WWE News: Roman Reigns Explains Why It’s ‘Generous’ To Call AEW ‘Competition’ To WWE
The past few months have been productive ones for SmackDown Live superstar Roman Reigns. Aside from his continued role as one of the blue brand’s top talents, it has been mere days since the premiere of Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, where he starred as one of the brothers of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s Luke Hobbs character. Likewise, it was recently confirmed that he and Raw Women’s Champion Becky Lynch would be gracing the cover of WWE 2K20 – the latest in 2K Sports’ popular wrestling video game series.
Despite his seemingly busy schedule and high profile as of late, Reigns spoke to Martin Hoffmann of German publication Sport1 for an interview that was published earlier on Monday, discussing several issues surrounding his WWE career at the present. He also spoke out about rival promotion All Elite Wrestling, which has hired a number of former WWE superstars, including former Shield member Jon Moxley (formerly known as Dean Ambrose), and established itself as an up-and-coming alternative to WWE for wrestling fans around the world.
Regarding AEW, Reigns told Hoffmann that his other ex-Shield stablemate, Seth Rollins, was being “generous” when he referred to the company as “competition” in an earlier interview. While the four-time world champion stressed that he doesn’t want to get into detail about why he feels that way, he explained that AEW still has a lot of catching up to do in terms of production values and overall talent level at this point in its existence as a wrestling promotion.
“You can see it in other shows: It’s not easy to have a clean production, you have to have a lot of experience. Our talent is top-notch, we’ve got main eventers for [days], but it also is our crew. They’re busting their a**es all night to get the show running. There’s so many people that make this place work. When you see other people out there tryin’ to do it, you see the flaws and it makes you respect what we do even more.”
HUGE congratulations are in order for @TheRock and @WWERomanReigns! #HobbsAndShaw https://t.co/W9rQoFv20R
— WWE (@WWE) August 4, 2019
Concluding his opinion on the matter, Reigns told Sport1‘s Hoffmann that “nobody will do it like WWE,” also noting that it’s easy for today’s wrestling fans to complain about the company when they don’t have firsthand experience doing what WWE does to ensure its place as the top promotion in the wrestling business.
Aside from the aforementioned comments about AEW, Roman Reigns also spoke in-depth about how his recent battle with leukemia has affected his WWE career, how he isn’t bothered by the possibility that he may once again be booed by wrestling fans despite his babyface alignment, and why he agrees with the general assessment that he has stepped up as a “locker room leader” backstage.
Reigns’ interview with Sport1 did not mark the only time in recent days that the SmackDown Live superstar spoke in defense of WWE amid AEW’s fast rise in the wrestling industry. In an interview with ESPN that was also published on Monday, Reigns refuted some of the comments Moxley made in May on Chris Jericho’s Talk is Jericho podcast, calling the remarks “a bit contradictory” and saying that he disagrees with his former stablemate’s criticism of WWE’s creative process.
