In an interview earlier this week, former WWE superstar Doc Gallows — who competed for the company under the slightly different name Luke Gallows — opened up on a number of topics, including the improved backstage culture he observed when he rejoined the promotion in 2016. According to the recent Impact Wrestling signee, Roman Reigns was one person in specific who helped bring about the positive change.
As quoted by WrestlingNews.co , Gallows guested on Monday’s episode of Sitting Ringside with David Penzer , where he looked back on his experience upon kicking off his second stint with WWE in 2016. As he noted, he was not enthusiastic about the idea of him, Karl Anderson, and AJ Styles signing with the promotion after their success in New Japan Pro-Wrestling with the Bullet Club faction. However, he explained that he was nonetheless glad to see how the backstage environment had changed since the last time he had worked for the company.
“[W]hen I got there, I was pleasantly surprised because the locker room of old had changed. The old guard was gone. It wasn’t everybody walking around on eggshells. I give big credit to Roman Reigns for that.”
According to Gallows, the big difference between Reigns and other wrestlers he had interacted with during his first stint is that the people in the latter group, who weren’t technically “in charge,” would “try to lead through fear” and foster an environment where people would have to be “scared of everything.” He did, however, stress that he hasn’t had any complaints so far with the backstage atmosphere at Impact since he and Anderson signed with the promotion.
Stories of Reigns being a locker room leader of sorts are nothing new. In 2017, he had described himself as such, explaining in an interview that he “[swings] the sword” and gets tough on his colleagues whenever he has to, even if doing so could potentially make him an unpopular figure. Earlier that year, it was reported that “The Big Dog” did get tough on a fellow superstar, as he purportedly kicked Enzo Amore off a tour bus and forced him to change outside the locker room due to the multiple issues he allegedly had with his co-workers.
Gallows’ positive recollection of Reigns came just days after he and Anderson had several less than pleasant things to say about their time in WWE. As previously reported by The Inquisitr , the former Raw Tag Team Champions accused the red brand’s former executive director, Paul Heyman, of convincing chairman Vince McMahon to release them in April despite how he had seemingly gone to bat for them when they signed new deals with the company in July 2019.
