Roman Reigns Says He Studied ‘The GOATS’ Of Other Sports During His Rise In WWE

Roman Reigns has had a long run atop the WWE roster, and he says that he studied the greats of several sports in order to ascend to where he is. Reigns was a guest on the Pat McAfee Show, and during the conversation he was asked if he paid attention to the likes of The Rock, Tom Brady, Michael Jordan, and Tiger Woods as he was trying to make his way up the card.

“Outside of talking to Dwayne Johnson, I haven’t had the privilege of talking to those guys,” Reigns said (courtesy of Fightful). “I’ve definitely studied that. I watched Michael Jordan, Tiger, Tom Brady, all these guys. The GOATs of their sport. It’s an easy watch. You can dive into that and look into the psyche of what these guys are thinking, feeling, and going through.”

Reigns expanded on what he learned from those greats, noting, “A lot of times, they’re going through some shit in real life. They’re going through personal stuff, which is interesting, because to chase greatness when your life is nuts is a skill in its own right. I’ve definitely studied. You take pages from people’s playbooks. Rock, Cena, older guys like Randy Orton, Rey Mysterio, The Undertaker. Everybody has something that they do, ‘That’s so smart. Where did you figure that out?’ You just steal that. It’s just stealing plays. Like football, it’s copycat. Take what you like, make it your own, and they are singing your praises.”

Reigns’ study of others helped him lead into a return in 2020 where he had a lengthy run as a double champion with 1,316 days as WWE Champion and 735 as WWE Universal Champion. He is set to face Bronson Reed in an Australian Street Fight at WWE Crown Jewel, which takes place on Saturday and airs live on the ESPN App and Netflix internationally.