Roman Reigns Talks Challenges Going From Football to Wrestling

Nobody who has followed Roman Reigns’ career for a long time would be surprised to hear he’s had challenges along the way. Now he’s indisputably a top guy, but for a long time, he was perceived as a guy being shoved down fans’ throats.

On Nightcap Live at Fanatics Fest, Reigns addressed this when asked what it was like transitioning from football to wrestling. After joking that, “the first time I had to put the underwear on, that sucked,” Reigns got real about which parts of wrestling were the hardest for him.

“I was a d-tackle, so you know, I would talk shit to the O-line, but not on the level of captivating the whole world, you know what I mean?” he said. “So, some people have to really tap into that and figure it out. And that was that was where…for me, everything in-ring and like the physicality of it all, that was easy for me. It was the public speaking. It was the character development. It was the psychology of performance and storytelling. It was all the little micro, you know, nuances of performing arts. The athletics were easy.”

As for the talking, Reigns eventually learned from the best.