Roman Reigns Discusses "Missionary" Line Against John Cena

Roman Reigns was a guest on the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast, where he spoke about the now-infamous line he delivered on SmackDown where he compared John Cena's gimmick to the missionary position.

“There was a portion of my career where I’d either read a script or I would try to adjust a script as much as possible. For a while now, especially since I’ve come back from my little leave during the beginning of the pandemic since SummerSlam, I’m not scripted. I say what I want to. I say what I feel, and if it comes out of my mouth, it’s my verbiage. I come up with it. I deliver it, and that’s why it’s been the way it’s been because it’s mine. I don’t know why they edited that out, and I think it did raise some eyebrows, but I don’t get in trouble. The gimmick is as close to being real as possible. Even if they try to say something to me, I wouldn’t have cared anyways. What are you gonna do, not have me on SmackDown next week? Like I did before SummerSlam during last summer, I’ll go home. It doesn’t matter to me. Let’s see how it goes without me."

“Everything’s a bit of feel. Obviously, this is my job, so I have a game plan. I’m attached to the creative process, so we’re always brainstorming. We’re always coming up with new material, but it’s all on the delivery. You can have the coolest lines of all time, but if you’re not connected to it, you’re not within the skin of what you’re trying to do, it’s not going to come off right. So you have to really put yourself in that position and try to deliver it accordingly. It definitely wasn’t something that was holstered throughout the week or the month or anything like that. I have to be in that process. I have to be on location and in the mode because there are huge differences between who I am in real life between Joe and Roman. I’m a father and a husband. That’s the priority, but when it’s time to go to SmackDown or time to go to a WWE event, I have to put on that whole Head of the Table mindset, that whole tribal chief skin, and try to display that as authentically as possible.”

In case you missed it, here's the line in question: