Roman Reigns has responded to Conrad Thompson, who has harshly criticized him and labeled him one of the most overrated stars in WWE history.
Speaking with Shannon Sharpe on Club Shay Shay, Reigns said the comments do not bother him and suggested that Thompson is using his name to draw an audience.
Reigns questioned how many people actually tune in to Thompson’s podcasts and pointed to his own ability to generate interest for WWE.
“Are there a lot of people watching that guy’s show? So you’re gonna say stuff. I’m a metric mover. That type of stuff. They know I give views and all that stuff, so it’s fine.”
Reigns struck a different tone when he suggested that the criticism may be tied to Thompson’s personal preferences and connections in the wrestling business.
“All you got to do is scroll a little bit and you see who he’s a fan of and stuff like that, and who he’s connected to.”
Thompson has working relationships with AEW figures such as Jim Ross and Tony Schiavone and has held Starrcast events alongside the promotion’s shows. He has said, however, that he has no official agreement with AEW.
Thompson’s criticism began in August on 83 Weeks, his podcast with Eric Bischoff. On the show, he called Reigns an industry plant, a term for someone whose success comes from the backing of a big corporate machine.
Bischoff agreed with that assessment. Booker T, on the other hand, defended Reigns on his own podcast, calling him the best wrestler in the world right now and questioning who could fill his spot in WWE.
Thompson revisited the subject last week on Busted Open Radio. He acknowledged Reigns’ commercial success but argued that WWE decided to make him its top star before he had won over the fans. Thompson also credited part of Reigns’ rise to the work Paul Heyman, The Usos and Sami Zayn did in The Bloodline.
Reigns closed his answer to Sharpe by saying that trading on well-known names for views has become common practice in the business.
“If they want to use my name to get views, that’s the industry right now.”
