Roman Reigns On Jon Moxley: “If He Could’ve Been The Man [In WWE], He Would’ve”

WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns joined Ariel Helwani of BT Sport for an exclusive interview regarding his match against John Cena at SummerSlam this Saturday.

During the interview, Reigns spoke about coming up in WWE while Cena was at the top of his game and the face of the the company, and discussed if Cena ever mentored him. "The Head of the Table" said he never sought out advice from any veterans during his career and always went to family for that advice.

"There's times where I think yes, as The Shield [Cena] helped us out," Reigns mentioned. "For sure when it was time to break up and go our separate ways, there might have been a little nugget here or there but I really prided myself on doing it my way and not for the most part trying to fall into that peer pressure and that expectation of being the next John Cena, although that comparison is always going to be there due to the sequence of events and careers.

"For me, I just always prided myself on learning it the way I wanted to learn it. Learn this performance and these nuances and these details and these different skill sets within the performing arts my way and on my timing. No, I wouldn't say by any means I was mentored like some other talents were by some other veteran guys. I've always relied heavily on my family and my instincts to know the way in what I should be doing."

On this past Friday's SmackDown, Cena and Roman faced off and verbally jousted with Cena stating that Reigns "almost ruined Seth Rollins and ran Dean Ambrose out of WWE." Reigns spoke about Cena's comment and what he thought about him bashing his former Shield members.

"You tell me," Reigns said referring to what Cena meant in his comments. "There's levels to this game man. John has skills, he's charismatic, he's a great public speaker, he has good energy, he really understands crowd reaction. When you don't have good stuff to say, let's just pander to the crowd and that's what he did. It's like a professional watching another professional and I could see, he had nothing to him. He's just doing that spin game and they're counting to three with me, let's say that over. Marketing strategy, let's condition them and do it 14 times but when it comes down to it there was nothing that he said, there was no connection there. I have no clue.

"Dean is obviously doing what Dean is doing and I think he's happy over there at AEW but if he could've been the man here, he would've been the man here. But he couldn't because I'm the man here. Seth Rollins is going through the same thing but he's doing great. I can say that as someone who is doing better than him, I'm the Universal Champion, this is all mine, it's my company. But he's still a great talent who's doing the best work of his career so I don't really know man. It was quite the experience to see him out there, it was just words, a whole bunch of energetic words."

Having spent their first four years together in WWE, Reigns was also asked about his current relationship with Jon Moxley and if he's spoken to him recently.

"It's been a while man," Reigns said. "I think the last time was probably WrestleMania. It's been a minute. I need to reach out to him and give him the congrats on the baby and everything. With everything going on, within the pandemic and everything that comes along with that, being back on the road and being back in front of live audiences, dealing with John Cena, it's been crazy for sure."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit BT Sport with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.