Roman Reigns discusses the ins and outs of his current character and the storyline with his cousin Jey Uso.
The current Universal Champion is set to face off against Jey at the Hell In A Cell pay-per-view and underwent a bit of change in character. No longer labeled as The Big Dog, Reigns is now The Tribal Chief and his feud with Jey is centered over being the head of the family. In an interview with CBS Sports, Reigns said a lot of the things that are presented are actually factual.
"I definitely think a lot of the stuff that we present is very factual. A lot of people want to say, 'Oh, he's a heel.' And, 'Oh, he was a babyface," and this and that. I try not to look at it as that. I try to look at it as this being a character in a storyline and he has choices like anyone else. Some of his choices are going to be perceived as good, some of them are going to be perceived as bad and some of them people won't understand because they won't understand where he's coming from. That might be because they're not in the same field or on the same level, kind of like how I told my cousin that he wouldn't understand what it's like to be on top. I say it with love and respect, but he's a tag team guy. He never has operate at the top. He's never been WWE champion, he's never been universal champion. I have ... many times. I understand the grind and what it takes to maintain that, not only to get there but to maintain it. I think there are a lot of elements that are true and I think it's important for a performer to connect to the character they're displaying. There has to be shades of a real person in there. But, like you've heard every superstar all the way back to Bruno Sammartino say, you have to be able to take that to an 11 or 12," Reigns said.
Reigns said incorporating real-life elements into a storyline in this manner has afforded him the ability to connect with an audience in ways that perhaps past storylines involving him weren't able to.
"I've taken these real-life qualities and experiences and put them in a storyline. That has been able to connect with our audience in a really cool way because they've seen me grow and they've seen my path and they've seen me operate on this top tier of WWE for a long time. For me to actually emote and explain the dimensions of it, I think they dig that and the feeling that the fourth wall is down from time to time. To me, this is Roman. He's not Joe. I'm able to connect to everything I'm doing now way stronger than anything I've done before," Reigns said.
Reigns vs. Uso is currently set to take place at Hell In A Cell on October 25. The full interview can be read at this link.
