John Cena Says Roman Reigns Is “Performing At An Elite Level”

John Cena sees a lot of himself in Roman Reigns, especially with the way Reigns is performing in the ring.

Cena recently spoke with Justin Barrasso for Sports Illustrated's Extra Mustard column and said Reigns reminds him of when he was performing in the late 2000s and main eventing pay-per-views and WrestleMania. Cena said Reigns is performing at an incredibly high level and believes Reigns is justified in saying "the yard" is his.

"Roman is in the trenches every night and he's performing at an elite level with a champion caliber attitude," Cena said. "His performance and the response that he gets from certain audiences is indicative of an elite-level performer. He's doing what I did in 2006, 2007, and 2008. He has all the justification in the world in saying it's his yard. I'm not going to take anything away from Roman. He handles his business with the utmost professionalism. He's doing it on his own watch. He's not one of those guys that comes over to me and asks me, 'What happens next?' He's doing it his way, and I think that's the best way to do it. He's not trying to be the next John Cena, but he is being the only Roman Reigns–and that's why it's met with so much adversity."

Reigns has been one of the biggest WWE stars in the past few years, winning the WWE Title on three separate occasions and winning the United States championship late last year. Reigns has closed the past three WrestleManias with matches against Brock Lesnar, Triple H and The Undertaker.

The full interview can be seen at this link.