As of today, September 2, 2025, Roman Reigns is officially on hiatus from WWE programming to begin filming his role as Akuma in the Street Fighter movie. While his on-screen absence is attributed to an injury, new details have emerged regarding the structure of his WWE contract, which explains how these extended leaves are possible.
According to a report from Billi Bhatti on the Dirty Sheets’ Wrestling Informer Podcast, Reigns’ current long-term deal with WWE is set to conclude in 2026. The five-year agreement was signed following WrestleMania 37 in 2021, positioning his potential exit after WrestleMania 42.
“After WrestleMania 37, Roman Reigns had agreed that new contract, which was a five-year deal that comes to an end after WrestleMania 42,” Bhatti stated. “So after WrestleMania 42, unless Roman Reigns puts pen to paper between now and WrestleMania 42, Roman Reigns is done with the WWE.” h/t Ringside News.
The report also sheds light on the reason for Reigns’ significantly reduced schedule over the past couple of years. The five-year contract reportedly included a total of 200 appearances. Instead of spacing these dates out evenly, former WWE CEO Vince McMahon opted to use a large portion of them in 2021 and 2022. The strategy was to use Reigns’ star power to help rebuild WWE’s live event business following the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns.
“On the front end of that contract, Vince McMahon was very, very paranoid about his house show business,” Bhatti explained. “He decided that he needed Roman Reigns to blow through a number of those appearances between 2021 and 2022 in order to re-establish WWE on the road and save their house show business… Instead of spreading this out to 40 appearances per year, Roman Reigns performed nearly 100 times between 2021 and 2022.”
This front-loaded schedule left fewer contractually obligated dates for the latter half of his deal, resulting in the part-time model fans see today.
This long-term agreement marked a major shift from the circumstances of his 2020 return. Bhatti noted that when Reigns returned as a heel alongside Paul Heyman during the pandemic, it was under a short-term arrangement with strict health and safety protocols.
“When Roman Reigns returned to the WWE and turned heel and was with Paul Heyman, that was a very, very, very short-term deal. That was a deal done to see Roman Reigns through the COVID period,” he said.
The original plan during that period was reportedly for Reigns to eventually lose the championship to The Fiend at WrestleMania 37. However, the immense success of his “Tribal Chief” character led to WWE scrapping those plans and signing him to the multi-year deal that is now in place.
While the real reason for his current absence is his movie role, WWE wrote him off television with an attack at Clash in Paris this past Sunday, August 31. After his match against Bronson Reed, Reigns was assaulted by both Reed and Bron Breakker, culminating in a stretcher job. The following night on Raw, WWE announced Reigns had suffered “multiple fractured ribs” and would be out of action “indefinitely.” Based on the movie’s filming schedule, he is expected to miss Wrestlepalooza and is anticipated to return in time for Crown Jewel on October 11.