Roman Reigns Details Training For Akuma Role In Street Fighter, Says He ‘Got Lucky’

Roman Reigns details how he had to train for the role of Akuma in ‘Street Fighter’, noting he got lucky with Akuma’s physique.

The live action ‘Street Fighter’ movie is set to release next month, with pro wrestling represented by Cody Rhodes, Yota Tsuji and Roman Reigns, who will play Akuma in the movie. Now, Reigns has discussed his training regiment in order to play the video game character.

While speaking to Men’s Health in a new interview, Roman Reigns was asked about his training to play Akuma in Street Fighter.

“I got lucky because Akuma…his physique is kind of bodybuilderesque. He’s a big brother, so he’s very muscular. That helped me out, to kind of stay in my regimen. But when you add in the martial arts, the fighting disciplines…you have to be able to have your legs in a sumo squat, but then you can pop up on your toes and also hit a unique pose with your arms. There’s so much isometric work in that. There’s so much to that body control, almost like a ballerina type of work. And the footwork was pretty extensive.”

Reigns continued, discussing the martial arts aspects of playing Akuma.

“There were a lot of parallels for me to be able to transition. I mean, they’re obviously different things you’re asked to perform, within wrestling and within martial arts. But the physical disciplines are a bit adjacent to each other, where it wasn’t as big of a gap for me to figure out. The fact I’m in professional wrestling helped, but [martial arts] is still its own rite. It really makes you go back and look at all of the great martial artists: Jason Statham, Chuck Norris…all these guys who were able to do all these stunts and movies and and have it be so good.”

Elsewhere in another recent interview, LA Knight spoke about Roman Reigns wanting to do things on his own possibly being his undoing as WWE World Heavyweight Champion. You can read more about that here.