– It appears that one reason for WWE taking the title off of Roman Reigns may be due to house show business. WWE live event attendance in May had dropped from 5,600 last year to 3,900 this year, which is a 30% decline. While John Cena had been out of action, the A and B house show tours had been doing close to the same numbers. The B shows are usually the smaller towns and venues, and were headlined by Dean Ambrose. On this morning’s edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer (via wrestlinginc.com) had the following to say…

“Last month the ‘B’ shows with Dean Ambrose, that were often in smaller markets, were drawing just as well as the ‘A’ shows with Roman Reigns. Roman Reigns is drawing really bad. Before he wasn’t, but now he is, so now it’s an issue. Does that mean that it led to this [title change], or is this just another way to get Roman Reigns more over, because that’s been the goal for the last however long? Time will tell.”

Now we know why WWE is trying to bring back Kurt Angle, Jeff Hardy, & Goldberg for the brand-split: outside of Cena, there is only like 2-3 people on the roster who draw anything lol.

I read he was stripped as "punishment" for failing the drug test. They weren't going to suspend him until it was leaked online.

It's not the wrestlers' faults they don't draw. It's WWE's fault for their shitty booking.