Roman Reigns had been wanting to use his guillotine submission maneuver for a long time. However, the “process of the creative” did not allow him to implement the move up until recently.
Reigns added another layer to his new ‘Tribal Chief’ persona when he used a new guillotine submission maneuver to sleep Braun Strowman on the October 16 episode of SmackDown. He has used the move several times ever since, including on his latest rival, Kevin Owens.
Speaking with Bleacher Report for an exclusive interview, Roman Reigns revealed that the UFC has been a huge inspiration behind the finisher. He admitted to being an MMA fan and finding the guillotine choke to be one of the simplest mixed martial arts moves that one could bring over to pro wrestling.
“I thoroughly enjoy watching MMA, especially over the pandemic, I feel like UFC has been on TV far more for whatever reason. I’ve gotten into it the last couple of years and it just seems like every single card, somebody wins with the guillotine. It’s the simplest move. It’s the simplest submission ever. You just crank it in there and squeeze and wrench back.”
Roman Reigns: I’ve Been Wanting To Use That For Years
Roman Reigns was surprised that not many people in were using the move. He revealed that he tried to discuss a submission finisher for himself in the past. He got turned down and wound up using the spear instead.
“I’ve been wanting to use that for years,” he said. “No one’s to blame, it’s just the process of the creative. It’s like, ‘What if I just pulled out a submission?’ I’ve been saying that for years. Everybody knows the Spear. The producers that I work with all the way up to [Vince] said, ‘I think the finish would be better with a Spear.’ That’s great because for years we built that spear up and up.”
This time, he decided to ‘pull the trigger’ on it and do it anyway.
“There’s going to be a lot of different ways to go in and out of it. It just makes sense and nobody’s really using it. Really, I’m at the point where it doesn’t matter who’s using it, I’ll just use it anyway. The submission was something I wanted to use for quite some time, and I finally pulled the trigger on it.”
Roman Reigns also revealed in the interview how his ‘Head of the Table’ moniker came to be. Turns out, it was an in-ring improvisation by Reigns himself during his confrontation with Jey Uso early on in heel run.
Visit Bleacher Report to read their full interview with WWE Universal Champion, Roman Reigns.
