Roman Reigns was scheduled to challenge Goldberg for WWE Universal Title at WrestleMania 36, but opted out due to the pandemic.
Reigns was off television from before WrestleMania to SummerSlam, finally returning to insert himself back in the Universal Title picture. During his time away, Reigns remained mostly silent, but did inform fans that he was putting his family first during the pandemic.
Appearing on a Mania Club meet-and-greet, Roman was asked about potential movie projects down the line and in his answer, revealed his mindset into staying loyal to WWE and discussed taking time away during the pandemic.
"When I took the break, there was a lot of stuff on my plate and I put a stop to it because I didn't want to open my mind to," said Roman. "There were a lot of scripts coming in, but because I took the time off from wrestling, I don't want it to get confused; when I'm in contract with WWE, that's 1A. I never put anything over the day job. When I took my time off due to the pandemic, there were a lot of opportunities coming in, but I felt it wouldn't have been right to open up to something when I wasn't even fulfilling my duty as an in-ring performer. The obligation is to be there, whether it's Monday, Wednesday, or Friday. God bless WWE, I was still being paid in full. There weren't any type of problems like that. Me and my family were still well taken care of considering the fact that I was staying home. I felt it wasn't right to chase other opportunities. I took it as a time to be with my family and be a father."
While he was away, WWE made sure not to mention him on television, even taking him out of a shot of Seth Rollins cashing in his Money in the Bank Briefcase at WrestleMania 31.
Reigns won the WWE Universal Title at Payback and is set to defend the belt against Jey Uso at WWE Clash of Champions.
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