Dwayne Johnson and Roman Reigns on Going Up Against Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins in WrestleMania XL

-Welcome, welcome. Welcome back.

Please, we have a lot to discuss.

You brought the belt. Come on.

The belt. Look at this right here.

That's what I'm talking about. -That guy -- he loves it.

He loves it. Yeah. -Oh, my gosh. It's so heavy.

-We were backstage literally 15 seconds ago,

and I was like, "Look at this.

He's carrying his belt.

He looks like a million dollars."

I got a bottle of tequila in my hand right back there.

-He's back there swinging it. Yeah, yeah.

-Come on. Why not? Dwayne, are you celebrating?

Because you just launched a giant new football franchise.

-We did. We launched -- Thank you so much.

[ Cheers and applause ] -I mean, it's a big hit.

-Thank you. -UFL.

-We launched. We finally launched the UFL,

the United Football League -- combination of the XFL and USFL.

And it was just -- We had an amazing weekend.

Thank you so much for your support.

And I always like to say, the best thing --

And we're former football players, too, as well.

I always say, the best thing about this league,

about the UFL, is just creating opportunities

for players to live their dreams.

So thank you guys so much. [ Cheers and applause ]

-Congrats. I'm so psyched. It was a big --

I read somewhere -- and tell me if it's true or not true --

but did Larry David call you

and have an idea to change the rules of the game?

-No, dude, yes.

So, I get a call from Larry David.

-You have to tell.

-So, Ari Emanuel, who's my agent,

longtime business partner -- he calls Ari.

Ari is like, "Okay, let me get you in contact with Dwayne."

So Larry David calls me.

First of all, Larry's [bleep] crazy.

So, he calls me and he --

Larry, if you guys don't know, he is so kicker-adverse.

He hates this idea that they'll play a game

and the players will leave it all out on the field,

and at the end of the game,

it can, at times, come down to the kicker.

-Yeah. -He hates that idea.

So he called me.

He goes, "Y-Y-You're going to launch the new league, right?"

I do a terrible Larry David.

-That's pretty good. I like that.

-I said, "I am, yes."

And he goes, "Well, what -- what can we do about the kickers?

Do we need the kickers?"

So we had this spirited conversation.

And we need the kickers, by the way,

because kickers are an amazing part and component

of football, as we know.

But we did tweak some of the rules a little bit in the UFL,

which, by the way,

the NFL has adopted some of our rulings, too, as well.

-Oh, really? Yeah, you need the kickers.

That's the foot part of football.

-That's -- Yeah.

I mean, you definitely need them.

-Nothing but love for the kickers right now.

-I love that Larry David called you.

-But, no, dude, it was the greatest phone call

to get from Larry David.

We had never spoken before.

And he's awesome. He's brilliant.

-Did you feel like you were on an episode of "Curb"?

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like the final episode of "Curb."

I should be in that episode. -You should be. Yeah, yeah.

I want to talk about this.

It's a big deal, what's happening, WrestleMania.

Obviously -- I know, the whole weekend.

Everyone's excited about this.

But you guys had to start somewhere.

What's like -- Do you remember, Roman,

when you first started?

Like, what were those gigs like?

-Oh, gosh.

Well, I mean, it could have been anywhere.

We could have done it in a parking lot,

a used-cars parking lot.

It could have been a fairground. -Did you really?

-Yeah. -How many people in the crowds?

-The lightest show I've ever done was two people.

Yeah. -Wow.

-Just two, yeah.

Yeah, it got so bad that I was asking --

I was, like, asking for requests.

Like, "What do you want to see? You want a body slam?"

-Yeah. "I can give you that.

I'll give you whatever you want." Yeah.

-So it's been bad, but we're in a really, really

good place right now.

-I mean, you go from that to Brooklyn the other day,

which was sold out, made history.

-Amazing. So, we did -- Whoo! Yes, thank you.

[ Cheers and applause ]

And we -- "The Tribal Chief," our universal champion,

and myself, "The Final Boss" -- we were there in Brooklyn.

And in Brooklyn, we did -- We broke a record.

It was the highest-grossing "Raw" in U.S. history,

which says a lot.

Yeah. Really incredible. -That's amazing.

-I mean, it was really, really special.

You know, and now that I'm back and in the grind of it all,

as he has been for years now, carrying the company,

things like that, you try to stay as present

as possible, because it moves.

And the very next night, you're someplace else,

in a different city.

But we had to take a moment last Monday just to recognize

just wow and how cool it is that we're in this position.

I mean, look, as Roman was saying,

we both came from wrestling in flea markets,

and used-car dealerships and making 40 bucks a match

to making a little bit more than that.

And, you know, this guy's a champion, and times are good.

-It's a very much a family business for both of you guys.

You both have deep-rooted ties into wrestling.

Span over three generations.

In fact, I found this wrestling card here.

Do you recognize this? Look at this.

-Wow. Look at that.

-That's Dwayne's dad, Rocky, wrestling against Roman's dad,

Sika, to become the WWE tag team champ.

-That's amazing. So, for you guys

that don't know, Roman and I are family.

We're cousins.

Our dads wrestled against each other in the '80s.

And, as a matter of fact, his dad and our uncle,

Afa and Sika, they were the first Samoan

tag team champions of the WWE.

And then my dad and Tony Atlas became

the first black tag team champions of WWE,

beating our -- his dad and my uncle.

So it goes way back. -It is really deep, yeah.

-Yeah. -Yeah. Here's you.

I have a picture of you, Roman, with your dad and Hulk Hogan.

Look at this kid right here.

Look at you. Come on.

-Alright, don't mind the haircut.

That's how we did it in the '80s, guys, alright?

So, yeah.

-Were situations like this just normal for you guys?

Did you go to the barbecue, and people would just be

flipping people into tables and stuff?

-I'm pretty sure I thought Hulk was my uncle at this point.

I'm like, "Why has he got blonde hair?"

'Cause everybody in our family is huge and bigger,

you know, larger than life, so that's --

-You just got used to that. -You just get used to it, yeah.

It's a little bit of a conditioning effect,

but those are always great moments to look back on, yeah.

-Yeah.

Dwayne, you made your debut, WrestleMania debut,

in WrestleMania 13.

-I did.

-Something very special happened at this,

and I want to share a clip.

Look at this. -That's Rocky Johnson!

That's Rocky Maivia's dad! That's Rocky Johnson!

The Sheik is begging for mercy! He's scooped up and slammed!

-Oh, no!

-Get out, Sheik! -And wait a minute.

Look at this.

Rocky Johnson scoops him up and slams The Sheik, as well!

Father and son rocking the house here,

ladies and gentlemen, at WrestleMania 13.

-Wow. -That's your dad.

-Wow. That's my dad.

-[ Chants ] You've still got it! -Yeah, hat's right.

-That's my dad. Really, that was amazing.

And I tell you, that was very special.

For my dad, who passed away unexpectedly in 2020,

he always said that that was the most special moment

of his entire career.

It was really awesome, so that was very cool.

-That's so cool you got to do that.

That's amazing you got to do that.

-Yes. And, by the way, how about this?

So, the guy who we were wrestling,

who I was wrestling, The Sultan, is our family, too,

is our cousin.

That's the Usos' dad.

-Yeah, that's the dad of the Usos.

That's Rikishi. -No way.

-Yeah, that's our cousin. -No way. Isn't that hilarious?

-That's how we do it.

We're just always working together, you know?

-Why not?

-Or sometimes against each other, but it's all love.

It really is.

-Yeah, we can relate to that at Thanksgiving.

Yeah, we all can relate to that.

Roman, here's a picture of you here.

This is WrestleMania 29 with The Shield.

Who's this gentleman here you're with, you're wrestling with?

-Oh, what do we call him nowadays?

Clown emoji?

Yeah. So, that's Seth Rollins.

He was a former "chosen" family member,

but you know how that goes.

-He's one of the two who we're gonna lay the smackdown

on that candy ass this coming Saturday.

[ Cheers and applause ] Seth Rollins.

-It's Roman Reigns and the Rock versus

Seth Rollins and Cody Rhodes.

Now, it's been a bloody past several weeks,

I will say, by the way.

It has been. -Blood has been shed.

-Whoo! -Wow. You like the blood.

-We got a blood corner up there.

-'Cause Cody keeps trying to "finish his story."

That's what the thing, Cody is just trying to finish his story.

Can you explain what that is

and what people have to expect come this Saturday night?

-I think Cody's reading the wrong book at this point,

because we don't care about his story.

This -- It's a funny thing,

because you told me this a long time ago.

In the wrestling business, there's no call sheet.

There's no, you know, like, "He's number one,

he's number two."

So everybody in our roster believes they're number one.

So it's just a shark tank.

Everybody is trying to take each other out.

And this guy's been chasing me for two years now.

I've beaten him.

We've crossed this bridge already.

So this is where we close the book completely

on this guy, Cody Rhodes, and we display what

the most powerful family in pro wrestling is all about.

That's what this weekend, to me, is all about.

-That's it. Yes. Yes. [ Cheers and applause ]

Yes.

-You think that's what's gonna go down?

-We -- Well, do I think that's what's going to go down?

I know that's what's gonna go down.

-Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. I apologize.

-We're about chisel this in stone here pretty soon.

-Look, here's what you have.

You have a guy named Cody Rhodes.

For those of you who may not know,

Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins --

they're both bad-asses in their own right.

They're -- I liken Cody Rhodes to Luke Skywalker.

True? And I liken Seth Rollins to the Joker.

Yeah, so these guys are really unique, kind of crazy guys,

but, also, at the end of the day,

as my cousin was saying, there can only be one,

and when there is only one,

you have The Tribal Chief and you have The Final Boss.

And when The Final Boss... [ Cheers and applause ]

And so I have the pleasure of getting back into the ring.

I've been working my ass off for the past three --

-Whoo! -Thank you. Whoo!

-Yeah.

Looking good, bud. -I've been working hard.

He's been working with me.

So we'll see what we're going to do, but I cannot wait.

The whole idea, by the way, to bring us all together like this

and Roman and I together like this was just to --

What can we do to create a main event for WrestleMania

that we could say is the biggest WrestleMania of all time?

And so here we are. -That's what I'm talking about.

I'm so excited.

Dwayne Johnson, Roman Reigns, everybody.

WrestleMania XL will be streaming live on Peacock

this Saturday and Sunday beginning at 7:00 p.m.