns described how getting ready for a match requires more than simple weight training.
"That’s been the rumors, and there’s been a huge buzz on that for a long time, I mean for years now, but it’s really picked up in the past couple years. I believe he just came out with a statement saying that he’s not gonna be ready in time, which, that’s the face that everyone’s making. 'Hold on, he trains every single day. He’s huge.' But to his defense, it’s one thing to train with weights and the bodybuilding to look the part. But to be able to get in the ring and do a main event match, a championship match, an Undisputed WWE Championship match, it takes a lot of conditioning, it beats up your body, so there’s more that goes into it than just training in the weight room. It’s a professional athlete type of situation, where you have to condition. He does two out of the three things perfectly. His nutrition and his weight training’s on point, but you have to condition yourself. You gotta be ready to fall down. You never get away from that," Reigns said.
Fallon chimed in and noted that people have to be ready to fall down when they face Reigns, and he responded by saying, "That’s number one, Dwayne. When you’re going up against Roman Reigns, you better get ready to fall down."
Reigns was then asked to discuss who else is in the mix for the title picture. He noted that WWE has a lot of stuff going on and pointed to his Bloodline stablemate Sami Zayn. Reigns stated that The Bloodline has been doing some "beautiful TV" in recent months. He then brought up Cody Rhodes and praised his unforgettable performance at WWE Hell in a Cell, where he competed with a torn pectoral muscle.
"That’s the beauty of it now. We got so much stuff going on. Right now, we hit Sami Zayn that’s in the mix. That’s within my Bloodline. We’ve been doing some beautiful TV over the past six months. We have another guy by the name of Cody Rhodes who’s coming back from injury. He was super white-hot. If you go back to, I believe it was a Hell a Cell match he had with Seth Rollins, his pectoral muscle was completely torn in half. If you go back and look, it’s completely black, a giant bruise covering this guy, a fourth of his body is completely broken. He goes out there and he puts on a 40-minute performance, and just completely wins over our entire fanbase. So lotta guts, lot of courage out of him. He’s gonna be coming back soon too," he said.
On Saturday, Reigns will defend his titles against Kevin Owens at WWE Royal Rumble. When asked about his strategy for the match, he stated that he doesn't plan to change anything, as he has already defeated Owens a number of times. He gave Owens credit for his toughness, but he emphasized that he's going to repeat history by beating the challenger yet again.
"Don’t change anything. I’ve been beating up Kevin Owens for years now. Let me give this guy his due. This is a tough, sturdy guy. He’s a little crazy, he’s willing to do anything out there. But I’ve faced him a few times, and I’ve been pretty successful. So for me, I just feel like, if I don’t change anything, if it’s not broke, don’t break it, just stay in the same system, go out there and do what I do. Pretty much, I feel like I’m genetically coded to beat Kevin Owens every time. It’s like the small print in my DNA. ‘Beat Kevin Owens? Check," Reigns said.
.@WWERomanReigns addresses the rumors that he will be facing off against @TheRock. #FallonTonight pic.twitter.com/lmtwF3YuhX
— The Tonight Show (@FallonTonight) January 28, 2023
The Rock previously said that there's no truth to the rumors about a WrestleMania match between him and Reigns. Check out his comments here.
In a previous interview, Reigns stated that it would make sense for the match to happen at WrestleMania 39. Click here to see what he had to say.
Check out the updated card for WWE Royal Rumble here.
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