With Roman Reigns’ historic 1,316-day reign over, the WWE Universe has finally been giving their Tribal Chief his flowers, with fans finally taking a step back and realising just the sheer magnitude at which Reigns changed the game. A guaranteed future WWE Hall of Famer, this is all coming from a guy who wanted to do college football when he was younger.

It isn’t anything new for “failed” college football stars to transition over into the WWE. There are legends such as Brock Lesnar, Goldberg, Stone Cold’ Steve Austin, The Rock, and a litany of others who found themselves once doing college football and then moving to the WWE. It is a sport in which people have the requisite strength, athleticism, determination, and pain tolerance for the WWE.

Roman Reigns’ WWE career by numbers (as of 12/04/2024)

Total number of matches
1,368

Total number of wins
1,000 (73.1%)

Total number of losses
334 (24.4%)

Total number of draws
34 (2.5%)

There is so much of a comparison between WWE and college sports, in fact, that WWE actually set up the NIL, a pathway for college athletes to make it into the WWE. It is a pathway that is clearly succeeding, with a huge crop of current NXT talent being ones that were scouted via this.

Roman Reigns’ Journey From American Football to WWE

It wasn’t just an emotional journey, it was also a physical one

For Roman Reigns, however, it wasn’t a case of needing to be scouted, as he is part of the legendary Anoa’i’ family. Reigns is part of a legendary bloodline, a bloodline that has history in every era of wrestling, with legends such as Rikishi, The Rock, and Umaga all coming from this one family lineage. So, for Roman Reigns, he was almost destined to make it in the WWE. It is in his DNA.

GIVEMESPORT’s Key Statistic : Roman Reigns was signed by NFL side Minnesota Vikings in 2007, but was released in the same month after being diagnosed with Leukemia.

It wasn’t going to be easy for the Head of the Table, though, as a post on Reddit makes clear. Roman was destined to be an NFL player, with everyone thinking he would make it, but financial burdens and injuries ruined what was a promising career. Reigns left college football looking the role, a little pudgy, and it is a far cry from The Tribal Chief we have all come to know and love. It is a body transformation post on Reddit that truly opened the eyes of fans to just how hard he must have worked, and how much he must have sacrificed to make it to where he is today.

Although it was clear from his early FCW and NXT days that there was something there, it would have taken a psychic to truly imagine just how his career would’ve gone. A failed college star finally shedding weight, getting ripped, and tearing up the WWE isn’t abnormal, but the way in which Reigns has done so is. He looks a whole new person to the one who debuted in 2010, and has managed to take the torch from John Cena in an era where many didn’t think that could be possible.

Roman Reigns’ title reign certainly had its flaws, with his schedule ruining what could have been something far greater than it was, but the truth seems to be that he earned himself such a schedule. He transformed himself into something far greater than anyone could have imagined, and when he looks back on the photos of himself in college football, he must be astounded at what has happened since, an immense turn around and a historic career in a field he was destined for.