Roman Reigns Names The Biggest Lessons He Learned From Vince McMahon

Roman Reigns ascended to the top of WWE and anointed “The Guy” by Vince McMahon going into 2015.

Though Reigns may not have been fully accepted by the fans as the top guy, McMahon continued to put Reigns at the top of card and worked closely with him as the top guy.

Speaking to Stephanie McMahon on What’s Your Story, Reigns reflected on lessons learned from Vince.

“Sharing a room with someone of that stature or that fabric, I feel the same way. That’s who I cut my teeth negotiating with, doing business with, was your dad. That’s how I feel. I’m not intimidated by anybody. There were times when I had to get used to him, and we had to learn each other’s ways, but I’m the youngest of all his top guys. I didn’t have that relationship like a lot of the other guys were afforded, and at the time. Compared to anybody else; (Hulk) Hogan, Steve (Austin), or Dwayne [The Rock], I don’t think I got as much of his time, but I was picking up as much knowledge as I could. He may not even realize it, but there are a lot of things that he said to me that I continue to use. I tore it completely out of his playbook.

“He was one of the first, and now it’s reversed on me. He would always tell me, this is when I was so locked in on work that I wasn’t holding up my end of the other side. He would tell me, ‘You gotta be present. When you go home, you have to be present. It doesn’t matter what you do out here. You have to be present.’ I took that to heart so much and I’ve transformed that into being such a bigger part of my life. The main thing, the priority, to where sometimes it’s the other way now. Now, it’s hard not to be present when I’m not home, when I’m not with my children. That’s where I really want to be, with my wife and children. Those were just one of those funny lessons, seeing what he’s talking about and seeing it evolve in my own life as young man. He’d always say, ‘You want to be ahead of the curve, but not too far ahead. Slight ahead of the curve.’ That saying was one of the biggest business lessons. Whether it’s creative or anything in the business structure.”

Vince McMahon resigned from WWE/TKO leadership in January 2024 after a lawsuit was filed by former employee Janel Grant, who accused McMahon of sex trafficking and sexual assault.

Elsewhere during the interview, Roman and Stephanie reflected on Stephanie slapping Roman. You can find their comments here.

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