Kevin Nash suggests Roman Reigns' Street Fighter role influenced Money in the Bank title finish

Roman Reigns defeated LA Knight to retain the World Heavyweight Championship in the opening match of WWE Money in the Bank 2026, held on October 10 in New Orleans, after a competitive contest featuring multiple near-falls and dramatic finish sequences that prompted mixed reactions from fans.

Some supporters believed LA Knight could capture his first world title, and WWE Hall of Famer Kevin Nash offered a possible rationale for the decision on the Kliq This podcast, praising both performers and the match quality before advancing his theory about why Reigns kept the belt.

“I thought LA Knight was great. I thought Roman was great. I thought there were some great false finishes. Come Monday, Street Fighter has its big premiere in Los Angeles … It’s Street Fighter. You’ve got Roman as one of the featured guys. Do you want the water cooler jargon to be, ‘Hey, that guy in the movie, he used to be the WWE champion up until Saturday when he got beat,’ or do you just say, ‘Hey, man, that’s the WWE champion’?” Nash said on the podcast.

Nash expanded on that line of thinking by linking a Hollywood premiere to the need to preserve Reigns’ status, arguing that opportunities to appear on a red carpet as champion are rare for pro wrestlers. “This is one of those moments in life where we don’t get these moments as pro wrestlers very often, to be on a red carpet and to be a star and to be our champion, If you thought about it logically and had all this information at your fingertips, you could lay some money. Safe money that they’re probably going to want him to be the champ,” he added.

The comments from Nash are presented as his theory; neither WWE nor Roman Reigns has publicly confirmed that the Street Fighter premiere influenced the Money in the Bank outcome.

The new Street Fighter film, released on October 16, 2026, features Reigns as Akuma and another WWE megastar, Cody Rhodes, as Guile, a detail Nash cited when framing his argument about promotional considerations around the titleholder.

Reigns continues to occupy a central role in WWE’s Bloodline storyline and was recently involved in a brawl with the emerging faction known as 946, events that have kept him prominent on WWE programming.

WWE has confirmed that Roman Reigns will defend the Heavyweight Championship against Sami Zayn at the Crown Jewel 2026 premium live event, providing Reigns with another scheduled title defense following Money in the Bank.