Chris Van Vliet Says Roman Reigns Need To Leave WWE If He Wants Hollywood Success

Chris Van Vliet was on a recent episode of The Wrestling Inc. Daily. Van Vliet is well known to have interviewed many top pro wrestlers, but he has also interviewed many top celebrities as well, including Tom Cruise at the red carpet premiere of the latest Mission Impossible film. Wrestling Inc. Managing Editor Nick Hausman asked Van Vliet which interview has been his favorite so far in his career.

"It's The Rock for me," Van Vliet stated. "I was a huge Rock fan growing up. I was always a wrestling fan but became a massive wrestling fan during the Attitude Era. It's The Rock. I dressed up as The Rock for Halloween one year. I would ask people in my high school questions just so I could simply shout 'it doesn't matter what you think' at them.

"I was a huge Rock fan, and he was at the top of my bucket list for years, and years, and years. I was doing all kinds of different celebrity interviews. It wasn't 'til I was seven years into my career that I finally did get an interview with The Rock, and they always say you shouldn't interview heroes, you shouldn't meet your heroes. But man, if your hero's The Rock, you should do whatever you can to meet him. He's great. He's everything you want him to be and more."

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is used as an example for many as someone that successfully transitioned from pro wrestling to Hollywood. Since then, superstars like Dave Bautista and John Cena have gone and had successful careers in Hollywood as well. Van Vliet talked about who from WWE can be the next big Hollywood star.

"I was having a discussion about this with someone recently, and what's interesting, when we think about people who have really broken out into Hollywood, there's the three names that always come up, it's Rock, it's Batista and it's John Cena, and what's interesting about all three of those people is they completely left wrestling behind to kind of forge this new path for themselves," Van Vliet explained. "So I don't think that if you really want to make it in Hollywood, I don't think you can be an active wrestler.

"I think you have to say, alright, what I've done in the ring is my career. That's that. I'm now starting this new career in Hollywood. So I think if it's Becky or I think if it's Roman, they're gonna start to put in the work now with those guest spots, and we've seen that. Roman's been in a few things. I think, though, that if they really want to take it seriously, they have to dive all the way in, and I love the phrase that says 'if you chase two rabbits, you'll catch none,' and I think that that's really true. I don't think that you can be uber successful like The Rock has been or like John Cena is now getting sure if you're dipping your toe in both worlds."

Roman Reigns has appeared in a role in the Hobbs and Shaw film, and Becky Lynch has appeared in the most recent Marine movie along with The Miz and Shawn Michaels. Due to his schedule, it is unlikely fans will get to see The Rock back in the ring until the WrestleMania in California, which is something Reigns has desired. Van Vliet explained why it is so difficult for The Rock to leave a project for pro wrestling.

"I also just feel The Rock, he's not done with wrestling," Van Vliet stated. "I like that he will always talk about wrestling, and he always has a huge place in his heart for it, but if he does have one last match, is that it, or does he just keep going? The thing we always forget is we just see The Rock starring in these movies. We don't understand how much is going on behind the scenes with Seven Bucks Production and him being a producer of these movies. When you talk about everybody who's relying on him, it's not just the people on the movie set with him, it's everybody behind the scenes as well."

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