At time of writing Roman Reigns has made a total of 25 defences of his Universal Championship since defeating Braun Strowman and Bray Wyatt at Payback in 2020. While the star has since become the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion following victory over Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 38.
During his run at the top of WWE Reigns has defeated some of the best wrestlers in the world. Former World Champions, Hall of Famers and even YouTube stars have been forced to a acknowledge the Tribal Chief over the last two years. However, Reigns has now revealed that it was an opponent much closer to home that pushed him emotionally more than any other.
Roman Reigns Reflects On Hell In A Cell Match With Jey Uso
Before The Bloodline was born, Roman Reigns engaged in an extremely heated feud with Jey Uso, which also eventually pulled in Jimmy. In September 2020, Jey Uso earned a shot at the Universal Championship, which saw him take on Reigns at Clash of Champions. Although the champion retained the gold after Jimmy Uso threw in the towel, Jey was handed a rematch at Hell In A Cell, inside the famous structure. The bout was also made an “I Quit” Match with the added stipulation that if Jey Uso lost he would have to join with Reigns.
At the event Reigns forced Jey to quit after attacking his brother Jimmy. In the weeks after the match The Usos joined with Reigns and his Special Counsel Paul Heyman, and the group which would later become known as The Bloodline was born.
While being profiled by The Ringer’s Jonathan Snowden, Reigns reflected on his match with Jey Uso inside Hell In A Cell. The Head of the Table said that he had never been more nervous for an opponent than he was that night for his cousin.
“I’ve never been so nervous for anybody I’ve been in the ring with. I want everybody to do good, but I’m not going to lower myself. I’m going to make everything look awesome as much as I can. So you have to keep up. At the end of the day, you have to be able to work up to this level and not seem out of place. And he didn’t, man, in so many ways.
I’m not going to dive into all the super backstage stuff, but there was no time to discuss. So there were a lot of instincts that were relied on. The fact that we have literally a brother-level connection and relationship, it made it really easy for us to just rely on our history and being comfortable with each other and also being able to push that type of emotion out of each other.”
Reigns added that no one has ever pushed him as hard emotionally as Jey did during that match.
“I don’t think anyone’s ever pushed me emotionally like Jey has, and I think we did that for each other and we made a star out of him. I mean, even to this day, if he doesn’t go through that process, I don’t think he’s doing what he’s doing now at the level he’s doing it at. It doesn’t happen if he doesn’t make those giant leaps he did two years ago.”
The Bloodline will be back in action at Survivor Series when Roman Reigns, The Usos, Solo Sikoa and Sami Zayn take on Ridge Holland, Butch, Sheamus, Drew McIntyre and Kevin Owens in WarGames.