Current WWE star once had heat with Roman Reigns in developmental

Based on WWE Superstars' media interviews, Roman Reigns appears to be widely respected by his peers. A decade ago, the same could not be said when The Tribal Chief first encountered one of his future main roster rivals in developmental.

Baron Corbin, real name Tom Pestock, joined WWE's NXT brand in August 2012. It wasn't long before the former American footballer earned a bad reputation backstage, mostly due to his seemingly nonchalant attitude towards the wrestling business. Members of the locker room even gave him a nickname: "Football Tom."

Roman Reigns was one of the developmental system's hottest prospects at the time. In a 2019 interview on Corey Graves' After The Bell podcast, he disclosed his initial opinion of the man he later feuded with:

"One thing, even with the boys back then, he [Corbin] got a reaction, right?" Reigns said. "He rubbed us a certain way, and when push came to shove and it was time for him to get in the ring, they were like, 'Dude, you're going to get fired if you don't get in the ring.' He picked it up, he's a big guy, he's got good timing. I'll give him that."

In November 2019, Reigns faced the former United States Champion in a series of matches during WWE's European tour. He added that the idea of that bout occurring on a big stage did not look likely during their developmental days:

"If you would've told me I would've main-evented a European tour with Football Tom, I would've said, 'Get the hell out of here. Yeah, right,'" Reigns added.

At the time of writing, the Bloodline leader has not lost a WWE match via pinfall since December 15, 2019. The defeat took place at WWE TLC against Corbin.

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Roman Reigns is not the only person who had issues with Baron Corbin

Corey Graves was part of the same NXT developmental system as Baron Corbin and Roman Reigns. After spending a lot of time with Corbin, the RAW announcer found out that his co-worker wasn't such a bad guy after all.

Graves told Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins that Corbin genuinely cared about the wrestling industry. Like Roman Reigns, Rollins was initially skeptical:

"I remember going, 'Guys, I think Football Tom… he might not be so bad,'" Graves said. "'Wait, what are you talking about?' Rollins going, 'What, no way?' 'No, he was asking about how we survived in the indies,' and that was kind of all any of us wanted [Corbin to show he was serious]."

In 2016, Corbin was called up to the main roster after almost four years in developmental. Since then, the 2019 King of the Ring winner has established himself as one of the most universally disliked villains of his generation.

What are your thoughts on Baron Corbin? Let us know in the comments section below.