WWE World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns spoke with Men’s Health about several topics, including which was tougher: training for football, wrestling in WWE, or playing Akuma in Street Fighter.
Reigns said, “I would have to say the football training was the hardest and the most intense, but I was also my youngest. As I’ve gotten older, training for wrestling in the WWE, it’s not easy at all. But with wisdom you get a little smarter. You learn how to handle things and adjust things. I would definitely say I was much stronger [at Georgia Tech], because I was a bigger human and a younger human at the time. But when you couple the lifting and the conditioning of football, it’s pretty wild.”
On the challenges of his training to portray Akuma:
“I got lucky because Akuma…his physique is kind of bodybuilderesque. He’s a big brother, so he’s very muscular. That helped me out, to kind of stay in my regimen. But when you add in the martial arts, the fighting disciplines…you have to be able to have your legs in a sumo squat, but then you can pop up on your toes and also hit a unique pose with your arms. There’s so much isometric work in that. There’s so much to that body control, almost like a ballerina type of work. And the footwork was pretty extensive.”
On if there were any exercises he used for Street Fighter he still uses now:
“There were a lot of parallels for me to be able to transition. I mean, they’re obviously different things you’re asked to perform, within wrestling and within martial arts. But the physical disciplines are a bit adjacent to each other, where it wasn’t as big of a gap for me to figure out. The fact I’m in professional wrestling helped, but [martial arts] is still its own rite. It really makes you go back and look at all of the great martial artists: Jason Statham, Chuck Norris…all these guys who were able to do all these stunts and movies and have it be so good.”
On the crossover with training:
“The crossover is huge, because we want to look like we can save the world. There’s that fine balance, where you want to look that part. But if that movement, that physicality, that athleticism is not there, it will take people out. [The audience] won’t be able to get lost. There will be no escapism. That’s the most important thing about being well-rounded. You can see when guys have a super strength over here, but then there’s a deficit here. But then they’re good here, but they don’t have all the tools sharpened. It’s important to have both those tools.”
On what he has learned from The Rock and John Cena about the shift from wrestling to acting:
“Even in their leaned-out stages, they’re still just superhero guys. We all get to a place where we have to adjust. We’ve got to evolve. And we have to change. I hope I can get to a place in my career, like they did, where that’s going to be the next step for me.”
On learning from how Cena and The Rock remade their bodies for acting:
“[For John], there was a bit of a shift for him where I think he moved into mobility a lot more, and pliability, where he started really stretching. I think it was when he went to China. He spent a good bit of time over there, and I think that’s when he started to change his philosophies on a few things. But John is one of those guys who’s just freakishly strong. Dwayne is huge. People don’t really understand how big DJ is. Even in his leaned-out state, he’s still a big man. I would say me and Dwayne have a little closer mindset on what we like to do in the gym. We’re chasing that pump. We’re trying to create hypertrophy.”
