Roman Reigns sends message to WWE roster: ‘Get over, kids’
While appearing on The Pat McAfee Show ahead of the Royal Rumble, Roman Reigns sent a message to everyone else on the WWE roster.
Reigns’ wrestling schedule has slowed down over the past couple of years — and Saturday’s PLE will be the first time we’ve seen him in action since Survivor Series. He addressed his WWE schedule during today’s McAfee Show appearance, cutting an in-character promo where he challenged everyone else in WWE to step up and get themselves over.
“There’s always a mindset of that,” Reigns responded when asked if he feels like WWE will always be his show. “But to be completely honest and transparent here, two years ago it all changed around and what I’ve been doing out there hasn’t exactly been the same of what I’ve done before. And the way I look at it is, I’m a generous Tribal Chief. I give the people plenty of time. These young talent, they say we hog all the TV time. They’ll complain about one thing, and then I leave an opening, I give them plenty of space to create whatever type of superstardom they want. Get over, kids. Get over. You know what I mean?
“And we’re two years here now, and we haven’t advanced. We haven’t evolved. We have great leadership in Nick Khan. God bless him, what a businessman. He’s a genius. But we have to be able to keep up with that creatively. And that’s why people like me, people who are striving to be the very best, the greatest, the GOATs, the [Michael Jordans], I just can’t sit around and see [mediocrity] — not when I set it up for everybody to just slam it home. I mean, we’re on Netflix for crying out loud. You gotta capitalize. We have people playing around and trying to figure it out. And I got the formula. I know how to cook it up.
“So it’s been a tough couple of years for me, but at the same time, when you come off such a hell of a run, you’ve gotta kind of just pump the brakes for a second. You know, I’ve got five children at home. We all wear those two important hats, being a husband and a father. And I’ve been on the road for a long time. So I needed to be able to pull back a little bit, but I’m fully capable. And I’m only 40 years old. With all the tech and all the information we have now, I feel like I’m 25 years old. So I’m still good to go.”
Reigns will be among the 30 entrants in Saturday’s men’s Royal Rumble match. Brock Lesnar, Cody Rhodes, and The Vision (Bron Breakker, Bronson Reed, Logan Paul, and Austin Theory) are some of the other participants that have been confirmed.
The PLE is taking place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and has a start time of 2 p.m. Eastern, streaming live on the ESPN app in the United States and Netflix elsewhere.
Joseph Currier is the lead editor of F4WOnline.com, directing daily news coverage and writing articles on professional wrestling. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, obtaining a journalism degree in 2016. Joseph joined F4W during his time at UMass and has now been writing about the industry for nearly a decade.
In addition to his work with F4W, Joseph has previously contributed to Sports Illustrated's wrestling coverage. He lives in Massachusetts and is a diehard fan of the Boston sports teams and Liverpool Football Club.