Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns has become one of WWE's biggest draws as the Head of the Table, but his schedule in 2023 has been surprisingly light. Despite making semi-regular appearances on SmackDown, Reigns has wrestled in only 22 matches.
That's still more than someone like Brock Lesnar, for example, but it's a number which has surprised many fans (Reigns won't be at Survivor Series this weekend and, as far as we're aware isn't - and hasn't been - dealing with any injuries).
Talking on The Hall of Fame with Booker T & Brad Gilmore, WWE Hall of Famer Booker T shared his take on the Tribal Chief holding the company's biggest title while only competing in the ring on a sporadic basis.
"I think you and I can go back to the old days and just think how many times Hogan worked on television in a calendar year. It might have been less than that and nobody was bigger than Hogan. Just think about this. Can you imagine a boxer boxing 22 times in a year or an MMA fighter fighting 22 times in a year? Twenty-two times is actually a lot. That's just the way I look at it."
"So I look at the pros and cons of it. If Roman wasn't selling any tickets, you know, we could talk. If he wasn't one of the hottest acts on television, you know, and the thing is, is it cooling off? Of course, it's cooling off. It's been what now? Almost 4 years? I mean, come on. I mean, Larry Holmes had the World Heavyweight Championship for eight years. You don't think it cooled off after, you know, some years and the people were like, 'Man, I can't wait to see this guy get beat.' You don't think that? So, I look at the pros and cons of situations like this."
"The people that may have a beef with this have never done it. They've never done it and they don't know. They obviously don't understand the situations, you know, that's going on behind the scenes, with Roman Reigns, with the WWE or this business."
Booker T would go on to elaborate on that point, suggesting Reigns has become a big enough star to make it so that his being on TV is arguably enough at this stage.
"If you said he's only been on television 22 times, that would be one thing, but you just said he's just worked 22 times. So my thing is, fans sometimes, they just want to see you. I just got a guy from New York who just called me a minute ago when we were in a break and asked me, 'Hey Book, I've got a show going down in February. We want you to come down' You think the fans want to see me work? They just want to see me. So a lot of times, you know, if you don't start thinking with that mentality as a wrestler, you can find yourself bumping your way all the way out of the damn business."
WWE has attempted to counter Reigns' limited schedule with the reintroduction of the World Heavyweight Championship. The title has been booked well, but with Seth Rollins the only one to have held it, it feels like history is repeating itself in the sense that we're getting another long-term champion (albeit one who is on RAW each week).
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