Roman Reigns Sees the Similarity Between Football and His Shield Role

For Roman Reigns, his role as a member of The Shield is really no different than his days playing pro football in Canada.

In an interview with the Edmonton Journal to promote this week’s SmackDown tapings, the big man of the group says it is “right up my alley” to be the stable's muscle. He compares it to his time as a member of the CFL’s Edmonton Eskimos:

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I’m the D-lineman, and (Shield members) Seth (Rollins) and Dean (Ambrose) are like linebackers running free. I can free them up to do whatever they want and back up anything they feel or say, so it’s a good feeling to be a part of the team again.

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Reigns (real name: Joe Anoa’i) is back in Edmonton this week for the first time since being cut by the Eskimos. And he is returning to his former playing city with gold around his waist, as he and Rollins are WWE’s World Tag Team champions.

Reigns tells the newspaper there is one thing that makes wrestling different than football. When he played football, he was at about 325 pounds, about 60 pounds heavier than he is now.

However, it seemed destined he would wind up in pro wrestling. Reigns is the son of WWE Hall of Famer Sika (The Wild Samoans), and he also claims The Rock as a cousin.

Reigns says in the interview that wrestling was a major topic of discussion in his boyhood home. When it appeared his football career was waning, he says he turned to wrestling because “the passion to wrestle and be a WWE superstar was still there.”

After a couple of years in development, Reigns and fellow NXT’ers Rollins and Ambrose made their big-time debut at last November’s Survivor Series pay-per-view, where they ganged up on Ryback. Since then, their star has shot to the top of the WWE constellation. Now Reigns and Rollins hold the tag belts, and Ambrose is the U.S. Champion.

Reigns tells the newspaper he does not mind being booed by the crowd because that way he knows the fans are having a good time and are into the action:

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When I’m out there, I want people to show if they’re mad, they’re happy, just some kind of emotion. They paid money to come out and cut loose a little bit, so that’s what I intend on doing. I come out and cut loose and I let it all hang out. If I can elicit some kind of a response, that makes me happy, I know that. It doesn’t bother me at all to have people boo me.

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Reigns may not have had much success on the football field, but in wrestling, he did make it to the industry’s Super Bowl when The Shield performed at last month’s WrestleMania 29 in New Jersey. Reigns says in the interview that he has seen his share of cool moments as a wrestler, "but being in front of that many people, it almost felt like football again, but being the quarterback.”

Follow Bill Atkinson on Twitter at @BAtkinson1963.