Roman Reigns Says He Wants To Incorporate More of 'Joe' Into His Character

WWE superstar Roman Reigns wants to incorporate more of Joe Anoa'i into his character in 2019.

Courtesy of WWE

Roman Reigns is back and he's ready to change things up a little bit.

In a new interview on the SI Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina, the WWE superstar talked about tweaking his Roman Reigns character to incorporate more of himself, Joe Anoa'i.

Reigns announced in October that his leukemia, which he had battled 11 years earlier, had returned. He was away from the company until Feb. 25, when he dramatically announced on Monday Night Raw that he was in remission. The following week, on the March 4 edition, Reigns was back in character.

When asked if we could ever see him in the WWE as Joe, Reigns talked about him already starting that process the week after he returned to the company.

"I honestly think last week, that was one of my goals. I was like, 'OK, I knew the first week was gonna be crazy emotional, but I don’t wanna be the guy who comes out there and everybody gets semi-sad or gets super heavy all the time.' I want people to have fun. I want to create escapism. It’s like a mini vacation [for the fans] on their couch. Let’s get into these storylines. Let’s take all this positive sensitivity being sent to me and shift it and send it to people in need. That’s where I’m at now, shifting all this positive energy from me to the people in need. 

"But also with the storylines and character, because we have introduced Joe, especially last week, I felt like there was a lot of Joe within the promo of Segment One. Even with the interaction with Seth [Rollins], I just feel like with me integrating the characters and who I am in real life and who I am on stage, for me to kind of mix them, it allows me to laugh at Roman a little bit and have a little more fun and be a little more loose as opposed to the stoic brawler. If you know me in real life, I’m kinda like my cousins [The Usos], I’m a bit of a clown, I act up, we goof off a lot. We’re silly. We’re big kids. We’re always goofing around, trying to laugh. If I can add that in the next couple of years, those layers of being chilled out, little more comedy, a few different emotions, I think that would be pretty neat."

You can listen to Reigns' full interview on the SI Media Podcat below beginning at the 39-minute mark or download it on iTunes, Spotify and Google Play.

Reigns also discusses what he was able to accomplish durig his time away from the WWE, working with The Rock on an upcoming movie, hearing cheers instead of boos, if he could turn heel now and much more.