Roman Reigns will defend his WWE Universal Championship against both Daniel Bryan and Edge at WrestleMania 37 in exactly one week. “The Tribal Chief” has looked utterly unstoppable at times since starting his fifth world championship reign last year, but his latest title defense once again came with controversy. Though he won’t admit it, Reigns eventually (and subtly) tapped out to Bryan’s Yes Lock back at the Fastlane pay-per-view, but the referee was out cold at the time and the hold was broken up by a chair-swinging Edge — turning the WWE Hall of Famer back into a heel.
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Reigns was asked about that tap out during an interview with ESPN’s Ariel Helwani earlier this week, and “The Head of the Table” had a rather hilarious reason for why he was tapping his hand on the mat.
“I told Paul [Heyman], I was doing morse code to Paul. [Bryan] had my mouth covered. [Heyman and I] are so in tune with the history and everything, I was morse coding and telling him to fire up the jet. I was like, ‘Tell Charlie to turn the bus, slide in, we’re going to the FBO.’ That wasn’t a tap.”
Reigns gave the line with a big grin on his face, so viewers can tell he was playing up the heel character.
Elsewhere in the interview he was asked about the dream match with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson fans have been clamoring for.
“We can’t lie about it. Dallas is humongous. ‘Jerry World’ is giant,” Reigns said, arguing why WrestleMania 38 and 39 would be great candidates to host the match. “AT&T Stadium, I’ve already done it, over 100,000 people, main evented that spot. And then the following year, I’m in his backyard. Imagine me with another couple of years with this dominance going against ‘The Great One?’ In Hollywood, which God willing is the obvious next step if available, if everything happens correctly. People in my position typically end up there. So to be able to tell that story with him, if he’s down it’d be cool.”
