Conrad Thompson thinks the wrestling audience is applying one standard to Brock Lesnar and a completely different one to Roman Reigns, and that the numbers make the point for him.
Thompson spent much of this week’s 83 Weeks answering the reaction to his description of Reigns as the most overrated main eventer in WWE history. He started by narrowing what he had claimed.
“I want to start by clearing up what I didn’t say. I didn’t say that Roman Reigns isn’t a great talent. He is. He has good to very good matches. He’s had some great matches. He’s been the top guy during the most successful boom period. Out of the three most financially successful events in the history of pro wrestling, he’s in two of those three. You can’t take that away from him.”
“My point last week was, I’m kind of ready for something else.”
The argument he returned to was one about consistency. He had asked his followers the previous week whether Lesnar belongs in a Mount Rushmore conversation, and was told repeatedly that a part-timer does not qualify.
“Since Brock came back 12 years ago, he only wrestled 84 times. People in the comments were saying, well, he’s not eligible to be in the Rushmore conversation. He was a part timer. How does that same math not apply to Roman?”
He put his own figures on the comparison, measured from Cody Rhodes returning from a torn pec at the 2023 Royal Rumble.
“He’s wrestled 289 matches since he came back from the torn pec. During that same time period, Roman’s wrestled 29 times. It’s not the same thing. I’m not saying Cody is better than. I’m not saying he’s different than. I’m just saying we’re having a conversation about Roman as the top guy, and he’s wrestled 29 times.”
Those numbers are his own and have not been independently confirmed. He also said Reigns will earn more across last year and this than Ric Flair did across his entire career.
Thompson had to bat away a suggestion that his comments were made on somebody else’s behalf, after people online noted his friendship with Rhodes.
“I did not talk to Cody. They’re not even working in a programme. They’re on different shows. It’s not the same thing.”
He also ran a thought experiment about how the same behaviour would have been received a generation ago, referring to a segment in which Reigns compared the value of his watch to an opponent’s.
“Imagine Hulk Hogan on Monday Nitro has a young Chris Jericho standing in front of him, cutting a promo, getting great crowd reactions, and Hogan tells the camera, zoom in on my half a million dollar watch, and then look at his Walmart watch. If Hulk Hogan did that to Chris Jericho, they would have gutted and quartered Hulk Hogan for years to come. But when Roman does it, oh, it’s cool.”
“The idea that all of a sudden Roman is this golden boy and we can’t be critical of him at all, when did that start?”
He was careful about where the criticism stops.
“I’m not saying anything bad about Roman Reigns. He did a great thing. He’s more than held up his end of the bargain. We said last week he had the best match on the weekend. I enjoyed all seven of his matches last year. I enjoyed all six of his matches in 2024. Every time he wrestles, it has a big fight feel because he does it so infrequently. I’m saying the formula is working.”
He also credited the presentation, while noting where it came from.
“The wrestling infrequently is what makes him a star. If he wrestles every week, it’s not special. The absence is what makes the heart grow fonder. It’s the lights, it’s the pyro, it’s the slow walk. They borrowed a little bit of The Undertaker and his slow, methodical for Roman Reigns. That’s not debatable. That certainly was the formula, and it’s worked.”
“All I’m saying is, I’m kind of ready for him to do whatever the American Badass version of his character is. I’m ready for him to switch gears a little bit and do something a little different.”
Reigns retained the World Heavyweight Championship against Seth Rollins at SummerSlam. Lesnar confirmed his retirement this week.
