Royce Keys Comments on His Goals For 2026, Who He Wants to Face & What He Wants To Improve On

Royce Keys’ first months under WWE contract were rather quiet. After his debut at the Royal Rumble, Keys spent several weeks off of television. There were even claims that WWE Creative had nothing for him. That changed after Keys debuted on SmackDown in April, and won the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal during WrestleMania Weekend. Keys has become a featured player on SmackDown since then, gaining victories while crossing paths with the likes of Jacob Fatu in backstage segments. Fatu & Keys have history going back to their days in the California indies.

Royce Keys recently did an interview with SportsBoom where he talked about some of the wrestlers he’d like to face in WWE, along with his goals and what he feels he needs to improve on. Here are some highlights:

On Who He’d Like To Face:

“Anybody and everybody, anybody that gets in the ring can get it. I take what I want, and that’s something I lived by my whole life. I would love to get in the ring with Gunther, Trick Williams, Jacob Fatu, Oba Femi. Anybody, man, I’m down. I don’t run from anybody. It can be anybody.”

On Facing Jacob Fatu:

“Nobody gonna get in between us…If you’re in a bar and you see two big dudes go at it, what are you going to do? Hard hitting, going at it. Nonstop action. Two dudes that refuse to lay down for anybody. Somebody’s not going to get up.”

On What He Wants to Improve On:

“Talking to the audience…You can always get better at promos. You can always figure out a different way or how to get better connecting with the audience. One person that comes to mind is Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts. He reminds me of my grandfather, because my grandfather was stern and he knew he was serious, and he didn’t have to yell. You look back at old Jake Roberts’ promos, he never yelled. But you knew he was serious.”

On Who He Looked Up To:

“There were many such as Mark Henry, Booker, T, Stone Cold, The Rock. There was Mr. Perfect, Rick Rude, Haku. So many different guys that looked up to depending on where I was in my life. I like a lot of Triple H. There was some X-Pac. It depends on the mood I was in. Sometimes I would pretend I was a different wrestler every day growing up.”