It's been a hell of a year for Roman Reigns. At WrestleMania XXX he and his brothers in The Shield double-triple-powerbombed The New Age Outlaws, putting them out of commission for months.

But soon after, The Shield imploded and Reigns picked up a serious injury. On his return he won Superstar of the Year at the Slammys and then the Royal Rumble, booking a ticket to the main event of WrestleMania 31.

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Nothing comes easy, though. Faced by a WWE Universe revolt, Reigns was forced to tackle Daniel Bryan at Fastlane. We spoke to him about winning hearts and minds on the road to WrestleMania and his collision course with Brock Lesnar.

Why do you think you'll be able to beat Brock Lesnar - the man who conquered The Undertaker and destroyed John Cena?

"I'm the 1%er. Brock, throughout his whole life - probably even as a little boy - he's been pummelling people, just running through people... just running into the same type of people. He's never run into anybody like me.

"Athletically he's looking into a mirror. Size-wise he's pretty much looking into a mirror. But you wanna know what the difference is? I'm quite a bit younger than him. And I'm pretty sure that where I am in my career I'm a whole lot hungrier than he is.

"I'm wrestling almost every single day of the week. I'm fighting for so much more. I'm trying to capture a life here, a future. I'm trying to put my kid in college. There are so many things I'm doing. I'm representing the biggest wrestling family on earth.

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"He's had an awesome run, he's done a lot of great things and I'm sure he's going to continue to do those things, but he's running into 1% - the thing he doesn't want to face is me. And that's the problem - he's going to face me on the 29th."

Even if you win it'll be a hell of a war - and your old brother Seth Rollins will be waiting in the wings with that briefcase. How will you deal with that?

"Yeah, It's gonna be a brutal match. Win, lose or draw, it's gonna be painful... an hour after the match, I'm either gonna be laid out in a hospital bed with the title laying over my stomach, or I'm gonna be stuck in the locker room not able to move drinking a cold beer with that title laying across my lap.

"That's what the gameplan is - not only to win it, but walk out that night with the WWE Championship, because you hit it right on the head. Seth is a little snake, man - no pun intended. He's smart, he's The Architect, he's a schemer, he's always gonna wait till the time is right.

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"My job is to hopefully have a little bit of energy, just something enough to muster out a fight if he comes out there with that stupid music of his, that stupid haircut and that stupid smile with that dumb briefcase, he's going to try and ruin my whole night.

"That hurts me. For someone who was my brother, someone I was so tight with to try and take that moment from me - he better hope I don't get too pissed out there."

At last year's Royal Rumble the WWE Universe seemed upset Batista won and eliminated you - this year they seemed upset you won instead of Daniel Bryan - what caused the switch?

"I don't think really anything switched. I think they wanted Daniel Bryan to win last year and they wanted him to win this year! The problem with that is I don't think Daniel Bryan was in last year's and the problem with this year's was I was in this one!

"There's no way Daniel Bryan can beat me in a Royal Rumble match, it's ridiculous. He's nowhere near as heavy as me, he doesn't have a fraction of the strength I have. There are a lot of ways that Daniel Bryan can possibly beat me. Throwing me over the top rope is not one of those - it's not his match.



"This whole thing of the crowd taking over - that's fine. They pay hard-earned money to get those tickets. Last time I checked there's not a WWE ticket tree in the backyard. People don't just pluck these things off of a branch. It's their option to boo, cheer, whatever they wanna do. We just want them to have fun.

"For me it was a little disappointing. It wasn't ideal, being booed out of the building like that, but it is what it is. As a performer you have to be ready for everything. I think it just goes to show how special the WWE Universe is and how opinionated and how strong they are.

"If they wanna get something done, clearly they can get something done. They definitely got Daniel Bryan another match - but that didn't work out, did it!"

That match at Fastlane was fantastic - I felt like you won people over who may not have been convinced before that you were the man to face Brock - is that how you felt afterwards?

"I felt that way going into it - a month before it when I won the Rumble, I felt like I was the guy that should be fighting Brock Lesnar. This is the deal: You win the Royal Rumble match, you go to main event WrestleMania. That's the process.

"Obviously a curveball got thrown at me. I like to think I handled it like a man would. I accepted a challenge and I met a challenge. It was a hell of a fight. Daniel Bryan - you can't say enough about that guy. He's busted his ass for a long, long time and he's still continuing to do that.

"Being in the ring with him is an absolute pleasure, I had a blast out there fighting him. He's a tough guy. He's one of those guys - he'll kick you until he breaks his shin! That's the type of guy he is. So for me to be able to get in there and tangle up with him was an absolute honour.

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"I think I was able to instil a little bit of respect, not only from the fans but from Daniel. When you're in the ring with someone one-on-one for 20+ minutes there's a bonding process in a weird way.

"You know when you fight your friend and it's like, 'Whoah, we're better friends now'? Not that we're friends by any means but there was a weird process like that. It was fun and I enjoyed that match."

Do you think the so-called 'smart fans' sometimes ruin the fun for themselves and ruin it for other people?

"It's tough to say. The way I look at it is, yeah, I hope they're having fun. Whatever chant you wanna start or whatever you're doing out there, as long as you're having a good time, as long as you're taking advantage of the time that you have being at the show.

"I do like to stress... a lot of these smarter fans, a lot of them are my age. They're right in my age group, and I'm a father. I have a daughter who enjoys the show. So I try and think about that. Think about when you were a kid and think about when you were a young fan.

"Think about what's going to make the show better, because we are a PG product. We are targeting families - little boys and girls - we're trying to change lives, we're trying to be role models.

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"I think the WWE Universe has to remember that as well. Our fans have to remember that y'all are very influential as well. Y'all are on TV too. So remember - think about the kids, think about what kind of example you're setting.

"Think about not only your experience, but everybody else's. That's just something I think about. But at the end of the day, the fans pay their hard-earned money, it's their choice and only their choice to make."

There's been a lot of attention to the #GiveDivasAChance hashtag - what do you think of it and do the talented women of the WWE deserve more time on Raw and SmackDown?

"I absolutely 100% agree. If it wasn't for women I wouldn't be here. I'm a mamma's boy at heart. I love my mom. I have the deepest, utmost respect for women. I say we have three hours of Raw - I can't see why the Divas can't get more time.

"We have so many different ways to broadcast, so many different platforms, social media. We have multiple shows that we're broadcasting, we have a full Network. We have a Divas show and it's a very successful Divas show. We have some of the most beautiful, strongest women in the world within our company so I say if we can showcase that, let's do it."

Roman Reigns takes on Brock Lesnar in the main event of WrestleMania 31 at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California on March 29.

WrestleMania 31 is available on the WWE Network and Sky Sports Box Office.

Roman Reigns will also appear in London this April during the WWE UK and Ireland tour.

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