Roman Reigns Says WWE Has Become Stagnant: 'We Haven't Advanced, We Haven't Evolved'

Ahead of the Royal Rumble, his first WWE match since WarGames back in November, Roman Reigns appeared on "The Pat McAfee Show" and seemingly took a shot at WWE creative. Reigns said he was going to be transparent about the changes within WWE over the last two years, presumably meaning since Vince McMahon departed the company for good in January 2024. A few months later, Reigns lost the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship to Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania 30.

"We're two years here, now, and we haven't advanced," Reigns said. "We haven't evolved. We have great leadership in Nick Khan. God bless him. What a businessman. He's a genius. But, we have to be able to keep up with that creatively. That's why people like me, people who are striving to be the very best... I just can't sit around and see mediocracy. Not when I set it up for everybody to just slam it home. I mean, we're on Netflix, for crying out loud. We gotta, you gotta, capitalize. We've got people out here playing around and trying to figure it out, and I got the formula."

Reigns declared for the Rumble match in a rather unceremonious way, in a video package played on "WWE SmackDown" ahead of the event. "The Tribal Chief" has only wrestled part-time since losing the title in April 2024, with 10 matches, including the 2025 Royal Rumble and WarGames, between the title loss and his 2026 Rumble appearance.

While Reigns did not name names when it came to WWE creative, Paul "Triple H" Levesque has been in control since July 2022, following McMahon's first retirement.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "The Pat McAfee Show" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.