Roman Reigns' return announced on WWE SmackDown days before the Royal Rumble

WWE megastar Roman Reigns has not been seen on television since his last appearance in November 2025. As the road to WrestleMania 42 is about to kickoff, the fans have wondered regarding the return of The OTC. However, the wait is finally over as his first appearance of 2026 has officially been confirmed.On the January 23 episode of Friday Night SmackDown, it was announced that Roman Reigns has declared himself for the 2026 Men's Royal Rumble match at the name-sake Premium Live Event. It is set to take place on January 31, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, marking the first edition of the event to take place outside the United States. Now, it has been made more exciting with the retun of The OTC set to take place in the land of Saudi Arabia.Roman Reigns last competed in the Men's WarGames match at the 2025 WWE Survivor Series Premium Live Event. He teamed up with CM Punk, Cody Rhodes, Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso to battle the team of Logan Paul, Bronson Reed, Bron Breakker, Brock Lesnar and Drew McIntyre. The Tribal Chief's team was handed a major loss in the star-studded match and he even had an tense face-off with one of his teammates and heated rivals, Cody Rhodes.Moreover, 2025 was not a great year for the record-breaking former Undisputed WWE Champion. His former Wiseman, Paul Heyman, betrayed him to side with his iconic rival, Seth Rollins and he lost in the main event of WrestleMania 41. Reigns was handed his first singles loss after WrestleMania 40 at the hands of Bronson Reed and had been taken out of action by numerous superstars.However, all that can change with the onset of 2026. Roman Reigns has a chance to win his second Rumble match after over a decade. Should he be able to do it, he could earn his 11th WrestleMania main event match and a chance to regain the World Championship this year in Las Vegas. So it will be exicting to see if Reigns could regain momentum on his first night back at the 2026 Royal Rumble event.Also read: Report: WWE holding internal talks on a possible Stone Cold Steve Austin appearance later this year