Hollywood can wait for the Head of the Table.
After a somewhat cryptic promo at a house show in Trenton ahead of WrestleMania Backlash caused some buzz because of the insinuation that Roman Reigns might be leaving WWE soon, it turns out the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion was being more literal: He doesn’t know if he’ll be back in Trenton because he’ll be appearing on less non-televised cards.
That’s the word from Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer, who reported on Reigns’ new deal with WWE during the post-Backlash edition of Wrestling Observer Radio. In essence, the new contract will require Reigns to work less while maintaining his status as a top attraction (h/t to Figure Four Online for the transcription).
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. 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.
Meltzer went on to say the deal is similar to the ones Brock Lesnar has and Hulk Hogan used to have with WWE. Lesnar, in particular, has worked a much less than full-time schedule even while holding one of the company’s main championships, a fact that has occasionally made its way into storylines as opponents called him out on it.
[lawrence-related id=400]
Nevertheless, Lesnar has and probably always will be a big attraction when he is in the mix, and Reigns has reached that level of his career as well. Less dates on his WWE schedule will allow him to devote more time to his family — he has five children, including four under the age of 7 — and pursue more interests outside the wrestling industry should he so choose.
Reigns and his Bloodline cousins, the Usos, were victorious in the main event of WrestleMania Backlash on Sunday night. The next challenger for his WWE Championship and WWE Universal Championship figures to be Drew McIntyre, but that could be cleared up as soon as the May 9 episode of Raw.
[lawrence-related id=1066]