Roman Reigns reportedly signs new WWE contract

The mystery surrounding the “new phase” of Roman Reigns’ WWE career seems to have been solved.

Reigns got tongues wagging with a promo after the Saturday Night’s Main Event house show on May 7. Reigns said he didn’t know if he’d return to Trenton, New Jersey in the future, fueling speculation he would be following The Rock & John Cena to Hollywood — something he and WWE have been talking about for a while.

Maybe he will be doing more television & film work soon, but that’s not the only reason the Head of the Table may not be back in Jersey’s capital. Wrestling Observer Radio’s Dave Meltzer says Roman recently signed a new contract with WWE — one with fewer dates, particularly of the non-televised variety.

“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. 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.”

Sounds like a good move, and a smart use of negotiating power, for Reigns. It probably won’t impact WWE’s plans for a long title reign for the Tribal Chief. Will it hurt their weekend gates, though? Maybe it will force them to develop a few new stars who’ll work every house show loop?

Weigh in on those questions, or others this report raises for you, in the comments below.