Roman Reigns is headed into an Australian Street Fight against a dangerous man in Bronson Reed this coming weekend in Perth, Western Australia.
And he’s not feeling too good physically as he prepares for his first battle since returning to WWE after filming his role as Akuma in the new Street Fighter movie.
During an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show on October 8, “The Original Tribal Chief” spoke about his Australian Street Fight at WWE Crown Jewel: Perth against Bronson Reed of The Vision on October 11, as well as his busy travel schedule while filming the Akuma role in Street Fighter, as well as what it takes to rise to the top of WWE these days.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview where he touches on these topics with his thoughts. Also embedded below is a complete video archive of the discussion.
On not feeling well heading into his match against Bronson Reed at WWE Crown Jewel: Perth: “I feel like crap. My body does not feel good. I was down there not too long ago. The flight back and forth has not been nice. I’ve been jet-lagged for, I feel like, four weeks in a row now. So why not just go down there and try to kill myself? It is what it is. We’re going to go head against the wall, Goldberg style, just reckless abandon. You can’t do much worse than I feel now so let’s just go mess it up physically.”
On fighting for the top spot in WWE being comparable to there not being enough room in the ocean for everyone and how it’s about earning your place and reaching the top by yourself: “The right thing in WWE? That doesn’t make sense. That’s like trying to be the good guy in the shark tank. Trying to be a good guy in the ocean. You wanna be Rose or Jack? You wanna live or not? There’s not enough room in WWE, there’s not enough real estate. You have to get what’s yours, and that’s what I’m teaching these guys. You have to take it now. This thing in Hollywood …there’s no number one. Cody can try to put it there, I can try, but everyone’s trying to take these spots. Everyone’s trying to come up, and no one cares if you’re doing good today. That’s what WWE is. It’s not like Hollywood where they put a number on us and everyone serves the top spot. Everyone here wants to be #1 or #2 … they don’t care if I look good. They just want the good look. They want to be in the promised land. It’s not the title, it’s the space I’m speaking of.”
On the busy travel he recently dealt with to film his role as Akuma in The Street Fighter movie: “It was so busy going back and forth and trying to get through Paris and get to the point of getting down there. My kids are all in school right now. I didn’t get a chance to tap in with anybody. One thing I did do is when I was on Hobbs & Shaw, I was able to absorb everything and monitor and download as much of the process as possible. That helped me out a lot when I got down there. Also, things that I didn’t like about my experience or my attitude on the last project or two that I’ve done. Different ways to psychologically prepare myself for a different process. That was the biggest thing. I’m so used to my WWE bubble and that process. Being live, jetting in and jetting out, having the bus and my own creative space. I had to rewire myself to be ready for a different process. It was fun and a good time. There was one moment in time where I was like, ‘This is what being a movie star feels like.’ Being in that little bubble was cool. It’s interesting because everything I’ve learned in WWE and all these skills I’ve acquired and sharpened, they all translate.”
(H/T to Fightful.com and RingsideNews.com for transcribing some of the above quotes.)
