Roman Reigns Explains Why He Doesn’t Work WWE Live Events Anymore

World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns recently credited live events for helping him win over fans during the initial stages of his career and explained why it doesn’t make sense for him to work live events anymore.

Speaking to Shannon Sharpe on Club Shay Shay, Reigns said he worked 150 to 200 live events annually from 2012 to 2018. The Tribal Chief said that working house shows helps wrestlers get their reps in and build a connection with the audience. However, WWE’s current business model is such it doesn’t make sense for him to work live events anymore.

Here’s what he said:

On how WWE live events helped him win over fans

“I just outworked them. Every single day. People don’t; they look at it as a highlight reel now, but you know how it is. Every single day you’re putting in work, every live event. There is, you know, 100s. Now, with my schedule, people will pick on it, but they don’t remember from 2012 to 2018 when I was doing 150, 200 shows a year, every single year, just working my a*s off. But staying in the lab, continually getting the reps, conquering my 10,000 hours. Putting my time in, that’s where I learn how to do everything. And we’re trying to get that back. I think we’re trying to run more live events, and they are good.”

On why it doesn’t make sense for him to do house shows anymore

“But we’re just at a business model where TV rights are TV rights. And there’s just so much money on the line that we got to that point where it’s just like, ‘It doesn’t make sense for me to do live events anymore. What if I got hurt?’ There’s so much money riding on Mondays and Fridays and our PLEs now that I can’t just go out there and wrestle for 4,000, 5,000 eyes only, just for those eyes only. Now, I got to conserve it. But those are the reps that are critical. To have a fresh crowd, every single night, and you can run the same thing.”

Listen to his comments below:

Roman Reigns is coming off a successful defense of the World Heavyweight Championship against LA Knight at WWE Money in the Bank 2026.

Please credit Club Shay Shay and give an H/T to 411Mania for the transcription if you take quotes from this article.