When Roman Reigns takes on Brock Lesnar in their Last Man Standing encounter at SummerSlam later this month, it might be the last time fans see him on a premium live event in the U.S. for a while.
It’s been known for some time that the current holder of both the WWE Championship and Universal Championship would be scaling back his workload during the summer months. Yet it’s still come as something of a disappointment when the reality of Reigns’ schedule comes to light, such as when he wasn’t on the card for Money in the Bank over July 4 weekend.
(Not that it seemed to matter all that much, as Fightful reported earlier today on an internal company update touting record viewership for the event and its second-highest gate ever.)
With Clash at the Castle set for Wales in early September, but next premium live event in the U.S. is Extreme Rules on Oct. 8 in Philadelphia. Alas, as Louis Dangoor of GiveMeSport pointed out, Reigns isn’t anywhere to be found in the advertising for that show.
Reigns is WWE’s top star, so if he was going to appear on the show, there’s no doubt that he’d be featured on the post.
Unfortunately, this seems to suggest that Reigns will not be at Extreme Rules in October, an undeniable blow for WWE and its plans.
After Extreme Rules, it will be a month and a half until Survivor Series on Nov. 26 in Boston. That’s a long time between title defenses and big event appearances for the Tribal Chief.
Then again, perhaps it won’t matter as much as it seems now. The oft discussed idea for Clash at the Castle is that Reigns will put his championships on the line against Drew McIntyre. If Reigns loses there — or even sooner, to Lesnar at SummerSlam — it won’t seem like nearly as big an absence if he’s not at Extreme Rules.
All of which is to say that WWE fans should savor each Reigns appearance as it happens, because his reduced schedule is certainly no joke.