WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns appeared ESPN’s First Take Wednesday morning. The Tribal Chief spoke about football, his match against Braun Strowman this Friday night and which wrestlers he looked up to growing up.
When asked which wrestlers he looked up to as a kid, Reigns named WWE Hall of Famer Bret Hart.
“Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart was kind of my guy,” he said. “A lot different than [larger than life characters, such as] Ultimate Warrior. There’s just something I respected. He was like a journeyman, like a blue-collar sports-entertainer.”
Reigns praised Hart as, “that pro-wrestler, go in there and wrestle for 30-minutes every single night. He just put a different dynamic on what the top looks like and I like to think that we have a little of all that nowadays.”
Reigns battles former Universal Champion Braun Strowman this week on SmackDown. Despite Strowman’s imposing stature, Reigns said he’s not intimidated by the big man.
“To be honest, I’m not nervous. I’ve been this, I’m tenured, I’ve been doing this so long. Like I said, I’m on a different level and I’m displaying it week in and week out.”
“To be honest, I don’t think Braun Strowman deserves the opportunity. I beat him, I pinned him, I took the Universal Championship from him.”
WWE.com covered Roman Reigns’ comments about Braun Strowman during the ESPN First Take appearance. Reigns replied, stating that these weren’t “hot takes” – he’s just telling the brutal truth.
