Bronson Reed Reflects On Stealing Roman Reigns’ Shoes, How It Humanized Reigns

Bronson Reed is the Tribal Thief, and he recently weighed in on stealing Roman Reigns’ shoes earlier this year. Reed made a habit of stealing Reigns’ shoes after beating him down during their feud. He dubbed Reigns’ two pairs of shoes tied together the “Shoe-la fala” and held it until Reigns defeated him at WWE Clash in Paris.

Reed spoke about the matter on the No-Contest Wrestling Podcast. Reed spoke about where the idea came from and what it meant to take the Tribal Chief down that way. You can see some highlights below:

On Where Stealing Reigns’ Shoes Came From:

“You know, this is this is something I’ve always — I want to make what I do in the ring appealing to as many people as possible, you know? As broad as possible. And I think I’m one of those wrestlers you could throw me in the 80s, ’90s, 2000s right now, and I work in any generation. But I’m always thinking of those things that are outside of the box as well, that people can relate to. And I remember — I grew up with not a whole lot of money and in in a bit of a bad neighborhood in Adelaide, in South Australia. And I remember people getting their nice shoes stolen all the time, or taken from them in school and and stuff like that. So I was like, ‘If we could do something like that in WWE, then people are going to get it.’

“And I thought I would have just a little section of the of the fans that watch WWE on TV would understand what I was doing. Understand the reference to Debo or taking someone’s kicks. But but it blew up, you know. Now I have I go to like meet and greets and photo opportunities, and there’s kids with shoes around their neck that would have no clue about that sort of stuff, or street culture or sneaker culture at all.”

On the Value Of Doing It To Reigns:

“And and it’s it’s sort of cool that I sort of became synonymous with stealing someone’s shoes. And not only that — like you said, it was Roman Reigns. Top Dog of the business. I feel like taking his shoes sort of humanizes him. I said it it’s sort of like making Superman [into] Clark Kent.”

On If He Has the Shoes:

“No. So I was going to keep them. You know, I was walking around with the shoe-la fala with both of them in Paris. Another thing that I came up with on the spot, but he cut cut the shoe-la fala apart, and he threw it into the crowd in Paris. So, there’s some lucky fans in in Paris that have them now.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit the No-Contest Wrestling Podcast with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.