Fans have been buzzing about Roman Reigns‘ future over the past few days, but he’s reportedly set to remain with WWE, albeit under different terms.
The reigning Undisputed WWE Universal Champion cut a controversial promo at a live event on May 7; he noted that he’s starting to enter a “new phase of his career” and noted that he didn’t know whether he’d return to the host city, Trenton, New Jersey, for another house show. Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select subsequently reported that Reigns isn’t expected to leave WWE anytime soon, and that the company plans to incentivize him to keep sports entertainment his top priority, even when he potentially begins a career in Hollywood. The report also noted that WWE intends to keep utilizing Reigns as a full-time superstar for the foreseeable future.
In an update, Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio reports that Reigns has signed a new deal with the company; the terms of the agreement will allow him to work fewer house shows. Since WWE returned to touring last July, he has been remarkably active at live events. He stated that Reigns is entering a “new phase in his life”, so he may wish to protect his body by lightening his work load a bit.
“It’s not it for him, but the situation is that he got a new deal and the new deal is for far less dates,” Meltzer said. “I don’t know how many house shows he’s going to be doing, but it will be much less than the number that he’s doing now. It’s one of the perks of being there for a while and being valuable there is you can kind of call certain shots. And he’s got the power to maintain the championship and work fewer dates like [Brock] Lesnar had and [Hulk] Hogan used to have. So, he’s gonna be — new phase in his life. He’s got young kids and everything like that. You know, [in his] mid-to-late 30s. Probably wants to preserve his body a little bit more.” (H/t Joseph Currier of F4W/Wrestling Observer)
Reigns and The Usos defeated Drew McIntyre and RK-Bro in the main event of WWE WrestleMania Backlash on May 8.
