Like Hulk Hogan, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, and John Cena before him, in the eyes of most WWE fans, there's Roman Reigns, and then there's everyone else.
Sure, technically there are now two World Champions atop the WWE Universe, with Seth Rollins securing the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at Night of Champions, putting him theoretically on par with “The Tribal Chief” and his former The Shield teammate once more, but when you consider Paul “Triple H” Levesque had to literally christen a new belt because Reigns just sort of stopped showing up for work, that achievement becomes a whole lot less impressive.
And yet, even as a “part-timer” there are plenty of people who still think Reigns is the best show in town, including none other than “The Hulkster” – a top guy of his day as well – who believes Reigns is one of the few people in professional wrestling today who keeps the artistry of the sport alive.
“I've got a soft spot in my heart for Roman, but I think he's one of the only main event guys that's keeping the art form alive. He can go out there and wing it. He doesn't need a writer to tell him what to say,” Hogan said in an interview with TMZ via Wrestling Inc.
“I can tell by the way he wrestles, he's not following some choreographed pattern,” Hogan continued. “He is really good with placement and physicality and knowing where he is at all the time in the ring. And it's like when I wrestled, I never ever, ever talked about my match. I would see guys sit in the back room and talk for an hour about a five-minute match, and I'd go to Andre. I said, ‘What are we doing tonight?' [Andre responded] ‘Don't worry.' I said ‘Okay.'” That's how I was raised. And I see that in Roman.”
Does Reigns really not plan out his matches in advance either? Well, considering most of his contests are more or less build-ups toward the arrival of The Usos, even if that didn't turn out particularly well at Night of Champions, there has to be at least a little bit of pre-planning to choreograph how that interaction will go down. Still, you'll rarely see spots in a Reigns match that looks like the other performer is helping him hit it a la the Canadian Destroyer or Code Red, probably because “The Head of the Table's” offense is predominantly Spears, Superman Punches, and lockups. Either way, it's nice to see the former WWF WWE Champion celebrating the current one, even if he has a bit of a pre-existing relationship with Reigns due to his time working with his father.
Hulk Hogan is surprised to see Vince McMahon sell WWE.
During his interview with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, Hulk Hogan was asked about whether or not he was surprised to hear that Vince McMahon decided to sell WWE to Anthem. For Hogan, the answer wasn't as simple as yes or no, as there's a lot that goes into a decision like that.
“Yes and no,” Hogan said via Fightful. “Business wise, the amount of money it generated for him, and where it’s put him in this catbird position, up on this financial pedestal, I understand the security of it. Shocked that he would not be 24/7 involved with the business. That guy never stopped. It was seven days a week. I’d go to Monday Night Raw, and we’d have a post-production meeting at one o’clock in the morning after the show was over. I’d sneak back to my hotel, he’d be banging on my door at 2:30, 3:00, ‘Come on, monster. Let’s go work out.’ Used to drive me crazy. Then he’d sleep for four hours and have another 20-hour day. It was like that every day. His plane, he had a big extended G4, I used to call it the slave ship. He talked me into going on it and flying to Monday Night Raw, then he’d never let me go home. ‘Oh, come on back to New York for three days. We need to California for a day.’ So I was surprised that he walked away from the lifestyle because that was him, he loved it.”
Alright, so excluding that weird bit about the name of Mr. McMahon's airplane, it must be weird for the long-time leader of WWE to no longer show up at every show and re-write the television plans a half-dozen times before showtime. Still, considering Mr. McMahon has reportedly started making changes to the WWE card from home, it sounds like nothing has really changed in the WWE Universe after all.
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