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Roman Reigns in developmental (left); Roman Reigns now (right)

Roman Reigns' former trainer recalls what the WWE star was like in developmental

Roman Reigns trained in WWE's Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) and NXT developmental systems before joining the main roster in 2012. In a recent interview, The Tribal Chief's former coach Bill DeMott revealed how the WWE star behaved earlier in his career.

Reigns was one of many current wrestlers who trained under DeMott prior to moving to RAW and SmackDown. In 2015, DeMott resigned from his position as the head trainer at the Performance Center following several complaints about his coaching methods.

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On the Developmentally Speaking podcast, the former WCW star recalled how Reigns never had a problem with his rigorous training regime:

"I'll say this, not because of who he is now, because of who he was then, never heard one time him come in and publicly b***h about his schedule," DeMott said. "There were so many guys and girls that deserve their roses and flowers because they stayed the course, and while it was frustrating, yes, but they understood. And those guys and girls, you see them every week now and you see them doing their thing." [25:50 – 26:15]
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More than a decade later, Reigns is now WWE's star attraction. The Bloodline leader is the current Undisputed WWE Universal Champion. He has also headlined seven of the last nine WrestleMania events.


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Bill DeMott's first impression of Roman Reigns

Regular WWE viewers are no doubt aware that Roman Reigns is a member of the legendary Anoa'i wrestling family. However, Bill DeMott did not know about the former football player's history when they met for the first time.

From Leakee to Roman Reigns.
From Juggernaut to The Head of the Table.
From The Guy to The Tribal Chief!
Acknowledge The Undisputed #WWE Universal Champion on his birthday! 🏻

#WWERaw #SmackDown #HappyBirthday #RomanReigns #Bloodline

Despite being unaware of Reigns' famous family, DeMott suspected that the then-rookie would achieve great things in the wrestling business:

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"When I walked in, didn't even know who he was, didn't know he was part of the Samoans, who I've worked with my whole career, didn't know he was one of the sons, but you knew when you walked in the room, jeez, I don't know if he's any good, but he looks the part." [25:27 – 25:48]

Reigns will celebrate 1,000 days as Universal Champion on Friday's episode of SmackDown. The show is also expected to feature the fallout from Night of Champions, where Jimmy Uso hit The Head of the Table with two superkicks.

What are your thoughts on Roman Reigns' title reign? Let us know in the comments section below.


Please credit Developmentally Speaking and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.

Meet the man who called CM Punk the softest man alive HERE

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Edited by
Danny Hart
 
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