Roman Reigns began his historic reign as the Universal Champion back in August 2020 when he defeated Braun Strowman and Bray Wyatt in a Triple Threat match. Following the victory, he saw off another challenge from Strowman and forced his cousin Jey Uso to ally with him, beginning the formation of The Bloodline, by defeating him in a brutal I Quit Hell In A Cell match.
With his house in order, Roman Reigns received his next challenger in the form of Kevin Owens. The pair met in a trilogy of matches over the Universal Title, but interference from Jey Uso and Reigns’ Special Counsel Paul Heyman prevented Owens from overcoming The Tribal Chief.
Kevin Owens says matches against Roman Reigns were some of his favourites
Speaking on WWE’s After The Bell with Corey Graves, Owens revealed that he sees the three bouts against Roman Reigns as some of his favourites, even though they took place during the ‘No Crowds Era’ of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Yeah, you know, to me, those three matches we had are some of my favourites I’ve ever had. And they were like I said in front of nobody. And that’s not true, they weren’t in front of nobody was there in front of you guys, or in front of our production team. You know what I mean?”
Owens went on to explain that using the crew as the audience meant he was able to get a good gauge of how matches went, since they’ve seen everything in the wrestling business.
“It’s funny, because I’ve said this before in interviews during the pandemic, you know, we get asked in interviews all the time, ‘How would you keep yourself motivated because you’re wrestling in front of technically nobody?’
“Well, I would just keep our production team, our camera crews, our commentators, everybody that has seen wrestling for a very long time, they’re my audience now. And if I have a match, and our camera guy is super sweaty, come up to me after and tell me, ‘Hey, that was really good.’ Those guys have seen it all for a very long time.
“If I’m able to entertain them and make them not, you know, forget about the fact that they’re holding a 45-pound camera and filming just two guys wrestling again. You know, if I’m able to make them enjoy themselves well, I’ve done something good.
“So I would still use that as motivation in those matches too. But again, you know, it’s not that like 16,000, 17,000 whatever, even if it’s in a stadium, 45,000 people watching, so I’d love to get the opportunity to do that for sure.”
In recent weeks, Kevin Owens has reignited his feud with Roman Reigns, first by being part of the team taking on The Bloodline at Survivor Series WarGames and, according to recent reports, could be set to challenge him for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at the Royal Rumble.
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