Work Text:
Maybe he’s a magnet.
Some types of steel are magnetic.
And steel seems to stick to Roman Reigns.
It isn’t inherently a bad thing to be associated with. He certainly doesn’t think so, anyway.
Steel is hard. Steel shouldn't bend.
Lots of things, good, bad, and otherwise, are made of steel.
Barbed wire is often made of steel.
Barbed wire winds around things. Barbed wire curls and covers and cuts.
It isn’t very useful in and of itself. Not in wrestling, at least.
Barbed wire usually isn’t alone in wrestling.
It’s frequently wrapped tight around something else, used to make an innocuous and mundane thing into something different, something destructive. The result is often a creation that can only truly exist inside a wrestling ring.
Barbed wire makes something hard of something soft.
Barbed wire isn’t ever really used on Roman. He hasn’t seen it in a ring in years, at least not in a ring with him. But what other rings really matter?
He isn’t barbed wire, though. Barbed wire bends.
Chairs can be made of steel.
Steel chairs are composed of many moving parts. They expand. They fold. They flatten.
Chairs are made to support one’s weight.
Believe it or not, Roman has never quite felt supported by steel chairs.
As opposed to barbed wire, steel chairs still frequently find their way into the ring with Roman, held in his own grasp or otherwise.
Chairs can give, but chairs can take just as easily.
Chairs can be used to kill. Maybe not literally, but they can certainly steal away a life.
Roman has been saddled with a seemingly endless connection to steel chairs. He had no choice in this matter. He often makes attempts to take control of this tie, to pull on the string that keeps him leashed to the chair. Throughout the years, he’s raised many a chair up and overhead. A reaction to an action.
He isn’t a chair, though. Steel chairs bend.
Cages can be made of steel fence.
Cages contain. Cages demand. Cages keep out. Cages keep in.
They’re an odd structure, another wrestling subversion of something ordinary into something entirely new and dangerous. An object meant to protect now becomes a trap. Or possibly, steel fencing has always been about both.
Cages require construction. Intentional weaving.
Some cages have panels on the top. Escape from these cages is much more difficult, so endurance is key. Then, there are those without them. These matches are peculiar, as the option to escape by climbing up and out is right there, and yet, it’s rarely utilized.
Roman can control what happens inside of cages.
He’s found himself in cage matches more often than he’d like, but it doesn’t matter. He’s always come out as the same man who walked in. Not everyone can say the same.
He isn’t a cage, though. Cage fencing bends.
Stairs can be made of steel.
Stairs are used to climb. To become above. If anything, Roman is certainly above, has worked and worked and worked to become above, where he was always meant to be anyway.
The steel stairs themselves can be raised above, too. A reminder.
Steel stairs can provide a perfect surface for smashing something down into them. A reminder.
Stairs are reminders of who is above.
Roman has on many occasions taken the stairs and made them into his.
If he couldn’t quite find it in himself to claim the chair, the steel steps might be his claim, instead.
Steel stairs don't (normally) bend. Still, he’s not stairs.
Maybe Roman Reigns does not simply attract steel.
Maybe Roman Reigns is steel in its purest form.
He provides. He protects. He prospers. He is a pillar for his family, sitting at the head of the table and ensuring that everyone who makes it to a seat is fed.
He tells. He towers. He takes. He tears his way through anything that would threaten the foundations of what he and he alone has built.
Roman Reigns always stands above, tall and proud. To bend is to risk allowing something in.
He fought for his championships. He earned the ula fala. He created the dignified and perfect image of an honorable Tribal Chief who always does what he must to make sure that the responsibilities of the family are handled with no room for error, no room for inaction, no room for
Steel is not immune to outside effects.
To rule with an iron fist is to risk its rust in time.
But it’s a small price that Roman Reigns pays in spades.
So, yes. Roman Reigns is steel.
The strongest type. The hardest type. The type that sure as hell doesn’t fucking bend.
