5 wrestlers Roman Reigns has helped in their careers

Roman Reigns is currently off of WWE television due to the Coronavirus outbreak, with him prioritising his own health and the health of his family over attending episode tapings.

WWE has rolled along without him, as they always do, but it's important to note just how important Roman Reigns is to the company. In the past he has been considered the locker room leader, with many other Superstars looking up to him, and on-screen, he was clearly the top guy.

It would be unfair to say that WWE aren't missing his star power and presence both as an on-screen talent and also in the influence and leadership he displays backstage, especially as several WWE Superstars have come out and said how much Reigns has helped them and their careers.

So, who exactly has praised Roman Reigns for helping them? Well, we're about to tell you in this article of 5 people who credit Roman Reigns for helping their career!

#5. AJ Styles and Roman Reigns

AJ Styles is one of professional wrestling's biggest names and biggest talents. He made a name for himself at TNA and New Japan Pro Wrestling before eventually jumping ship to WWE and becoming a top star there.

With that in mind it's hard to figure out how a seasoned pro like him could have benefited from being around Roman Reigns, especially when he was a big star before even going to WWE and meeting Reigns.

However, Styles spoke to Sunsport where he revealed how Reigns helped him:

“You have this indie guy in 2016. This guy from Japan just walked right in there and step in the ring with Roman Reigns. Now the perfect scenario was in place because not everybody loved Roman.

Now he is definitely one of the biggest stars but not everyone loved Roman then and so you have this indie darling, right?"

Styles went on to add:

“And it was like, oh, they made it easy for me to be in there with Roman, because Roman is such a huge star. It only got better from there when I had the opportunity to get in the ring with Roman, one of the pay per views, actually a couple of pay per views I think.

When I’ve got a title opportunity, it was against Roman Reigns. Unbelievable match. I’ve watched it back. Wow. I can’t believe we did all this stuff that was really good."

As you can see, Styles credits Reigns for establishing him as a star in WWE and for putting on some great matches with him. This is interesting as many consider Styles to be one of the greatest in-ring workers of all time, yet Reigns' in-ring work often gets overlooked!

#4. Keith Lee and Roman Reigns

Keith Lee has been tearing it up on WWE after some pop-worthy appearances on WWE's main roster heading into last year's Survivor Series pay-per-view and recently on NXT where he became the first ever dual champion, winning the NXT Title and retaining the NXT North American Title against Adam Cole.

Lee was another big name on the independent circuit heading into WWE and, like Styles, he's another name that credits Roman Reigns for the success he's found in his WWE career so far.

Lee spoke to Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated and talked about a moment Reigns really helped him:

"Roman doesn't get enough credit for what he means to this sport, And he went above-and-beyond to make that moment. The simple gesture of our fist bump, he turned that into magic. That was the start of something very special for me. He is such a superstar that he made that moment overshadow everything else that happened in that match, and I won't forget it."

The moment occurred when the two big men faced off at Survivor Series 2019 and as Lee stated, it was a magic moment. Massive props to Reigns for recognising that Lee was getting over with the main roster crowd and giving him the rub with the first bump!

#3. R-Truth and Roman Reigns

R-Truth and Roman Reigns are close friends so it stands to reason that they help each other a lot, but Reigns' influence extends even beyond wrestling when it comes to helping careers.

That's because R-Truth revealed that Reigns is a big fan of his music and is even an executive producer for it in an interview with RHTV

Truth said:

“I got Roman Reigns helping me with some stuff. Actually, when Roman and I were riding together he would dictate and critique all my music, man. He’s actually one of my executive producers helping me fund a lot of stuff so he has his hands in my music. I play [my music] in the locker room in front of all the new talent NXT guys, like I said AOP, Kevin Owens, Street Profits, Natalya, Sasha Banks, Bayley, the catering people, the makeup people, I play my music for everybody at work.”

You would think with a growing family and a position at the top of the biggest wrestling company in the world that Reigns doesn't have enough time for side projects like producing music for R-Truth and helping him find stuff to use for it, but he does!

#2. Connor Braxton and Roman Reigns

A lot of you won't have heard of Connor Braxton, and that's okay because he isn't a WWE Superstar, he's an independent wrestler. However, his story about Roman Reigns' kindness is a perfect example of how 'The Big Dog' is a massively positive force in the wrestling industry as a whole, not just WWE.

When Reigns announced his battle with cancer, many people took to social media to offer their support and share their stories of Roman Reigns being a great guy. That's when we saw the below story of when Reigns gave Braxton some wrestling boots.

You’re a good brother, Roman. You’ll beat this ✊🏽 #BelieveThat pic.twitter.com/IbZ5JrTXRK
— Connor Braxton (@fakebraxton) October 23, 2018

Expand Tweet

As you can see from the above story, Reigns is incredibly humble and willing to help anyone in the industry, both at the top in WWE, and those who are working their way up the ladder from the bottom like Braxton.

It seems that Braxton has remembered the message and will surely pay the act of kindness forward, helping someone else in the future. And all because Roman Reigns helped him simply because he could

#1. Aleister Black and Roman Reigns

Aleister Black, like Keith Lee and AJ Styles, also has a great story about how he, as an independent wrestler heading to WWE, was made to feel at home by Roman Reigns, who went out of his way to do so.

Black told the story of how he was new to WWE's main roster so would be the one tidying the locker room after it had been used to keep it tidy and to pay his dues as the new guy.

However, one day Reigns stepped in one day and had a great discussion with him, as Black describes on his Facebook page:

"After a few nights we sat down as I also tried to let people get to know me as it is important for the people that you work with to see you and are able to interact with you, these are your colleagues and the people you work with for hopefully a very long and fulfilling time. During the sit down I got a chance to talk to Roman a little bit and we talked about tattoos, music, his background and his heritage."

After that Roman Reigns told Black to stop cleaning the locker rooms because he belonged in WWE and had earned his place there, which was welcome advice to Black.

"At a certain point during that conversation Roman looked at me and said 'I don’t want you cleaning the lockerrooms anymore. I want you to understand that you belong here and I want for you to kill it every night and be part of the team, that’s all I care about. You’ve been wrestling long enough to understand how this works, so please, relax.'”

Black went on to say that every time he saw Reigns after that he'd be greeted by a hug and Reigns would also want to know how he was doing. Yet another example of how Reigns has helped so many in the wrestling industry!

Edited by Alan John