Becoming the Tribal Chief cost Roman Reigns his friendships, and he made that trade on purpose.
Speaking on Nightcap at Fanatics Fest, Reigns explained that his character transformation coming out of the COVID shutdown forced a decision about what kind of locker room presence he wanted to be.
There was a time when I transformed into The Tribal Chief around COVID when I came back. I had to make a choice. Do I want to be one of the boys, or do I want to be responsible for the championships? Do I want to pull the wagon? Do I want to make this business better? Do I want to advance the industry?
Reigns chose the wagon, and he’s blunt about what it left him with.
I had to make that choice and I’ll cleanly say now I don’t really have any friends anymore… I’m not in the friend business. We’re in the conflict business. We’re here to sell tickets to get y’all to see us go at it. I’m a businessman and I’m cordial with the locker room, but I’m not really trying to hang out with anybody.
That mindset is about to be tested in the ring. Reigns defends the World Heavyweight Championship against Seth Rollins, one of his oldest Shield brothers, in what’s expected to be the Sunday main event of SummerSlam on August 1 and 2 in Minneapolis.
