Sounds like Roman Reigns will go three months without defending his WWE Universal title

Roman Reigns successfully defended his Undisputed WWE Universal championship (and his title of Tribal Chief of The Bloodline) against Jey Uso at SummerSlam on Aug. 5.

According to this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter, his next defense won’t come until WWE returns to Saudi Arabia for their next premium live event there on Nov. 4. Reigns didn’t wrestle on WWE’s September PLE Payback, and isn’t advertised for Oct. 7’s Fastlane either.

It’s possible this isn’t simply due to Reigns being a part-time special attraction. He’s only appeared on SmackDown once since SummerSlam, and there were reports he suffered a hip or back injury during his match against Jey in Detroit. The time off could be related to that, and WWE could just be remaining silent to preserve his aura while allowing The Bloodline drama to build without him.

Regarding possible opponents for Roman when he does return, Jimmy Uso has been trying to regain his spot in The Bloodline recently on SmackDown. He lost to AJ Styles last Friday, after which The Judgment Day (which has been trying to recruit Jey into their group on Raw) got involved... so there are a few options between Styles & The OC and Damian Priest & Finn Bálor’s group.

We’ll find out sometime in the next six weeks.