Reigns chats his new deal and schedule with WWE.
For over 700 consecutive days, Roman Reigns has been Universal Champion. At WrestleMania 38, he defeated Brock Lesnar to capture the WWE Championship and unified the belts. The next title defense for Roman is scheduled for September 3rd at Clash at the Castle in Cardiff, Wales where he’ll be facing Drew McIntyre.
To promote the forthcoming event, Reigns returned to the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast to chat with Jimmy Traina. During their conversation, Reigns confirmed that he signed a new deal with WWE.
Yeah [I signed a new deal with WWE]… I don’t really like to get into specifics [Reigns responded when asked about the length of his new deal], especially timelines. There’s different ways to play with these things so…
That response transitioned into Reigns being asked about his reduced schedule. He brought up that he has five children and how crucial it is for him to be present for this part of their respective lives.
Reigns said that he has worked the full-time WWE schedule for majority of his career and explained how tasking and demanding it can be. He clarified that he’ll be doing the big four Premium Live Events and Saudi shows along with some P.L.E.’s in between and for those, he’ll be present on TV for the build.
I think the main thing is when you’ve been on the road for almost ten years straight and someone who’s been at the highest level, the main event level, you know, I’ve ran a full schedule for a long time and even before we went to FOX, it changed where it was SmackDown on Friday and then we’d do two live events, Saturday, Sunday and then there was the occasional Monday Night Raw so that’s a four-night schedule which still isn’t as bad as it used to be. I mean, we used to do Friday, Saturday, Sunday live events, Monday Night Raw, then we would take SmackDown Tuesday so we were only getting a day-and-a-half because you know, we fly out — this is before private travel and buses and all that stuff so, we would fly out Wednesday morning, get home so we’d get half of Wednesday. You’d get home and you’re beat, tired. You got half of that Wednesday, then you got Thursday to just to handle personal life and family and everything that comes with that and then you’re back out Friday so, for me it was really just trying to balance everything and someone who has five children, we’re in a very critical portion of their lives where they’re so young and this is where we build these relationships and these bonds and they get to know who their dad is so, for me, it was extremely important that I can build, you know, my fatherhood as the priority and the number one hat that I wear and WWE, Vince [McMahon], everybody was really good about accommodating that and making sure to keep me in the WWE family.
Oh okay, yeah, I didn’t really answer the question there did I? [Reigns laughed]… So the main thing is, no, we’re not gonna be on every single pay-per-view but anything that I am on which of course will be all the major ones and then a couple of the other ones, you know, that kind of fall in between the big four and the Saudis, I’ll always support those with TVs to build the story and the rivalry going forward so, it’s not like — compared to what I did, I guess, yeah, you could say technically, that’s, compared to a full-time, taking on everything, you only get a day-and-a-half-a-week, yeah, I guess it’s a part-time compared to what I usually run but, I’m an annual character on WWE television.
The 2022 Money in the Bank event was originally supposed to take place at Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nevada. The event was moved to the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
Reigns shared that he was supposed to be on the card for the stadium show, but once the switch happened, he and the company pivoted in a different direction. He added that from the point of Money in the Bank, he knew he would be at SummerSlam and Clash at the Castle.
Well, the strategy for the first few months after Mania [38] was to be on Money in the Bank but once the show was changed and it was moved away from the Allegiant Stadium into the [MGM Grand Garden] Arena, we re-strategized and we just kind of stayed on the path of hitting these huge ones going into the winter so, once Money in the Bank was moved, I was pulled from that and we knew we were gonna hit SummerSlam and then also Cardiff being a huge stadium show as well, being a huge international show, it was just I knew I was gonna be a part of that one so, for me, it wasn’t a surprise. Once I knew things were up with Money in the Bank, I figured there’s gonna be an adjustment there.
In late July, Vince McMahon resigned as Chairman and CEO of WWE amidst misconduct allegations against him. Since then, WWE has uncovered that there were $19.6 million dollars that McMahon did not record as expenses.
Reigns said it was hard to believe that McMahon was no longer the head of WWE and mentioned that he did receive a personal message from Vince.
You know, it’s just hard to believe [that Vince McMahon is no longer CEO and Chairman of WWE], because I think along with anyone who has followed this business or been in this business that just, Vince is gonna be running this. I’m gonna be long gone. I’ll be 20 years retired and Vince is still running the show, you know what I mean? So I think that was just kind of, ah, okay, we’ll see. We’ll see him in six months or something like that I think was kind of the mindset that I initially took and then I think we received, you know, the Talent Relations text message and then obviously, a personal message from him and we talked a little bit and yeah.
With Vince no longer in his CEO and Chairman position, Stephanie McMahon and Nick Khan were appointed co-CEOs. Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque is now overseeing creative for Raw and SmackDown.
Reigns was asked if he is concerned that the way he’s been presented on TV might shift now that a new creative regime is in place. He said they’re not just going to forget what has been built up so far and he’ll continue to better himself. He thinks Levesque has done a great job and described him as a ‘babyface’ for the wrestling industry right now.
Well I mean, we’re not erasing what I’ve done, you know what I mean? So I think it’s very visible, even if Paul [Levesque] wasn’t completely locked into what we’ve been doing over the past six months and obviously over the past year with the health issues that he’s overcome and everything, the journey that he’s been on. But, you know, we never forget what we’ve done and the body of work that we have and why we’re to the point that we are, but I think like anyone that’s trying to get better or progress, they’re gonna keep that mindset that I’m constantly trying to better myself. This week is an audition for next week and that’s how I look at it. I literally — it was funny because I just did that house show in Ottawa and one of the producers, after we were done, they come up to me and, ‘Man, you bump like you’re auditioning for a job’ and I don’t do anything crazy. We didn’t do any crazy bumps or any[thing] but it was just my regular ‘ole flatbacks but, I attacked the mat as if it was my first day of training. As an athlete, that’s how we’ve always been trained as in 100 percent every single time so that was instilled as a child so, for me, I don’t care who’s running the show. In my mind, I’m running the show and as long as I continue to push myself and bring my very best performance every single week, it don’t matter if it’s Vince [McMahon], Triple H, Nick [Khan], Stephanie [McMahon], Amazon, Disney, Paul Heyman, any — Jimmy [Traina], you could run the show and you know who the man is.
I think he’s [Paul Levesque] done excellent. He’s like a professional wrestling babyface right now, you know what I mean? He’s like a babyface for the industry right now and there’s like this honeymoon situation going. There’s a lot of excitement but, if you look at the grand scheme of it and kind of just break it down of what he stepped into, just dealing with this controversy alone, I mean dealing with the craziness of the impossible happened, like Vince McMahon stepped down. Just dealing, wrapping your brain around that and then being the guy to be next, you know what I mean? I thought following [John] Cena was tough enough. Imagine following Vince McMahon. So I think he’s done great, I really do.
On the latest episode of SmackDown, Reigns had a face-to-face segment with his next opponent, Drew McIntyre. The segment ended with Sami Zayn pushing Reigns out of the way and taking the ‘Claymore Kick’ from McIntyre. To hear a recap of that show, head over to this link.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
