Roman Reigns May Not Be Safe From TKO’s Budget Cuts

Roman Reigns’ last televised appearance was on WWE Raw after WrestleMania 41.

The “OTC” has yet to resurface since he was attacked by Seth Rollins and Bron Breakker, which also signaled Breakker’s alliance with Rollins.

The last couple of months have witnessed the release of various wrestlers, including Braun Strowman, Dakota Kai, R-Truth, and Carlito.

According to reports, Strowman was released due to a high salary, as the company sought to reduce its budget.

Similarly, Reigns is one of the highest-paid performers in WWE, yet he continues to hold his seat at the table.

In mid-April, Reigns discussed calling the curtain on his celebrated in-ring career, stating that it might be after WrestleMania 42. CageMatch reported that he wrestled 52 matches in 2022, a number that dwindled to 11 in 2023 and 6 in 2024.

That figure stands at 3 in 2025.

With Roman’s revelations about retirement and his declining appearances, can it be possible that the executives at TKO add him to the budget cut list?

Roman Reigns Is Not Safe From TKO

The Last Word podcast featuring former WWE employees Jonathan Coachman and Tommy Carlucci touched upon the recent releases, with Coach calling it “all about the almighty bottom dollar.”

We know that Roman Reigns just came out and said “I’m gonna sign another two-year deal and then I’m done.” And he reportedly makes between 15 and 20 million dollars a year. Does that math make sense to pay a guy who might appear 10 to 20 times in a year and he’s making, I mean, at that number he’s making over a million dollars an appearance. Is it worth all that when all these other superstars are getting dropped?

Carlucci then replied to this.

Yeah, he’s not around a lot now. I think the TKO executives are gonna really rethink how they’re gonna handle Roman Reigns. They won’t cut him completely, but I can guarantee you he’s not getting nowhere near 15 to 20 million. And they say, if you don’t like it, lump it. That’s the point, they’re executives. They didn’t grow up in this business like VKM (Vince McMahon) made this business and Triple H made this. But you think Triple H is gonna lay his life on the line for Roman’s contract? I don’t think so. I think he’s running scared, guys.

Roman Reigns has been hugely successful in WWE since John Cena passed the baton to him in 2017. One year later, he announced that he had been living with leukemia for 11 years, and it had returned.

After being away from the company, he returned in 2019 and wrestled full-time.

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