Roman Reigns: Royal Rumble Fan Rejection Was A 'Huge Kick In The Ass'

Roman Reigns appeared on The LAW: Live Audio Wrestling podcast this week to discuss SummerSlam, the past year of his career, the reaction he received at the Royal Rumble, matches with Daniel Bryan, Brock Lesnar and Big Show in 2015 and more.

Reigns said despite the fact that fans completely rejected his Royal Rumble win earlier this year, "it all happened for a reason."

"In sports entertainment, professional wrestling, entertainment, storytelling, you can do anything, you can tell any story you want to. It’s difficult to say, especially within what we do, with hindsight. I think there is a lot of things we could have done or maybe thought about, but it is what it is, it really is. It all happened for a reason."

"Bryan and myself were both hurt we were both coming back around similar times. 100% it didn’t help me coming back around the same time as Bryan, especially with everything he has gone though over the past year, year-and-a-half. People talk about getting through adversity and going through some tough stuff, the stuff that happened to Bryan, the ups and downs, I think everyone was rooting for him (Bryan), I was rooting for him. I still to this day root for him. I want to see Bryan back in a wrestling ring, tearing the house down with myself and all the rest of the boys."

Reigns remains optimistic, having used the uncomfortable situation as a means of motivation. In hindsight, he's thankful things turned out the way they did at the Royal Rumble and he relishes the opportunity to prove he's deserving of being a WWE main eventer.

"It was just a tough situation, regardless of what happened or how we could have changed that night as far as responses, as far as having the crowd react properly to me, or how we wanted them to, it didn’t. But it helped me, it helped me grow, it left a huge impression on me, you know I thank Philly every day for that. You have to learn fast in this business and I’d like to think I’m doing that, but without that night, that was a huge kick in the ass, that lit a fire under me. If you’ve seen what I’ve done in the past six-months, I think you can tell Royal Rumble definitely helped me."