Charles Barkley Gives Roman Reigns a Shoutout, Mistakes Mr. Perfect for Still Being Alive on Inside The NBA

By Connor Casey

Charles Barkley started dropping wrestler names on Tuesday night's edition of Inside The NBA. While the panel read off a tweet poking fun at the former power forward, Barkley noticed that the Twitter handle was from a fan account of WWE Hall of Famer Curt Hennig, aka Mr. Pefect. Mistaking the account for the actual former Intercontinental Champion, Barkley said, "That is Mr. Perfect! I remember him, he's a hell of a wrestler. He ain't no Ric Flair or Rock or Chris Jericho or Roman Reigns."

Hennig passed away at the age of 44 back in 2003. The comment did wind up getting attention from Paul Heyman, who tweeted out, "Ladies and Gentlemen, it's #TCC Wednesday ...#TribalChiefCrush #Wednesday ... To wit, I offer you #CharlesBarkley living out his masturbatory fantasies of being @WWERomanReigns...ACKNOWLEDGE ... THAT!!!"

Reigns unified the WWE and Universal Championships at WrestleMania 38 by defeating Brock Lesnar. Since then he has defended his title numerous times on house shows against Drew McIntyre, but on WWE TV he only started a program with McIntyre last week. The two will be involved in a six-man tag team match alongside The Usos and RK-Bro, but no championships will be on the line. 

Heyman spoke with The Ringer back in January and praised both Reigns and Lesnar for reinventing themselves in recent years. Reigns has become the dominant villain "The Tribal Chief," while Lesnar has become a more jovial babyface. 

"I'm indescribably proud of both of them," Heyman said. "Roman Reigns is a very strategic performer. The Tribal Chief has lived inside of Roman Reigns for a long time but it wasn't the right time to present this persona because he had to go through all of the trials and tribulations in front of the public first. He needed his face roughed up a little more. He needed to show a little bit of age. The Tribal Chief just couldn't be the best-looking man in the industry in his late 20s. He had to be a little more seasoned, he had to be a little more grizzled. To speak as the Tribal Chief before he's the Tribal Chief would not have made sense. He's very comfortable in this presentation. This is authentically who he is. This is how he sees himself. I like to say that SmackDown is the best reality show on television because you're getting to see the real Roman Reigns for the first time. He's not being forced to go out there and smile and tell you how much he just loves to go and sign autographs at 4 in the afternoon for all the little kids that are coming to the show. No, he doesn't. He doesn't want to. He doesn't want to do media appearances that he doesn't want to do. He does the ones that he chooses to do because they're the right ones to host the Tribal Chief."

"In terms of Brock, Brock just never felt like talking. Brock Lesnar does what Brock Lesnar wants to do and Brock Lesnar doesn't do what Brock Lesnar doesn't want to do," he added. "When Brock came back, he had been gone long enough and looked different enough and is really comfortable enough with himself now that he just says, 'Screw it. This is who I am and they'll like me for who I am or they won't. I'm just going to give them the real Brock Lesnar,' which is a far more smart-ass Brock Lesnar than most people were even prepared to see. But if you watched him in the UFC press conferences, this is Brock Lesnar. This is who he is. So, again, in an age where authenticity is a very big selling point with the audience, it's just getting both of them to be authentic."

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