At this Sunday's Clash of Champions PPV, Roman Reigns will defend the Universal Championship against cousin Jey Uso. To hype the bout, The Big Dog recently made an appearance on Corey Graves' "After The Bell" podcast, to discuss a number of topics, including his decision to miss this year's WrestleMania.
At the event, the plan was for Reigns to challenge WWE Hall of Famer Goldberg for the title, but he decided to leave the PPV after The Miz showed up with possible COVID-19 symptoms (Reigns' wife was expecting twins at the time).
"A lot of things to be honest, but I think the most defined thought I had was I made a lot of sacrifices on behalf of my family and this is one area that I’m not going to make that sacrifice," he said when asked what was going through his head. "I will sacrifice my career. I will sacrifice the performance. Hell, I’ll sacrifice the audience if I have to in order to protect my family. I will quit and hang up the boots. I’ve done everything I could do in this business. There’s isn’t an accolade or a moment that I haven’t had, whether it was a WrestleMania moment all the way to a house show."
"I’ve experienced everything you could possibly experience," Reigns continued. "So, it was about putting my family first. If I had to retire and that’s what would be asked of me, I was willing to do it. So for one of the first times in a long time, I put my family first. There was nothing that was going to change my mind. I needed to go away and wait until we were in a better place of understanding of the process knowing exactly what this virus has done and how it’s affected everybody. The way WWE has taken care of me to make me feel safe and make my family feel safe that I’m going out and then coming back in has been huge and critical to get me back in the ring."
It certainly doesn't sound like there's any animosity between Reigns and WWE over the time he spent away, and the way he's been pushed since returning makes it clear that he's still viewed as a top star in the company.
We'll bring you more from Reigns a little later today!