WWE Management Once Told Roman Reigns He Had To Lose Weight

The man now known as Roman Reigns was hired by WWE in July 2010. At that point, he had been out of football for over a year after being cut by the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League. WWE officials had long planned to offer him a contract after he was done playing football, but when the time came, they didn’t think he was in the kind of shape they prefer.

Reigns weighed over 300 pounds and WWE officials were eager for him to cut that down. This was revealed by Jim Ross, a man who had a say in the company offering him a contract.

While talking about Reigns in an interview with Sports Illustrated, Ross said, “He was a nose tackle in the ACC at Georgia Tech at 300-plus pounds, and then decided to go into the family business of pro wrestling. The thing we told him was, ‘You’ve got to work on your body,’ and I’m sure The Rock probably had some influence on that, too, but Reigns worked extremely hard and is very dedicated.”

Working his tail off, Reigns managed to get himself into better condition and he made his wrestling debut in September 2010. While he wasn’t majorly overweight for his size, WWE officials just wanted him to tone his body up.