Roman Reigns On How He Got His Name, His Favorite WWE Match, Praise For Sheamus, Chris Jericho
As noted, three-time world champion Roman Reigns was recently a guest on Talk Is Jericho, which was conducted before WrestleMania 33. Among many other things, Reigns talked about why he has such high regard for podcast host and pro wrestling legend, Chris Jericho. According to Reigns, he respects Jericho because 'Y2J' does not act like a part-timer whenever he returns to WWE.
"Yeah, I mean, my whole time here, you've kind of done the part-time thing, but I've said this many times: all my respect for you is that you're not like a part-timer. When you come back, you're here. You do the house shows, you do the tours, all the brother time."
Also, Reigns claimed to respect Jericho for his endurance and longevity. Also, 'The Big Dog' made the point that there is a fine line between being a professional and being an artist.
"It is a business and we're on the other side of it, which is cool. It's entertainment. People love it. But it's our job and there's that fine line where you have to be an artist and you have to be yourself, you have to express yourself, but you have to be a professional and you have to be there and you have to be consistent. And that's the toughest part and that's like another shout out of respect for you. You're The Energizer Bunny, man. God, do you know what I mean? I don't know how you do it and how you've done it for so long."
On the subject of his favorite matches not including his WrestleMania 33 bout with The Undertaker, Reigns named his WrestleMania 32 match against Triple H and his Last Man Standing match with Big Show at Extreme Rules (2015).
"The biggest one of them all for me would have to be with [Triple] H. Yeah, man, being in the ring with him and that's another guy that kind of feels like how it is with The Undertaker." Reigns continued, "but one I enjoyed and was really rocking was with Big Show. We had that Last Man Standing match in Chicago [Illinois] and it was? man, it was such a dope match. Like, really cool bumps, and really cool moments, and he's so good, and it's so easy with him."
Additionally, Reigns spoke favorably of Sheamus for making him look good in their match on RAW for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
"People can have their opinion on Sheamus all they want. He's a crazy Irishman, but I'll always love him. Like, he works hard and he made me look like a million bucks. We had [Philadelphia, Pennsylvania] cheering for me. Philly liked me and I have to give so much credit to Sheamus for that and that's why we're close. Like, that's why I hug him when I see him and that's the deal."
During the interview, Reigns also admitted that he got the idea for his "Reigns" ring name from released FCW talent, Calvin Raines and Corey Graves suggested the spelling "Reigns" instead.
"I knew I wanted Roman. I liked Roman. I wanted Roman only and they were like, 'no, you need a last name'. And there's actually another guy in FCW by the name of Calvin Raines. He spelled it like 'rain', like a 'raindrop'. And they, I believe, released him and sorry, brother. He's a good man, a real nice brother. Sorry. Roman Raines sounded good to me, so they were like, 'alright, give me four or five different names' and they were like, 'okay, we'll go with like'? I was going through it and Corey Graves, he was down in FCW, still working at that time, he's actually one of my good buddies and our families are like really good friends. He told me, he was like, 'hey, I heard you saying 'Roman Raines'. What if you spelled it like, 'reigns', like a king reigns.' And I was like, 'whoa, I like that.' And there you go. And total heel name too!"
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