Where Roman Reigns Fits Into WWE WrestleMania 42 Plans

A backstage report has suggested that Roman Reigns could be the odd man out at WrestleMania 42.

The last time Roman Reigns competed in a WWE ring was at Survivor Series when he was part of the babyface team in the Men’s WarGames Match.

Even though Reigns has had a lot of success in WarGames matches in the past, it was a different story this time when CM Punk took the loss on his team, thanks to interference from the masked man (Austin Theory), which led to Bron Breakker hitting a Spear on Punk for the win.

After the match, Reigns went over to Punk and helped him back to his feet. Punk and Reigns touched fists. Reigns also looked at Cody Rhodes, who got to his feet on his own. There was no handshake. Reigns told Cody this was the last time they would ever team together. Cody responded as if he agreed.

At the time, Rhodes was the WWE Champion, and there were reports coming out of Survivor Series that WWE was teasing the possibility of another Rhodes-Reigns match at WrestleMania, just like they did at WM39 and WM40.

Roman Reigns May Not Be Involved In A WrestleMania Event

During his incredible 13-year WWE career so far, “The Tribal Chief” Roman Reigns has headlined WrestleMania 10 times, which is the most of all time. It includes two main-event matches at WrestleMania 40 in Philadelphia, and the WrestleMania 41 Saturday main event that Seth Rollins won over Reigns and CM Punk in a non-title match.

Regarding WrestleMania 42 in Las Vegas, the Wrestling Observer Newsletter‘s Dave Meltzer reports that Reigns may not be in a WWE Title or World Title match.

“We were told that Reigns will be the odd man out of the WWE title picture. He is scheduled to return at the Rumble and one would expect his direction to be clearer there.”

After Drew McIntyre beat Cody Rhodes to win the Undisputed WWE Championship on the January 9th SmackDown episode, WWE went away from the Rhodes-Reigns plans and is now focused on another idea.

According to Meltzer, Jacob Fatu could be involved as well.

“The two ideas for Mania at this point are a three-way for the title with Rhodes, Fatu and McIntyre, or just McIntyre vs. Rhodes.”

Roman Reigns is likely going to return to WWE TV at the Royal Rumble on January 31st. It will be interesting to see how many matches Reigns wrestles in 2026 since he only competed in 7 matches in 2025 due to his limited schedule.