Kevin Nash watched WWE Monday Night Raw and thought back to a famous 2017 John Cena promo that called Roman Reigns out for not being able to hold his own on the microphone. On episode 200 of Kliq This, Nash told co-host Sean Oliver that Reigns has gone past that critique so far the heel-or-face label doesn’t even apply anymore.
“I’m just digging watching Roman, like he’s so smooth now,” Nash said. “But you look back at that famous promo that Cena cut against him, when he said, he looked across at him, he said, ‘This is a promo. You’re going to have to learn how to cut one if you’re going to take my spot.’ And I just remember that night like it was yesterday, and I was just wondering, ‘Holy f—-.’ And now it’s just the effortless ability he has in the ring.”
Reigns is currently the World Heavyweight Champion after beating CM Punk at WrestleMania 42 night two and is set to defend the title against Jacob Fatu at WWE Backlash this Saturday in Tampa. Nash has previously said on Kliq This that Reigns has to win the Backlash main event clean, and he reiterated that on the latest episode.
Nash also pushed back on the framing that Reigns is still working as a heel.
“Somebody was saying, on one of the sheets, or something I read, like, ‘How is he still a heel?'” Nash said. “I’m like, he’s not a f—-ing heel. He’s just Roman. Like you can’t, you know, he used to say, ‘Acknowledge me,’ and they booed. Now he says, ‘Acknowledge me,’ and they’ll say, ‘F—- yeah, I’ll acknowledge you. You look like a million. You look like a f—-ing movie star. You’re f—-ing smooth as a motherf—-er.'”
Nash and Oliver spent a chunk of the segment on how Reigns’ presence has evolved. Where the 2018 version of the character was a forced top babyface getting booed nightly, the post-Tribal Chief Reigns is now the kind of character who can play any role on the card and be cheered for it.
Nash credited the long Tribal Chief run for resetting Reigns. He’s also been able to mostly avoid the cluttered booking around him because he’s not the booker, just the executor.
“Things could get cluttered underneath him and confusing and lightly booked, maybe. But he’s not that booker. He’s out there to execute,” Nash said earlier in the same conversation about Reigns. “And from what I’ve seen, every time I have seen him, he’s delivered. So why screw with that formula? It works.”
Reigns won the World Heavyweight Championship over CM Punk at WrestleMania 42 night two and made the WrestleMania match part of a larger story that included Paul Heyman switching sides multiple times. Heyman has now landed back with Seth Rollins and, by Nash’s read, will keep latching onto the next host he can find.
“He’s always looking for a host,” Nash said about Heyman. “He’s a f—-ing parasite. Like, he’s going to find something that he can latch onto, which he has in Bron.”
Nash and Oliver predicted Reigns has to win cleanly at Backlash given his championship status, with Nash flatly stating, “Roman has to go over. He’s a champion.”
The Cena promo Nash referenced was the lead-in to John Cena vs. Roman Reigns at WWE No Mercy on September 24, 2017. Cena’s verbal challenges to Reigns on the September 2017 episodes of WWE Monday Night Raw, including a contract-signing segment widely cited as one of the harshest works against Reigns the company had aired to that point, became part of the wider conversation about whether Reigns could carry the top spot WWE was building him toward.
You can click below to watch the full episode.
