Roman Reigns laid out his criteria for the Roman Reigns WWE Mount Rushmore conversation during a recent appearance on Shannon Sharpe’s “Club Shay Shay” podcast, and the standard he used left little room for debate about in-ring style or fan favorites. For Reigns, it comes down to one number: money.
The WWE star named Hulk Hogan, Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock and John Cena as his four picks, framing the selection around box-office impact rather than wrestling ability or title reigns.
Reigns Says Money Is The Only Metric
Asked how he evaluates wrestling’s all-time greats, Reigns dismissed the usual debate over “money drawers and ringers” that fans and analysts often use to separate performers who sell tickets from those known for in-ring skill.
“Everybody always divides it up, like money drawers and ringers. To me, the only one thing, only one metric matters. The money.
You know what I mean? And it’s show business,” Reigns said.
He traced that philosophy back to his father. “The first day I went around the ring, my dad told me, ‘Don’t ever be confused. This ring is only about money.
It’s a business. Don’t treat it any other way,'” Reigns said.
Why Those Four Names Made The Cut
Reigns tied each of his picks to a specific shift in how wrestling was sold to the public rather than any particular match or rivalry. “And those guys, I mean, when it came to the money and shifting the business and completely, you know what I mean, just changing the view of it, the optics of it, they all had their own way of doing that,” Reigns said.
He added that all four were “critical” to the industry’s growth. “We wouldn’t be here today without those four, for sure. Many other men go into that category, and women for that matter, but those are kind of, to me, those are the big ones,” Reigns said.
The Business History Behind The Picks
Each of Reigns’ four selections lines up with a distinct commercial era for WWE. Hulk Hogan turned the company into a household name through the mid-1980s and stayed a top draw into the early 1990s before leaving, then pulled in large audiences again after turning heel in WCW in 1996.
Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock carried WWE through its biggest popularity spike during the Attitude Era in the late 1990s, a period defined by sharp ratings growth and pay-per-view buys. John Cena then stepped into the lead role once that era ended, serving as the company’s primary face from roughly that point until Reigns took over as WWE’s top act around 2020.
That timeline gives Reigns’ money-first framework a straightforward logic. Each man represents the commercial peak of a different decade, which fits his stated metric even though he did not cite specific revenue or buy-rate numbers during the interview.
What The Comments Leave Unanswered
Reigns acknowledged that “other men” and “women” could belong in the same conversation but did not name any additional candidates or explain how he would weigh their commercial impact. He also did not address where his own run as WWE’s top star over the past several years might fit against the four men he named.
Reigns made the Mount Rushmore remarks in the context of a wide-ranging interview rather than any on-screen WWE storyline, so the comments reflect his personal view of the business rather than a scripted angle heading into a future show.
What’s Next
WWE continues its weekly programming with Raw, and Reigns’ broader standing in the industry remains tied to how the promotion books him going forward. Fans looking for the current product can check the Raw preview from Sports Illustrated for this week’s match card and broadcast details, while Reigns’ full comments on Club Shay Shay were first reported by Bleacher Report.
Readers can also track the promotion’s international plans in the report on Crown Jewel 2026’s location in Saudi Arabia.
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