Roman Reigns On Why He Thinks Brock Lesnar Returned To WWE
After successfully retaining his Universal Championship against John Cena last weekend at SummerSlam, the "Tribal Chief" Roman Reigns stopped by on this week's WWE's The Bump to talk about this monumental victory. Having locked horns with the "Cenation Leader," Reigns revealed facing Cena was one of the biggest victories he's had since claiming the title almost one year ago.
"I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a big one, but for me, the next win is always the biggest win. So, yeah. It's on the next one," Roman Reigns replied when panelist Matt Camp asked if his win over Cena was the most important victory he's had so far. "Obviously, you already know who stepped up [after - Brock Lesnar], at least, and made it appear that way."
Just when he thought his hard work was over, here comes the judge, jury and executioner of Suplex City, Brock Lesnar. After a one-year hiatus from WWE, Lesnar has now pulled up a chair and asserted himself at Reigns' table. Although Reigns doesn't take too kindly to Lesnar's non-verbal but demanding challenge, he thinks "The Beast Incarnate" wants to make himself relevant again in WWE. And what better way to do it than regain his Universal Championship back.
"I think he wanted to get the best look possible and see what's going on. I'm the most dominant Universal Champion that's ever done this thing. I think he sees the Island of Relevancy, just like John Cena did," Reigns mentioned about Lesnar's return last Saturday. "He's just coming with like a farmer, butcher outlook as opposed to being the Hollywood guy.
"But, yeah. It just goes to show all this work; this foundation of greatness I've been laying down continues to show we're number one. They want to talk about it, but it's just for them to put themselves in the conversation with me to amplify everything. But there isn't anyone who can compete with what we're doing. Between me, my cousins [The Usos] and the wise man [Paul Heyman], we come together, and we're putting together greatness. We're lifting the bar. We're lifting the standard. I think Brock Lesnar, like everybody else in this industry, they want to be a part of that."
Speaking of Paul Heyman, Talking Smack co-host and former broadcast partner with Heyman, Kayla Braxton, asked Reigns if Heyman was hysterically nervous seeing his old client back.
"This one would be your question, Kayla. Even if there was some information, I wouldn't disclose it," Reigns chuckled.
One interesting point panelist Matt Camp brought up is the fact that in five days, Reigns will have held the Universal Championship for one full calendar year. Despite building a major accolade of carrying the title for nearly 365 days, Reigns says there's still a lot of work that needs to be done.
"I made the Universal Championship what it is," Reigns declared. "Before I got ahold of it, some would argue that it was the second-tier WWE Championship. The second-biggest WWE Championship in our company. But what I've done with it this past year, I've elevated it to a whole new stratosphere. It is what it is. I put the work in and made it special. Now, everybody wants it, and it goes to show if you ever get in that ring with me, the level that you're going to have to step up to...
"If I were to ever lose it, the amount of responsibility, the amount of pressure that is going to be on this person to follow what I've done this whole year – probably going to be the next year or whenever I feel like my work is done here. But man, it's one of those things that I think the Universal Championship is not the number one title if the 'Tribal Chief' doesn't make it what it is. And it won't ever be the same. It has to continue to stay where it is now."
You can watch Roman Reigns' full interview here. If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit WWE's The Bump with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.