Viral video of Roman Reigns condemning attacks on Iran, Palestine is Al-generated

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Claim: A Facebook user, Sully Kone, posted a viral video of Roman Reigns, condemning Israel’s attacks on Iran and Palestine and confessing his love for both countries. 

Verdict: False! DUBAWA’s investigation proves that the video is doctored from an unrelated video. There is no evidence of Roman Reigns condemning attacks on Iran and Palestine. 

Full Text

Leati Joseph Anoa’i, popularly known by his ring name Roman Reigns, is a professional wrestler and actor. He is an American and a key figure in WWE, known for his iconic “Tribal Chief” role. 

Roman Reigns holds multiple championships in the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), making him one of the influential and decorated WWE wrestlers. 

But a Facebook user, Sully Kone, posted a video of Roman Reigns condemning Israel’s attacks on Iran and Palestine and confessing his love for both countries. 

In the one-minute-long video, Roman Reigns, dressed in a fading black suit, can be heard confessing his love for Iran and Palestine. 

Roman Reigns can be heard saying: “Can’t you see what’s happening to the people of Iran and Palestine? Palestine and Iran are suffering beyond imagination. Israeli forces are bombing them mercilessly. Children scream under rubbles, mothers search for their babies with trembling hands, fathers carry the weight of the world, unable to protect the ones they love, the air smells of smoke, blood, and heartbreak…” 

As of the 21st, when Sully Kone posted the video, it had gained 73.1k likes, 3.3k comments, and 19.7k shares. 

The video induced mixed reactions among some social media users. Although some doubted its authenticity, some still believed it to be original.

Screenshots of the mixed reactions from Facebook users. 

A similar video was found on social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook.

 DUBAWA decided to fact-check the claim due to its mandate to amplify truth. 

Verification

Firstly, DUBAWA conducted a Google keyword search to ascertain whether Roman Reigns has said anything regarding Israel’s conflicts with Iran and Palestine, but there was no evidence of such. 

The viral video was also not found on his official Instagram account @romanreigns. 

The claim was also not reported by any credible news agency. 

Further investigation by DUBAWA revealed that the video was manipulated from an original video of Roman Reigns from 2024, when he acknowledged Paul Heyman during his introductory speech. The video was initially posted on YouTube by WWE in 2024. 

Below are the observations on the video

• We observed that Roman Reigns spoke in an unnatural tone and had a fluent delivery. 
• His eyes did not naturally blink as he spoke. 
• The audio was fabricated and did not match the original audio in the video. 
• Reigns spoke fast in the video, a pattern associated with AI-generated videos. 
• The video appears to have been created with Invideo AI, an AI content generator tool primarily used to create fake videos or manipulate existing ones. 
• There were noticeable jump cuts in the video, which indicates the video was also poorly edited. 

Conclusion

DUBAWA’s investigation showed that  Roman Reigns has neither condemned Israel’s attack on Iran and Palestine nor expressed his affection for them. The viral video was doctored from an unrelated video posted on YouTube by WWE in 2024.