Roman Reigns Recalls Rivalry That Pushed Him Emotionally
The Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns has opened up about the very personal rivalry with cousin Jey Uso that really pushed him on an emotional level.
For over 800 days and counting, Roman Reigns has been the WWE Universal Champion after winning the title at the Payback 2020 Premium Live Event when the company ran their shows at the ThunderDome due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
At WrestleMania 38 this past April, Reigns added the WWE Title to his collection to become the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion.
Whenever Reigns appears on WWE TV in 2022, The Bloodline is at his side, which includes “Special Counsel” Paul Heyman, “Honorary Uce” Sami Zayn, Solo Sikoa and Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions, The Usos.
After winning the Universal Title, Reigns had a 2020 rivalry with cousin Jey Uso, who was all alone at the time because brother Jimmy Uso was out of action after knee surgery. That led to Reigns beating Jey in Universal Title matches at Clash of the Champions and Hell in a Cell PLE events. It was also the start of Reigns wanting people to “acknowledge” him as The Tribal Chief.
During an interview with The Ringer, Reigns talked about how emotional that rivalry with Jey was for him. Reigns and The Usos are the same age, they grew up together (even playing high school football on the same) and even though they are his cousins, Reigns often speaks about The Usos as his brothers.
“I’ve never been so nervous for anybody I’ve been in the ring with. I want everybody to do good, but I’m not going to lower myself. I’m going to make everything look awesome as much as I can. So you have to keep up. At the end of the day, you have to be able to work up to this level and not seem out of place. And he didn’t, man, in so many ways.”
Reigns spoke about how because of the COVID-19 pandemic, he didn’t have much time to talk to Jey, which meant it was more of an improvisational match when they wrestled.
“I’m not going to dive into all the super backstage stuff, but there was no time to discuss. So there were a lot of instincts that were relied on. The fact that we have literally a brother-level connection and relationship, it made it really easy for us to just rely on our history and being comfortable with each other and also being able to push that type of emotion out of each other.”
As he continued, Reigns talked about how Jey pushed him in an emotional way.
“I don’t think anyone’s ever pushed me emotionally like Jey has and I think we did that for each other and we made a star out of him. I mean, even to this day, if he doesn’t go through that process, I don’t think he’s doing what he’s doing now at the level he’s doing it at. It doesn’t happen if he doesn’t make those giant leaps he did two years ago.”
Roman Reigns will be in action this coming Saturday, November 26th at WWE Survivor Series when he teams up with The Bloodline to face the team of Drew McIntyre, Sheamus, Kevin Owens, Butch & Ridge Holland in a WarGames match.