Samoa Joe always knew Roman Reigns would reach the top of and show the world how talented he is.
The All Elite Wrestling and Ring of Honor star – who spent seven years in WWE before – wrestled the current Undisputed WWE Universal Champion plenty of times between 2017 and 2019, and he saw the signs of the man who would become the Tribal Chief.
He exclusively told Metro.co.uk: ‘Just understand that a lot of what you see today, I saw back then and knew it was inevitable.’
The Samoan Submission Machine knew Roman would be ‘the one’, once he settled and found a ‘more comfortable’ presentation on screen.
‘That’s the biggest thing that I can take away from Roman and being in the ring with him, I realised that, yep, this is gonna be the one,’ he explained. ‘I knew it just took time, and him doing his thing, and then finally getting the opportunity to be something that he’s more comfortable being.
‘And there we go!’
For Samoa Joe, his transition was ‘relatively quick’, particularly when it came to adjusting to life on the main roster in WWE.
‘I had a career in front of people my entire life so that part of it wasn’t a mental issue for me. Being in front of people or making a fool of yourself in a large crowd of strangers was never a fear of mine or something that entered my head because, whatever,’ he laughed.
‘For me, it was a relatively quick realisation of who I am and what I want to portray in the ring. But it can take a while for a lot of people, just through time, effort, and going through the experience of being in the industry – it’ll turn you into a character!’
That confidence means Joe has avoided his share of embarrassing moments in wrestling, which he jokingly put down to being so ‘perfect’ even in his early career.
‘Not a whole lot! I was pretty flawless and perfect coming up, it was freaky! “He never messes up!” “I know, I hit every time, it’s cray,”‘ he laughed.
‘Nothing really embarrassing – sometimes I try to make stuff up and people are like, “That didn’t happen!” You’re right! I’m too good!’
AEW Collision airs Saturday nights at 1am on Fite TV. Tune into Ring of Honor on Thursday nights at 1am via HonorClub.
