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Roman Reigns Lands New Movie Role as Rumors Persist of His Imminent Return to the WWE

By Michael Fairman

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Photo: WWE

“The Tribal Chief” WWE’s Roman Reigns, as expected is branching out into the movies, as his predecessors, The Rock, Dave Bautista and John Cena, have already done successfully.

Now, comes word via the Hollywood Reporter that Reigns is indeed in the cast of the upcoming movie adaptation of the legendary video game of the same name, Street Fighter. 

Reigns, real name Joe Anoa’i, joins the cast in the role of Akuma which also includes: 50 Cent as Balrog, Jason Momoa as Blanka, Noah Centineo as Ken, Orville Peck as Vega, Andrew Koji as Ryu, Callina Liang as Chun-Li, and Andrew Schulz believed to be playing Dan Hibiki.  Kitao Sakurai is directing the feature with principal photography to begin this August in Australia. Details of the plot are being completely kept under wraps.

Photo: WWE

For those who may not be a video game fanatic, Street Fighter began as an arcade game in 1987 and reached a pop culture high with 1991’s Street Fighter II, which revolutionized one-on-one playing. Street Fighter 6, the latest game in the franchise, was released in June 2023 and won the award for best fighting game at the 2023 Game Awards.

Meanwhile, the big question on everyone’s mind within the WWE universe, is when will Roman Reigns reappear on WWE programming? The last time anyone saw Reigns was during the triple-threat main event match on night one of WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas back in April. In the match, Reigns was double-crossed by his former Wiseman, Paul Heyman, giving the victory to Reigns’ longtime nemesis, Seth “Freakin” Rollins.

Photo: WWE

Speculation is picking back up this week that the WWE is looking to build towards a Roman Reigns return at SummerSlam or perhaps before, given that the premium-live-event is one of its core four events of the year. According to WrestleVotes, Reigns WWE hiatus will end soon and he will be back on the scene come July, perhaps with a new nickname or moniker.

In a post on X, they shared, “Sources indicate his (Roman Reigns) name has popped up internally in recent weeks, typically signaling the wheels are in motion for a return heading into the biggest party of the summer.”

Reigns had been criticized for his lack of appearances throughout the year of late. The former WWE Undisputed World Champion, were he held the top spot for over four years, has only wrestled 20 matches in the last two and a half years.

It should be noted that as of June 2025, reports indicate that Roman is still in remission from leukemia. In 2018, Reigns revealed that he had been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). So, it’s always possible that in order to stay as healthy as possible, Reigns works a lighter schedule. Given his new role in the film, Street Fighter, which starts to film in Australia this August, it will be interesting to see how his acting and in-ring schedule works out over the summer months.

So, excited to learn that Roman Reigns landed a major acting role in a motion picture? Do you think Roman will pop up before or during SummerSlam as he definitely has an axe to grind with Seth Rollins and Paul Heyman. Comment below. In case you need a refresher course on what happened at WrestleMania 41 when Reigns was betrayed, check it out again below.

 

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General Hospital

‘General Hospital’ Alum Chad Duell Announces Upcoming Release of His First Single, ‘If You Need Me’

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In a surprise move, Daytime Emmy winner, Chad Duell (ex-Michael Corinthos, GH) is getting ready to unveil a new chapter of his career in music.

The former GH star, where he played the son of Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard) and Carly Spencer (Laura Wright) for 15 years, has announced his new single, “If You Need Me” will drop on Friday, June 26. The single is now available for pre-order on Spotify and major music streaming platforms and is distributed by DistroKid.

Taking to his Instagram story over the weekend, to announce the pre-save of his new single, Chad expressed, “I’ll make a full post about what I’ve been up to and my music once it goes live next week, but you can pre-save my first single so it goes straight to your Spotify once it drops next week.”

Photo: CDuellIG

SINCE LEAVING GENERAL HOSPITAL

Previously, since his departure from the ABC soap opera. Chad starred alongside Zach Mendez in the world premiere of of Yum Yum at Annapolis, a new play written by Bruce Reisman. Duell last appeared on General Hospital on the January 21, 2025 episode.

The part was recast with Rory Gibson who debuted as the new Michael in May of 2025 during the Nurses’ Ball episodes and who has remained in the role since that time.

In an interview earlier this year on The Able Show, Duell said on his decision to exit the soap opera, “I was blessed to be part of that (show) for as long as I have, but what happens sometimes is if you’re doing the same thing, especially in a creative field for such a long time, you can get a little burnt out in a way. It can make you a little depressed, so that’s kind of what happened. On top of that, I had other things going on in my life at the time. My father passed away recently and I just needed a reset. So, I stepped away. A lot of times you have to go through some stuff to really step into that next level. I needed to kind of feel uncomfortable.”

So, what type of musical genre will Chad’s new song be? Country? Pop? Rock? Dance/Club? Something else? Let us know your thoughts via the comment section below, and if you are eager to hear the new single next week via the comment section below.

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General Hospital

‘General Hospital’s’ Dominic Zamprogna Reflects on Dante’s Guilt for the ‘Atrocity’ That Happened to Michael Which Kept Everyone From Telling Him the Truth About Rocco (Exclusive)

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On recent episodes of General Hospital, acting PCPD commissioner, Dante Falconeri (Dominic Zamprogna) was the last to know when his ex-wife Lulu (Alexa Havins), his cop/friend “Nathan,” (Ryan Paevey) and his son, Rocco (Finn Carr) kept him in the dark from learning that Rocco actually shot WSB director, Ross Cullum (Andrew Hawkes). That, set off a chain of events leading to Rocco joining Britt Westbourne (Kelly Thiebaud) and going on the run from Port Charles.

However, what led to everyone being so secretive and keeping the truth from Dante stems, in part, to what happened back in 2010. In story, Michael Corinthos (then played by Chad Duell) was brutally assaulted and rape by his prison inmate, Carter (Josh Wingate). Michael went to prison when his brother, Dante, then a PCPD detective, forced Michael to testify in court about killing his stepmother, Claudia Zacchara (Sarah Brown). That testimony resulted in Michael being sentenced to prison for manslaughter.

In early 2011, Michael admitted out loud to Jason (Steve Burton) for the first time that he was raped. The guilt of that situation has plagued Dante for years, and fast-forward 16 years later, it’s still very much alive in Dante’s character life as explained by Dominic Zamprogna in his recent interview on the Michael Fairman Channel.

Courtesy/ABC

RORY GIBSON RECAST WAS PERFECT TIME TO BRING BACK THE STORY POINT

Zamprogna spoke of Dante’s son current plight, and how it dovetails into the past for the acting police commissioner. “The situation with Rocco is just this awful scenario that this kid is in and wanting to try and do the best for him. The other thing I liked too was from the other people’s perspectives of Dante in the past, he kind of did right by the law, not by the people, or put too much faith in the law, and expected it to work out for the people he loved, and it didn’t. So, it gave them a reason for keeping things from him as well.”

The five-time Daytime Emmy nominee shared it’s important to remember things in the history of the character you play. When GH decided to recast the role of Michael Corinthos with Rory Gibson on-screen in May of 2025, it was the perfect time to remind viewers of what happened all those years ago.

“The idea that when you’re on a show this long, I do think about those elements because there’s so much story. The scenes that I think of immediately with the Michael situation was with Chad gone, and then Rory came in. They (the writers) chose that moment to kind of literally say in the dialogue when we were at the Quartermaines, ‘You’ve changed since you came back from Europe, and you’re a different guy and you’re darker.’ I think I said all these things. Frank Valentini (executive producer, GH) calls (Rory’s version) ‘Dark Michael.’ It’s true.”

Courtesy/ABC

DANTE’S GUILT OVER MICHAEL’S BRUTAL PRISON ASSAULT LINGERS

“That was the first time my character brought that up in what had happened to Michael so long ago. I’d love to play those beats more often. You can’t beat that to death, because it was 16 years ago, but you also can’t act like it never happened. Sometimes in the world that we live in, the soap world, you do act like things don’t happen because how could people carry on with that kind of guilt, you know? Every time I looked at Michael, Dante would feel responsible for the atrocity that happened to him. So, there’s a balance. You can’t think about it every time, but you definitely have to acknowledge it. This was the perfect time to acknowledge it with the character of Michael because of the recast.”

Now over the last several months, Dante was kept from the truth all stemming back to that moment. Zamprogna recalled, “It was the first kind of domino that fell in bringing back that history. Then, you had Britt coming back and that brought back that history of the embryo with Dante and Lulu. It was fun to be able to play pissed-off with these people who I love. So, you got to play the love underneath and the anger on top, and it was all because of his past. So, it all kind of brought things back and it completed something.”

CAN LULU AND DANTE FIND ROCCO AND BRITT IN TIME?

At the end of Friday’s June 19 cliffhanger, Dante and Lulu learned from “Nathan” where Rocco and Britt are hiding out and take off to find their son. How will that go? Can the execs get along for the sake of their son? Stay tuned.

In case you missed our conversation with Dominic Zamprogna  you can check it out in full below.

Do you believe, given what happened with Michael Corinthos in the past, everyone had the right to hide what happened to Rocco from Dante? What do you remember from the harrowing story of Michael’s rape in prison by Carter? Share your thoughts via the comment section below.

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Beyond the Gates

RATINGS: ‘Beyond the Gates’ Scores Third Most-Watched Week Since Its Premiere With ‘The Young and the Restless’ Crossover Event

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The tornado that ripped through Fairmont Crest and put the lives of the characters of Beyond the Gates and several from The Young and the Restless in jeopardy had viewers tuning-in for the week of June 8-12.

The highly-publicized crossover event kicked off on the Tuesday, June 9 episode of Beyond the Gates where six residents of Genoa City came to to visit the D.C./Maryland country club for a fundraiser for Martin Richardson (Brandon Claybon), only no one expected a twister to tear into the proceedings, leading to several storylines intersecting as people were trapped with one another with Eva Thomas (Ambyr Michelle) being the most severely injured and now requiring a liver transplant to survive.

According to the ratings report from CBS and Nielsen ratings and as supplied to Variety, Beyond the Gates brought in on average 1.8 million viewers throughout the wee. That is up 11% from its season-to-date numbers and it makes the crossover/tornado episodes its third most-watched week for the soap since Beyond the Gates premiered back on February 24, 2025.

Photo: CBS

A GENOA CITY TOUCHDOWN

With the strength of the story, its special effects and bringing over cast of the top-rated, The Young and the Restless which included: Eric Braeden (Victor Newman), Michael Mealor (Kyle Abbott), Peter Bergman (Jack Abbott), Susan Walters (Diane Jenkins), Melissa Ordway (Abby Newman) and Bryton James (Devon Hamilton), the Thursday, June 11 episode was the week’s most-watched.

According to the numbers, the Wednesday June 10 episode brought in the most total viewers for the week with 1.87 million (up 17% week-to-week), followed closely by the Friday, June 12 episodes which had 1.84 million watching.

Photo: JPI

Over on The Young and the Restless, the week of June 8-12, also saw an increase based on the early return that week of Shemar Moore as Malcolm Winters wrapping up his leg of the story where viewers learned he had a son Holden Novak (Nathan Owens) with Stephanie Simmons (Vivica A. Fox), and survived his bone marrow transplant surgery thanks to Cane Ashby (Billy Flynn).

Y&R scored 3.11 million viewers for the week up 2% from its season average with the June 8 and June 9 episodes featuring Moore averaging 3.2 million viewers and up 9% year-over-year.

So, did you enjoy the tornado episodes of Beyond the Gates and seeing the residents of Genoa City crossover to Fairmont Crest? Share your thoughts via the comment section on the latest ratings for the two CBS daytime soaps.

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Video Du Jour

Jonathan Bennett joins the cast of GH as Joe Fitzpatrick. Catch the latest promo! Leave a comment.Leave A Comment

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