On this date in history just three short years ago, WWE held a SmackDown taping that featured Roman Reigns interrupting Seth Rollins to cut a promo that would blow up message boards everywhere:
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt. Yeah, I’m not sorry. But look at you, you’re just so full of yourself now. Actually, you’re full of something else. You are a sniveling little suck up sellout full of sufferin’ succotash, son! Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, that was not easy to say!”
That man actually said “sufferin’ succotash.”
Watching it back now, it’s still mind blowing that he was given such horrific copy to recite from a script that should have been burned before it ever reached his fingertips. It is, however, worth watching because I’ll be damned if it doesn’t show just how much Roman Reigns has grown as a performer. I’m not saying he could make that copy work today — I don’t even think John Cena at his cheesiest could make that work — but he’s far more comfortable in his own skin, the kind of change you hardly notice because it’s drawn out over time.
We can still look back and laugh at this, of course, but also celebrate it because it has shown us that Reigns is so much better than he used to be in the one area he really needed to improve.