WWE Hall Of Famer Recalls What Roman Reigns Was Like Early In His Career

A WWE Hall Of Famer that was heavily involved with WWE’s training system had nothing but praise for Roman Reigns.

With so much attention and focus on Reigns’ current run, his battle with leukemia, and his controversial rise to stardom between 2014 and 2018, many have forgotten what the man was like when he was a rookie.

However, one person who knew Reigns at that time, Ricky “the Dragon” Steamboat, knows exactly what he was dealing with when Reigns was breaking into the wrestling business.

Before NXT became WWE’s official developmental territory, the company partnered with or managed other smaller independent territories like Ohio Valley wrestling (OVW), Heartland Wrestling Association (HWA) and Florida Championship Wrestling (GCW).

It was FCW that eventually transformed into the NXT known today. But before that, when it was still a separate entity, Steamboat was one of the people that ran it and coached up-and-coming WWE superstars. One of those he coached was the man who would become Roman Reigns.

Speaking on an edition of WrestleBinge, Steamboat explained that Roman Reigns succeeded because he had an ‘improve-no-matter-what’ mindset because he didn’t want to be trapped in the shadow of his cousin, Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson.

“Roman was the kind of guy that would open up and try and do anything to get better. He didn’t want to be the shadow of [his real-life cousin] The Rock. He didn’t want that. And he had a Hollywood, movie star face, and that was a big plus right there for the girls. But he’s a very tight family man with his family and his kids, very tight.”

Additionally, Steamboat considered Roman Reigns a “super guy” because he took the time to ask lots of questions so that he would understand things better and learn the right mindset to be a successful professional wrestler.

h/t 411Mania for the transcription