5 things we found out about Roman Reigns in 2017

#1 He originally just wanted to be called 'Roman'

'Roman Reigns' definitely sounds better than plain 'Roman'

Roman Reigns is a pretty badass name for a wrestler, but it could have been very different had a relatively unknown performer stayed around in WWE’s developmental brand a few years ago.

Back in 2011, a wrestler called Calvin Raines was making a name for himself in FCW. He was regularly involved in matches with the likes of Seth Rollins and Xavier Woods and he was even an FCW Tag Team champion with Big E.

However, when he left in 2012 and WWE was looking to give Roman Reigns – then known as Leakee – a new name, the ‘Raines’ surname became available again.

“I liked Roman, I wanted Roman only,” the three-time WWE champion said on Talk Is Jericho. But, after taking advice from Corey Graves, he decided to add ‘Raines’ to his surname, with the spelling changed to ‘Reigns’ to make it sound like he was a king.