Roman Reigns Gets Candid About Body Image and the Pressure to Look Like a Superstar
Roman Reigns looks like a professional wrestler...
That probably sounds like an obvious statement. He's 6-foot-3, built like a superhero and has spent years presented as one of the biggest stars in WWE. But behind that image is something wrestlers — and honestly, athletes and performers in general — don't always openly discuss. Ask me how I know!
Sometimes you can look exactly how everyone else thinks you're supposed to look and still find something wrong when you look in the mirror. And honestly? The mental toll this takes is immeasurable from person to person. And you'll never get the approval of everyone. You're always going to be too much or not enough. That vitriol aimed at Stars contributes majorly to the subject matter in this piece...
In a new interview with Men's Health, Reigns spoke candidly about body image and what he described as body dysmorphia while discussing the physical demands of Professional Wrestling.
“We all got a little bit of body dysmorphia, right?” Reigns said. “We're all fighting this little critic in our head.” (Why yes, Roman. YES, we are!)
It's an interesting admission coming from someone who, from the outside looking in, appears to represent the industry's physical ideal.
I crossed paths with Roman Reigns many times at WWE, from the 2015 Royal Rumble to RAW, Smackdown, and house shows, and there was never a moment where I thought: Oh! This guy isn't confident about himself. Wow...
But professional wrestling is an unusual business. Your body isn't simply your body. It's part of your presentation. It's part of your character. It's an athletic tool you depend on to perform — and it's simultaneously being judged by thousands, sometimes millions, of people whether you like it or not.
Reigns acknowledged that reality himself, describing wrestling as an “aesthetic business” and noting that maintaining that appearance isn't always easy. And yet, at 41 years old, Reigns believes he's currently in his physical prime. That doesn't mean training the same way he did at 25.
Reigns explained that getting older has made him smarter about how he trains. He listens to injuries, adjusts what he's working on and increasingly thinks about longevity alongside aesthetics and performance. He revealed elsewhere in the same Men's Health conversation that lingering elbow problems following Survivor Series 2025 affected his training heading into this year's Royal Rumble.
There's an important distinction there.
Looking strong and being physically capable of doing the job aren't necessarily the same thing. Professional wrestling asks performers to somehow accomplish both. Fans see the finished product. They see the entrance, the gear, the physique and the performance once the bell rings.
What they don't always see are the injuries being worked around, the training sessions that didn't happen because something hurt, or the internal criticism that can exist regardless of what everyone else sees.
Roman Reigns may look like a superhero.
Roman's perspective here is clearly without artifice. The only agenda I can see here is trying to leave wrestling better than how you found it. If other wrestlers pay attention to this interview, they just may learn something from Roman! Longevity should be the goal.
Not just in the business but also in life. Pro Wrestling stardom comes at a cost to our bodies and our lives and the lives of those that love us. So I think we owe it to ourselves, as well as the business, and your loved ones to try to do better and to be better...
His comments are a reminder that the person underneath that presentation is still human. And perhaps being in your physical prime isn't about finally looking perfect. Or whatever our brain or society in that moment has deemed 'perfect.'
Maybe it's understanding your body well enough to stop demanding that it be.