Roman Reigns On Infamous Promo With John Cena
Roman Reigns and John Cena contested an epic war of words ahead of No Mercy 2017 – but things weren’t quite so sharp on Reigns’ end.
The 2017 No Mercy pay-per-view featured an unusually extraordinary collision for what was considered a B-show for WWE, as John Cena wrestled Roman Reigns. A match more befitting of a WrestleMania or SummerSlam, Cena and Reigns contested the best match on the show, culminating in a Roman victory via Spear.
However, fans are more fond of the pair’s pre-pay-per-view war of words from Monday Night Raw’s 28 August broadcast. Reigns recalled the moment he “blanked” during the exchange, an incident that led him to become a better overall performer, as stated on Logan Paul’s IMPAULSIVE podcast:
“I think just being in that position, and going through that experience made me better. I don’t think it was anything like John specifically. You know what I mean? Like, because I take from everybody I’ve worked with, everyone I’ve competed with, I always try to take something that I learned from them, you know?
Like you find…it’s like looking at, you know, like if you’re an offensive coordinator, I’m working under you as a you know, a quarterback coach or something and it’s like man, that offence was good. I’m taking everything that I liked from it, then I’m gonna add a little bit to my own playbook.”
Roman Reigns added to this, believing that mastering the art of a promo is a “trial and error” process:
“Yeah, it’s trial and error learning yourself. I mean, I was a football player, so I watched a lot of film. And early on, I watched all the film, from every step that I take in the ring to the mannerisms to the emotions to the in-ring sh*t talking that I do to when I’m cutting a promo, you know what I mean?
Everything is just based off of the experience, the trial and error of knowing what works, what doesn’t, my strengths, how to highlight those, how to camouflage a weakness and eventually work to make that a strength.”
Roman Reigns and John Cena have wrestled only one additional singles bout since the encounter, as ‘The Head of the Table’ defeated Cena at the 2021 SummerSlam to remain WWE Universal Champion. As it stands, that was John Cena’s final televised performance.