Royce Keys addresses current WWE run: ‘I’m in the right place’
A part of WWE since 2026, Royce Keys has now opened up about his current run.
Leaving AEW in January 2026, Keys, aka, Powerhouse Hobbs, became a part of WWE. After making his debut at the 2026 Royal Rumble PLE in Saudi Arabia, Keys went missing from televised action. Despite wrestling dark matches, Keys seldom appeared on television.
After competing in several dark matches, Keys finally made his TV debut in April 2026 and has remained a part of the SmackDown roster since then. Ahead of his SummerSlam match against The Bloodline, Keys appeared on the No-Contest Wrestling podcast, where he discussed his current WWE run.
“It means a lot. During Mania week, I sat down with The Ringer podcast, and it was to my surprise that Triple H, Paul [Levesque], had his eye on me. He knew who I was,” Keys said.
“To especially be put in this position with these guys who have been established here for years, who are vets to the game, it means that I’m in the right place. It means that they trust me. When you have an opportunity and you need to run a play, you’ve got to run the play, because who knows if this may come up again?”
Royce Keys reflects on his 14-year-old friendship with Jacob Fatu
Keys is now set to team up with LA Knight and Solo Sikoa to take on The Bloodline [Jey Uso, Jimmy Uso, and Jacob Fatu] at SummerSlam. However, before the match, he opened up about his decades-long friendship with Fatu.
“We go back about 14 years, man. Some people want to call bluff on that. Nah, me and that dude go back. You’re talking about being caught up in snowstorms, blizzards, leaving Reno, driving back to the Bay, driving five miles an hour, driving 10 hours from the Bay to Vegas to do a show and back home to make sure we get back to work, doing training and small indie bookings. We go back. But it’s just one of those things where sometimes you’ve got to fight your people to get your point across.”
Shounak Chakrabarti is an experienced sports journalist with a lifelong passion for athletics and storytelling. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Journalism from the University of Leeds and joined F4WOnline in 2025.
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