-Looks good, huh? -Looking sharp.
Yeah, this feels so good, man.
Oh, my gosh. This is the real deal.
I mean, does it -- -Don't get too attached.
-No, yeah. I won't, yeah. [ Laughter ]
As a kid growing up and dreaming about this,
does it feel surreal to you when you hold this,
when you have this belt?
-Every day, man. I mean, not even --
Even just the title, just life, in general.
You know what I mean? We're very blessed men, right?
-Yeah, we really are.
And do your kids understand what you do?
-They're getting -- I mean, my daughter's 14,
so she's kind of seen the whole process.
But, you know, I have two sets of twins.
You know, the babies are 2.
The older boys are 5 now.
So, the babies definitely --
they have no clue what's going on.
The big boys are starting to kind of understand
that Dad goes to wrestling shows.
That's what he does.
"You going to the wrestling show?"
-They just think you go watch wrestling shows?
-I don't know -- I'm not really sure what they think I do.
[ Laughter ]
Because when they -- the times they've seen me,
I'm just kind of cutting promos and talking.
So I think they think, "Dad just talks."
But for a long time, like, through the pandemic,
they thought I worked out for a living.
'Cause, you know, we got the gym at the house and, you know,
I try to get in there and do my thing.
-Absolutely. -And they kind of got into it,
as well, to just come in there and hang out and do --
act like they're working out.
Grab the 5-pound dumbbells. -That's awesome.
-But that's what they think is I just work out for a living.
-It's a family business for you, really.
-Yep. -It's been in your family.
Who was the first wrestler in your family?
-So it -- I mean, it started with
the High Chief Peter Maivia.
He kind of mentored my father and my uncle,
Sika and Afa, The Wild Samoans.
They're a tag team. -The Wild Samoans, absolutely.
-One of the greatest tag teams of all time.
Hall of Famers.
But it actually started -- they -- they were just fans.
And, you know, they went to a show back in the day
in San Francisco at the Cow Palace.
-Peter Maivia was a huge star back then in the West Coast
at the time, back in the territory days.
And he was wrestling Pat Patterson.
And Pat was beating him up pretty good,
and my dad and uncle, they jumped from the crowd
and kind of got involved.
And so Pat knew, he was like,
"We got to get these guys out of the crowd.
We got to teach them the business, and that way,
you know, I don't have to worry about these guys anymore."
So, yeah. -Whoa! That's fantastic.
-It goes all the way back to the '60s and '70s, yeah.
-And then, when you were a kid, did you know what's going on?
Did you just have -- Did you wrestle in the backyard?
Did you...? -Man, we wrestled everywhere.
So, my cousins, the Usos, who are with me in WWE now,
we would literally wrestle in every single room.
We'd get kicked out. I mean, when their dad
would come back from the road, we knew to kind of chill out
and take it outside.
But when he was off on the road, it was a free for all.
You know what I mean? So we were just doing our thing.
We would wrestle in the pool for hours at times.
So, yeah. -Yeah.
-We were putting in work at a very early age.
-I've seen, you know, a handful of documentaries,
and it's just fascinating. And you just see all the gigs
that you have to play to end up even remotely close to WWE.
But, I mean, you play high schools, whatever it is.
I mean, you do whatever. And you'd change names
and concepts of what your character does and is.
It's a rough road, isn't it? -Yeah, it's --
I mean, you know, oftentimes, I say this is like
the blue-collar form of entertainment.
You know, you got to really pay your dues and, you know --
you know, go on this journey, and it's different for everyone.
You know, I've been very fortunate.
You know, I have my family background
that's guided me along the way.
And obviously, I've been able to tap into
a potential that, you know, I was unable to unlock.
But there's a lot of guys, you know,
that we have them currently in the WWE --
you know, guys like Seth Rollins that I came up with in WWE --
that have been journeymen,
that have been all over the independent scene.
You know, wrestling in armories, high school gyms, like you said.
Yeah, in front of 200, you know, max people.
-Max. Sometimes it's 50 people.
-It's not always beautiful. So, yeah.
I mean, WWE is the highest you can get.
And we're very proud of that, you know, getting to this point.
But it can be rough sometimes.
-They just announced big news in the wrestling world
that Triple H is retiring as a wrestler.
I was going to ask you, what does Triple H mean to you?
I know you -- -Man, you know,
H was very critical in this process to guide me along.
He was kind of -- Before I met Vince
and built a relationship with him, it was Triple H.
He was the one that was down there in developmental
helping guide talent along.
You know, he's the one that kind of overlooked it.
And before -- -Developmental's like --
-It's like the minor leagues of, you know, WWE.
And before -- now it's NXT.
And that's a big platform for us.
You know, they're on Tuesday nights on USA Network.
And they're a big show themselves now, but before that,
it was just called FCW, Florida Championship Wrestling,
in a tiny little warehouse.
And we're wrestling in -- it was like those armories
and the high school gyms, in front of 50 people.
Killing each other for, you know,
what felt like nothing at the time.
But, yeah, Triple H was huge in guiding me along.
-He had faith in you? He was like,
"I know this kid's gonna do something"?
-I think so. Yeah, I think he recognized the potential.
And he was just always good to me.
Early on, I was always the type,
you know, that was asking for raises.
I was like, "Can I get some more money?"
And they're like, "Yeah, go ahead."
And then, two months later, "Can I get some more money?"
"Yep." And then there was a point
where they're like, "No."
And then I was like, "Well, can you ask Triple H?"
And then, the next morning, "You're getting more money."
-Really? -Yeah.
So, man, H has hooked me up. He's always looked over me.
He's -- -Don't forget that.
-Inside and out, out the ring, he's the best.
-Yeah, I love always -- any time I've had him
on the show or dealt with him, that guy,
he's a truly genuine, awesome, great guy.
-First class. -Yeah, this is this Saturday.
"Wrestlemania 38."
Is it 38 already? Oh, my gosh.
-I know, man. -That's a big deal.
It is -- This is -- You have the belt.
But this one's winner-take-all.
-Yeah, this is a unification right here.
-You and Brock Lesnar, who's not a small dude.
-No. No. [ Laughter ]
I was trying to come up with something.
No, he's a -- -Yeah, no. He's --
-To be honest, he's a big boy. -He's a big --
-He's a big ol' country boy.
-Yeah, he's giant, and he scares me even just --
Even just saying his name kind of scares me, too.
-I got your back. Don't worry.
-Okay, good, thank you. 'Cause I was a little frightened
even just introducing you, as well.
This is you -- this is you in "Wrestlemania 34" versus Brock.
And this is just --
This is not -- We didn't color this.
-Oh, yeah. -That is blood.
That is your blood on your -- on your face.
-Yep, that's my blood. Yep.
-What's going through your -- -Brock did that, yep.
-What's going through your mind at this point?
-I think, in this moment, I can finally see,
because once that blood started coming down,
it gets in your eyeballs. You know what I mean?
So -- For any of you who
have never had blood in your eyeballs, it's quite thick.
And it can completely blind you, and you can't see.
So I probably did one of these. You know what I mean?
And then I saw it was Brock. He's still there.
Aah! -He didn't go away!
-Go away already! -He didn't go away.
-He was still there. -He was still there.
That's even more frightening, good.
I appreciate the honesty. -Yeah.
-So, after this Saturday, smoke clears, "Wrestlemania."
What are we gonna see?
-It's checkmate, man.
It's time, you know, that we close this chapter and move on.
You know, so, for me, I've been on the run of a lifetime.
I think I've solidified myself clearly in the modern day
as the greatest champion to be a part of WWE.
-That's right. -And for me to kind of,
you know, get past this chapter of Brock Lesnar,
I think it just puts me on a playing field,
on a level that no one else can touch, so...
-That's what I'm talking about. [ Cheers and applause ]
I have a feeling next time you come on the show,
you're gonna have two championship belts.
Roman Reigns, everybody!
"Wrestlemania 38" kicks off Saturday night.
You can stream the two-day event on Peacock.