‘This is pretty bad’ – Roman Reigns set for WWE hiatus as fans react to ‘cringe’ footage from wrestling past
Roman Reigns has set the standard for the modern-day star in WWE. His defeat at the hands of Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania XL in 2024 ended his run Undisputed Champion at a phenomenal 1,316 days. First making his mark as part of The Shield, Roman Reigns has been a major player in WWEWWE That stretch put Reigns as the longest-reigning champion in WWE since the 1980s and the fourth longest in history. Even that came after a stellar breakthrough run as a member of The Sheild before a rocky road into singles stardom blossomed post COVID, at which point his Tribal Chief character was born. Since then, he’s been rivaled arguably only by Rhodes in respect of his star power and on-screen presence, remaining a top-tier performer even without championship gold over the last year and working a lesser schedule than many full-time performers. He was defeated at WrestleMania in a superb triple-threat match against CM Punk and Seth Rollins, effectively written out of storylines on Raw the night after. Fans have been more used to seeing Reigns more sporadically lately and, according to noted outlet WrestleVotes, the major name is again set for an extended absence before picking up his wrestling schedule later in the summer. He’s unlikely, they say, to feature at the upcoming Backlash pay-per-view event, shown on Netflix in the UK, and may not feature again until the build for June’s Money in the Bank event. That will mean a considerable chunk of WWE screen time will play out without the OTC despite his lofty billing at the company’s biggest show of the year just weeks ago. Fans keen to get their Roman Reigns fix in his absence will be forced to trawl the archives of Netflix of the WWE Vault – which is timely given that X has recently thrown up a screamer of a clip showing a young pup Reigns at the start of his wrestling adventure. Transitioning into wrestling after a fleeting football career, the Floridian was signed by WWE in 2010 and quickly thrust into the developmental territory of the day, FCW. There, he debuted as Leakee, one clip showing him addressing his arrival and putting the rest of the roster on notice as to his intention be the future of the industry as the company’s world champion. Years later, Reigns is one of the company’s biggest stars and best athletesWWE Turning his attention to two rivals, he notes in his statement: “They wanted to try and take that all away from me. The put my life, my livelihood and my health on the line. “For that, I say to them: ‘Slap yourselves!’” The emphasis the future Big Dog put on the word ‘slap’ was enough to draw audible laughter from those watching in the background and even seemed to cause the grappler to momentarily smirk, too. He recovered, nonetheless, with a vow to ‘show them and the rest of the roster’ why he was the ‘future of sports entertainment’ before making a loud and animated exit. Watching the clip decades later, fans were mightily amused and couldn’t help pointing out the parallels with the infamous line Reigns would deliver to Rollins in 2015. Touching on the break-up of the Shield, the powerhouse hit at Rollins that he was ‘a snivelling little suck-up sell-out full of sufferin’ succotash!’ Footage of a young Reigns has emerged on X and given fans reason to smileWWE Reigns lacked star power in his early days but always oozed charismaWWE Reigns work on the mic has improved immeasurably since 2015 – and further still since the days of Leakee, but fans were still keen to have some good-natured fun. “Still a better promo than sufferin’ succotash,” one comment read, while another jested: “The long-awaited prequel to ‘Sufferin’ Succotash’” Another post joked: “Sufferin’ Succotash Suhlap yourself,” while a fourth said: “I know he felt good after saying that… bro was thinking: ‘did I nail it?’ “This is pretty bad, big time cringe,” wrote one, while another quipped: “Somebody has to play this when he gets into the Hall of Fame.” With records having fallen at his feet, world title reigns aplenty and a Royal Rumble win under his belt just to name a few of his WWE accolades, a Hall of Fame entry seems a dead cert for Roman Reigns. If not, perhaps we’ll all need to ‘suh-lap’ ourselves…
Roman Reigns has set the standard for the modern-day star in WWE.
His defeat at the hands of Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania XL in 2024 ended his run Undisputed Champion at a phenomenal 1,316 days.
That stretch put Reigns as the longest-reigning champion in WWE since the 1980s and the fourth longest in history.
Even that came after a stellar breakthrough run as a member of The Sheild before a rocky road into singles stardom blossomed post COVID, at which point his Tribal Chief character was born.
Since then, he’s been rivaled arguably only by Rhodes in respect of his star power and on-screen presence, remaining a top-tier performer even without championship gold over the last year and working a lesser schedule than many full-time performers.
He was defeated at WrestleMania in a superb triple-threat match against CM Punk and Seth Rollins, effectively written out of storylines on Raw the night after.
Fans have been more used to seeing Reigns more sporadically lately and, according to noted outlet WrestleVotes, the major name is again set for an extended absence before picking up his wrestling schedule later in the summer.
He’s unlikely, they say, to feature at the upcoming Backlash pay-per-view event, shown on Netflix in the UK, and may not feature again until the build for June’s Money in the Bank event.
That will mean a considerable chunk of WWE screen time will play out without the OTC despite his lofty billing at the company’s biggest show of the year just weeks ago.
Fans keen to get their Roman Reigns fix in his absence will be forced to trawl the archives of Netflix of the WWE Vault – which is timely given that X has recently thrown up a screamer of a clip showing a young pup Reigns at the start of his wrestling adventure.
Transitioning into wrestling after a fleeting football career, the Floridian was signed by WWE in 2010 and quickly thrust into the developmental territory of the day, FCW.
There, he debuted as Leakee, one clip showing him addressing his arrival and putting the rest of the roster on notice as to his intention be the future of the industry as the company’s world champion.
Turning his attention to two rivals, he notes in his statement: “They wanted to try and take that all away from me. The put my life, my livelihood and my health on the line.
“For that, I say to them: ‘Slap yourselves!’”
The emphasis the future Big Dog put on the word ‘slap’ was enough to draw audible laughter from those watching in the background and even seemed to cause the grappler to momentarily smirk, too.
He recovered, nonetheless, with a vow to ‘show them and the rest of the roster’ why he was the ‘future of sports entertainment’ before making a loud and animated exit.
Watching the clip decades later, fans were mightily amused and couldn’t help pointing out the parallels with the infamous line Reigns would deliver to Rollins in 2015.
Touching on the break-up of the Shield, the powerhouse hit at Rollins that he was ‘a snivelling little suck-up sell-out full of sufferin’ succotash!’
Reigns work on the mic has improved immeasurably since 2015 – and further still since the days of Leakee, but fans were still keen to have some good-natured fun.
“Still a better promo than sufferin’ succotash,” one comment read, while another jested: “The long-awaited prequel to ‘Sufferin’ Succotash’”
Another post joked: “Sufferin’ Succotash Suhlap yourself,” while a fourth said: “I know he felt good after saying that… bro was thinking: ‘did I nail it?’
“This is pretty bad, big time cringe,” wrote one, while another quipped: “Somebody has to play this when he gets into the Hall of Fame.”
With records having fallen at his feet, world title reigns aplenty and a Royal Rumble win under his belt just to name a few of his WWE accolades, a Hall of Fame entry seems a dead cert for Roman Reigns.
If not, perhaps we’ll all need to ‘suh-lap’ ourselves…
