Roman Reigns likes to call the WWE ring his yard, but before it was his, it belonged to The Undertaker.
The Undertaker is preparing for his final send-off at the 2020 WWE Survivor Series event and many in the industry are giving The Undertaker his moment in the sun after 30 years of captivating audiences. Roman Reigns is the latest name to speak about what The Undertaker means to him both inside and outside of the ring.
Speaking on the WWE Ahora Survivor Series preview special, Roman Reigns said he doesn't think there will ever be another wrestler who earns as much respect as Undertaker has in the last three decades.
“I think The Undertaker, I think he means a great deal to every performer that steps into a WWE ring, a wrestling ring in general. His career is so storied and there's so much prestige to everything that he's done for our business all the way from inside the ring to [the] outside of it, within the locker room and the backstage.
“I don't think there's ever going to be a performer or a professional wrestler or a sports entertainer who is more highly respected than the undertaker. He's done so much for the business, for our audience, and given so much of his life, 30 years, 30 years is incredible. A tough guy too, you know? In those 30 years, that's pretty much day in and day out. No weeks off. Even in his part-time schedule was still dedicated to the product, still watching early, intent on helping the younger talent understand the nuances of this business.”
In his current character, Roman Reigns is “The Tribal Chief” and is hell-bent on having the respect of his peers. When asked what respect and legacy mean to him personally, Roman Reigns echoed the sentiments of his television character.
“It's up there. It's pretty much everything at this point for me within my career, you know, I made plenty of money. I've done pretty much everything you can do as far as accolades within the WWE now, it's just about garnering the respect for my performance and my legacy so that that's something you know, I've been a polarizing character my whole career and at the end of the day, I just I want my time and my effort and my performance to be respected.
“So for me, that's something that I'm willing to go out of my shield for, something I'm willing to lay it all on the line every single night. Like I said, I don't have anything other than respect motivating me and keeping me disciplined to stay within this game. I've done everything that you can do in this business. Now, it's just about leaving that mark to where the fans knew and know what they had within Roman Reigns, the performer, the athlete, the professional wrestler, and sports entertainer. When my day is done, hopefully, they will be able to have that respect for me and look at my legacy, and understand that I put everything in me into this game.”
As of this writing, Roman Reigns is the last man to ever defeat The Undertaker at WrestleMania and he is only one of two to lay claim to that right. Even though The Undertaker has since said he was not pleased with the way the match went down overall, he has also stated that he wishes Roman Reigns would have been the person to end his fabled WrestleMania streak instead of Brock Lesnar. Learn more about that at this link.
If you use any of the above quotes, please credit Fightful for the transcription by linking back to this article.
