Watch: Roman Reigns Rips Braun Strowman on ESPN’s First Take

Roman Reigns will headline the “Season Premiere” of Friday Night SmackDown this week by defending his WWE Universal Championship against Braun Strowman. Reigns pinned Strowman to win the championship back at Payback and already has his eyes set on his title defense against Jey Uso in a Hell in a Cell I Quit Match. So when asked about the match during an interview on ESPN’s First Take, Reigns barely acknowledged “The Monster Among Men” as a threat.

“To be honest I don’t think Braun Strowman deserves the opportunity,” Reigns said. “I beat him, I pinned him, I took the Universal Championship. But because of the competitor I am, the type of guy that I am, the face of the company, I’m going to hold my obligation. I’m going to be accountable and responsible fore being at the very top of the business. And I’m going to show up and Friday and I’m going to whoop his a—.”

Strowman was drafted to the Monday Night Raw roster earlier this week, so the odds of him suddenly winning back the Universal Championship are incredibly slim.

Back in late September Reigns explained why he wanted to turn heel and further develop the “Thoroughbred” character he initially envisioned back in NXT.

“This is something I wanted to do,” Reigns said. “It was an opportunity to be able to connect a lot of dots. It was kind of a bit of a lure as well to get me back in. But for me, to know I wanted to go down this route, I needed something… I didn’t want to just show up, look different and talk different. I needed a whole new presentation and we are going to continue to gradually do that. I thought what better way than to align myself with essentially a high-powered attorney. If you take the top athlete in the world and mixed him with a head mafia boss character, that’s who I am. The mob boss will go out there and do the hit himself but you’ve got to have somebody dotting the ‘I’s” and crossing the “T’s” for you who understands the ins and outs and can add that new layer to the whole character and the personality.”

WWE’s next pay-per-view, Hell in a Cell, takes place on Oct. 25 inside the WWE ThunderDome. Check out the full card (so far) below:

• WWE Universal Championship: Roman Reigns vs. Jey Uso (Hell in a Cell I Quit Match)
• WWE Championship: Drew McIntyre vs. Randy Orton (Hell in a Cell Match)
• SmackDown Women’s Championship: Bayley vs. Sasha Banks (Hell in a Cell Match)