Roman Reigns has been the face of the WWE for over five years and he's only solidified his position over the past year as the "Head of the Table."
With crowds set to return on Friday, Reigns will finally get a chance to show off his new persona in front of fans who have wanted to boo him for years despite him being a babyface.
Speaking to Michael LoRé of Forbes, Reigns discussed how he's always gotten the crowd to react to him.
“There’s never a time when my music hits, where it’s ‘Oh, I don’t care.’ It’s either ‘I love this guy’ or ‘I hate this guy,’” Reigns said. “I’ve always been able to really pull on the emotional strings of our crowd. For me, that reaction has always been an incredible strength of mine and it’s always been something I’ve been able to rely on. Yeah, you say you like this person or think this person should be in my position or this person deserves it or they’ve been through a greater journey or more adversity, but when it comes down to it, who makes the crowd louder? I’ve always, always been that guy. There’s only a handful of guys in the history of our company and the history of our business that can say they have it—that factor that registers with the people, that makes the people stand up and make noise, and I’m in that group.”
Reigns turned in arguably the biggest moment during the pandemic era in WWE when he returned at SummerSlam 2020 following a hiatus that began prior to WrestleMania 36. Reigns took out Braun Strowman and 'The Fiend' Bray Wyatt, establishing his new character inside the ThunderDome.
“We’re in a business of moments,” he said. “We’re always trying to create and capture these transcending and electrifying moments that really happen at its greatest when our audience is there and our crowd is live in-arena or in-stadium. For me, not having that portion of the performance to lean on really showed me how important the bridges of continuity are, the small details, the nuances of storytelling and the subtle pieces of information that can bridge the gap between huge moment to huge moment. Especially for a weekly product, something without an offseason—we don’t have a 3-5 month break where we go back to the drawing board and craft this narrative to put on for the rest of the year—this is something that is continually evolving and being hashed out in real time. It’s really important to be able to rely on those basics—the detailed portions of the storytelling to be able to create and craft a very complex, sophisticated but still very entertaining narrative.”
Reigns is set to defend the WWE Universal Championship against Edge at Money in the Bank on Sunday. You can view the current lineup for Money in the Bank by clicking here.
