“The Tribal Chief” and the color-commentator for WWE’s weekly three-hour red brand USA Network program hooked up for a live discussion on Friday afternoon.
And it was quite the conversation.
WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns appeared live in-studio on the Friday, March 22, 2024 episode of The Pat McAfee Show on ESPN from Iowa, and spoke about a range of topics including how he is at the top of the mountain right now and handling it different than people like CM Punk, his future in the business and if he still has more to do, how Cody Rhodes and The Rock’s “stories” are just chapters in his book, and how the WrestleMania XL main event changed from Reigns vs. The Rock to Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes II.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview where he touches on these topics with his thoughts.
On being at the top of the mountain and how he handles it different than someone like CM Punk: “I’m living my dream. This is what I wanted my whole life. I’m not one of them people that is, once I got there, it wasn’t what I expected. I’m not like CM Punk where I got to the top of the mountain, ‘Oh, it’s not what I expect, I’m going to b*tch about it.’ No. Once you reach goals, enjoy the dream. This is what you have been working for. That’s exactly what I’m doing. For me, I don’t want this to ever end. I don’t want this dream to end. I don’t want to wake up, so I do everything I have to do to maintain this position. It’s a lot of work. I’m very private about my me time and family time. You don’t get that backstage look at everything I’m doing. Know that I’m constantly working. I’m obsessed with continuing to progress. I know there is another level and there is more that I can do. I don’t like to get satisfied or comfortable with the current level that I’m on.”
On his future in wrestling and if he still has more left to do in the business: “Yeah, I’m just scratching the surface. I’m still experimenting and figuring stuff out. I’m 38 years young. I’m a young man and have so much stuff to do. If we were able to do this in four years, imagine what we can conquer in another decade. The work has been put in. The skin still looks good. I don’t see it stopping anytime. We’re about to set more records WrestleMania weekend with the main events. We’re chasing landmarks and different history marks with the title reign. There is so much history left to make. I don’t see it ever ending.”
On how WWE is cool again because of him and how everyone else’s story is just a chapter in his book: “Everybody’s story revolves around me. [Cody] is one of many trying to tie this thing up. At the end of the day, he’s just a chapter in the big book. This thing started in August 2020 when I came back and told the whole world that I was the Head of the Table and the head of the greatest wrestling dynasty to ever exist. We have done so many great things. There is a magnetism. You [McAfee] got pulled in. Same thing with Cody. He was off doing who cares, a whole lot of nothing, he saw what we were doing in WWE and he wanted to be part of that. Hollywood, Dwayne, saw what we were doing. I’m the only guy that didn’t have to go to Hollywood. Hollywood came to me.”
On the tease of The Rock vs. Roman Reigns for WrestleMania XL and the fan campaign leading to Cody Rhodes vs. Roman Reigns II instead: “It’s two of the greatest superstars to ever do it [Rock and I]. We have one who is currently dominating Hollywood and the other currently dominating WWE. Why wouldn’t you want to put that match together? That’s the big gripe with Cody. He’s a crybaby. We have given that bum plenty of time. We’ve given that chump plenty of time to do his thing. That small minority of our WWE wrestling fanbase weren’t a bunch of b*tches, crying the whole time, he would have never got that buzz and ya’ll would have been smitten with The Rock vs. Tribal Chiefs. That’s what it was. That’s the beauty of this business. Things can happen on the drop of a dime and you have to either call an audible or ride that wave that is coming. For me, that was the end game. Let me make the final statement. Seal the deal. I beat The Rock. Ain’t nobody ever questioning what I’ve done here. Cody took that from me. We’re such a close family. We handle things the right way. We have a ring to settle our differences. He took that from me. He took that storybook ending. Imagine, somebody pops up out of nowhere, ‘this is my story.’ You ain’t even been here half the time. You just got here. You literally just got here two years ago. Our society is a bunch of sheep, right? You tell them, you can Jedi them, ‘Cody is the good guy. He signs autographs.’ That guy is a politician. He’s up here in a three-piece suit. We’re casual.”
Check out the complete Roman Reigns live in-studio appearance on The Pat McAfee Show via the YouTube player embedded below. The interview begins at approximately the 2:23:00 mark of the video, which runs at a total length of 3:15:38. H/T to Fightful.com for transcribing the above quotes.
