Roman Reigns has shared the WWE ring with his family in a storyline for years — he called his faction The Bloodline — so it seemed right to him they were his tag team partners on a cover for WWE 2K25.
Reigns was named as this year’s cover star on the standard version of the 2K25 game while the former WWE champion was joined by current and former stablemates Jey Uso and Jacob Fatu, among others, for The Bloodline Edition.
“We’re always trying to represent our family, I’m always trying to represent the elders of my family and the ones that laid down the groundwork and the foundation that we stand on,” Reigns said. “To be able to take it to this level and this platform, and to have the interaction with the video game, and for people and our fans to continue to make moments with The Bloodline, with the Roman Reigns character, and really just dive in and take control themselves, it’s a cool chapter for what we’re doing.”
The game will be available on March 14, plenty of time for gamers to lay the smack down with their controllers ahead of the April 19 and 20 WrestleMania weekend in Las Vegas.
Reigns joined some of WWE’s greats to earn a cover shot, along with previous stars Cody Rhodes, Brock Lesnar, Steve Austin, Rey Mysterio and John Cena. Bret “Hitman” Hart, Chyna, Batista, The Rock, “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, CM Punk and Becky Lynch are among the 300 WWE superstars available as part of the largest roster in the game’s history.
The Undertaker is on the Deadman Edition cover, while The Bloodline Edition cover features members of both Reigns’ and Solo Sikoa’s Bloodline factions, including Jey Uso, Jimmy Uso and Paul Heyman interwoven into the roots and branches of the iconic Bloodline family tree.
WWE 2K25 Deadman Edition and The Bloodline Edition are scheduled for a March 7 release.
“We earned it,” Reigns said of the cover. “We set out to be very special.”
Reigns shared the cover in 2020 with Lynch.
The 39-year-old Reigns continues to perform at the highest level in professional wrestling and competed in the main event of both nights of WrestleMania last year in Philadelphia. Reigns, who played college football at Georgia Tech, has been a staple in WrestleMania events and should be a major player again in this year’s card at Allegiant Stadium.
He last missed a WrestleMania during the pandemic 2020 card when the show was held inside an empty arena because of the coronavirus. Reigns pulled out of the company's version of the Super Bowl, in large part because of his health.
While Roman Reigns — billed at 6-foot-3, 265 pounds — the WWE character has largely been unbeatable, the real-life Leati Joseph Anoa’i has battled leukemia since 2007 and had to step away from the company in 2018. His leukemia diagnosis left him immunocompromised, and he told The Associated Press it's a never-ending fight that will be part of him for the rest of his life.
“I look at health in a couple of different layers because when you look at someone it's, oh, they look healthy,” Reigns said. “But, what's your bloodwork look like? How are you feeling? What's your energy look like? I'm very blessed to be able to say it's all good for me right now. My bloodwork, everything that involved the leukemia, all that is in a great range, and at bay. We're still working on that zeroed-out molecular remission, but it's under a level that's sustainable to where we're in a very good place.”
Reigns said he feels great physically and mentally and will compete in WWE's next signature event, the Royal Rumble on Saturday in Indianapolis.
This time, as a 2K25 cover star.
“Right now," Reigns said, "I'm in a good place.”
AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/apf-sports
FILE - Roman Reigns presents the best coach award at the ESPY Awards on Wednesday, July 10, 2019, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)
RHO, Italy (AP) — No ice is colder and harder than speedskating ice. The precision it takes has meant that Olympic speedskaters have never competed for gold on a temporary indoor rink – until the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games.
In the pursuit of maximum glide and minimum friction, Olympic officials brought on ice master Mark Messer, a veteran of six previous Olympic speedskating tracks and the ice technician in charge of the Olympic Oval in Calgary, Canada — one of the fastest tracks in the world with over 300 records.
Messer has been putting that experience to work one thin layer of ice at a time since the end of October at the new Speed Skating Stadium, built inside adjacent trade fair halls in the city of Rho just north of Milan.
“It’s one of the biggest challenges I’ve had in icemaking,’’ Messer said during an interview less than two weeks into the process.
If Goldilocks were a speedskater, hockey ice would be medium hard, for fast puck movement and sharp turns. Figure skating ice would be softer, allowing push off for jumps and so the ice doesn’t shatter on landing. Curling ice is the softest and warmest of all, for controlled sliding.
For speedskating ice to be just right, it must be hard, cold and clean. And very, very smooth.
“The blades are so sharp, that if there is some dirt, the blade will lose the edge,’’ Messer said, and the skater will lose speed.
Speedskater Enrico Fabris, who won two Olympic golds in Turin in 2006, has traded in his skates to be deputy sports manager at the speedskating venue in Rho. For him, perfect ice means the conditions are the same for all skaters — and then if it's fast ice, so much the better.
"It's more of a pleasure to skate on this ice,'' he said.
Messer’s first Olympics were in Calgary in 1988 — the first time speedskating was held indoors. “That gave us some advantages because we didn’t have to worry about the weather, wind blowing or rain,’’ he said. Now he is upping the challenge by becoming the first ice master to build a temporary rink for the Olympics.
Before Messer arrived in Italy, workers spent weeks setting up insulation to level the floor and then a network of pipes and rubber tubes that carry glycol — an antifreeze — that is brought down to minus 7 or minus 8 degrees Celsius (17.6 to 19.4 degrees Fahrenheit) to make the ice.
Water is run through a purification system — but it can’t be too pure, or the ice that forms will be too brittle. Just the right amount of impurities “holds the ice together,’’ Messer said.
The first layers of water are applied slowly, with a spray nozzle; after the ice reaches a few centimeters it is painted white — a full day’s work — and the stripes are added to make lanes.
“The first one takes about 45 minutes. And then as soon as it freezes, we go back and do it again, and again and again. So we do it hundreds of times,’’ Messer said.
As the ice gets thicker, and is more stable, workers apply subsequent layers of water with hoses. Messer attaches his hose to hockey sticks for easier spreading.
What must absolutely be avoided is dirt, dust or frost — all of which can cause friction for the skaters, slowing them down. The goal is that when the skaters push “they can go as far as possible with the least amount of effort,’’ Messer said.
The Zamboni ice resurfacing machine plays a key role in keeping the track clean, cutting off a layer and spraying water to make a new surface.
One challenge is gauging how quickly the water from the resurfacing machine freezes in the temporary rink.
Another is getting the ice to the right thickness so that the Zamboni, weighing in at six tons, doesn’t shift the insulation, rubber tubing or ice itself.
“When you drive that out, if there’s anything moving it will move. We don’t want that,’’ Messer said.
The rink got its first big test on Nov. 29-30 during a Junior World Cup event. In a permanent rink, test events are usually held a year before the Olympics, leaving more time for adjustments. “We have a very small window to learn,’’ Messer acknowledged.
Dutch speedskater Kayo Vos, who won the men’s neo-senior 1,000 meters, said the ice was a little soft — but Messer didn’t seem too concerned.
“We went very modest to start, now we can start to change the temperatures and try to make it faster and still maintain it as a safe ice,’’ he said.
Fine-tuning the air temperature and humidity and ice temperature must be done methodically — taking into account that there will be 6,000 spectators in the venue for each event. The next real test will be on Jan. 31, when the Olympians take to the ice for their first training session.
“Eighty percent of the work is done but the hardest part is the last 20 percent, where we have to try to find the values and the way of running the equipment so all the skaters get the same conditions and all the skaters get the best conditions,’’ Messer said.
AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
Serpentines are set on the ice of the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Workers clean the ice surface during a peed skating Junior World Cup and Olympic test event, in Rho, near Milan, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
