"I don’t see the real competition" – Roman Reigns feels AEW is being 'babied' by hardcore fans

Roman Reigns did not hold back in his assessment of AEW, dismissing Tony Khan's promotion as competition. The WWE Universal Champion believes that the company is being "babied" by hardcore fans.

The Tribal Chief spoke about AEW being a competition to WWE ahead of AEW Rampage and WWE SmackDown going head to head for the first time on Friday. While speaking to Complex, this is what Roman Reigns had to say:

"No. I mean, not for me personally," said Roman Reigns. "This is one of those subjects that’s very subjective, and there’s a lot of passion and tribalism that really sways and creates an unbiased opinion. But I can only speak from my perspective. I’m one of those guys who will compete at anything. So me, I don’t see the real competition [with AEW] because I think their fan base legitimately is a hardcore fan base. So there’s like a ceiling and a built-in ground to that viewership."

The Tribal Chief continued, stating that WWE appeals to all audiences by catering to casual as well as hardcore fans.

"[The WWE is] trying to connect with everyone. We’re trying to connect with the mainstream. We’re trying to pull in the casual fan. We’re trying to engage the new viewer, while also servicing our hardcore fan base and give them compelling stories to fulfill them as well," Roman Reigns said.

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Roman Reigns believes AEW gets favorable reviews because they are the new flavor in town

During the same interview, the former Shield member stated that AEW being a new company has led to the company being "babied" by hardcore fans.

"You’ll hear it all the time, the reviews and the comparisons. I think because they [AEW] are the new kids on the block, they’re the cool kids in town, I guess, because of how premature and how novel it kind of still is. I think they're still being babied by these hardcore wrestling fans. Which is fine. That’s great. I don’t think anybody’s going to ever, especially from a performance standpoint, say, ‘Oh no, there’s more opportunities out there? That sucks.’ So it’s not a bad thing.

The current Universal Champion also said that AEW's existence is a great thing for professional wrestling in general:

It’s a great thing for professional wrestling. It’s just a weird argument because there’s so much bias and there’s so much, ‘I’m on this side and I’m not gonna open my mind to the other side.’ And it goes both ways," Roman Reigns said.

Well, Roman Reigns did not hold back on his thoughts. There will be plenty of discussion on the merits of his arguments. Meanwhile, the Universal Champion is preparing to take on Brock Lesnar in Saudi Arabia at Crown Jewel in a blockbuster match.