Roman Reigns is the current face of the WWE. He’s the man who was chosen to hold the WWE Universal championship and the man who the company has gotten behind over the last five years. He’s been on a number of podcasts, late night talk shows, early morning shows and interviews over his time with the WWE. But tonight he revealed a secret that came as a shock to the WWE Universe.
Reigns revealed that he is battling Leukemia, a disease he says he was diagnosed with 11 years ago when he was 22.
.@WWERomanReigns has to relinquish the Universal Championship due to a battle with leukemia. #Raw pic.twitter.com/EhomllNwjK
— WWE (@WWE) October 23, 2018
The WWE later confirmed the diagnosis in a press release.
Official press release WWE sent out about Roman Reigns pic.twitter.com/d1229b7cG2
— Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.com (@SeanRossSapp) October 23, 2018
Reigns immediately relinquished the title by laying it in the ring and walked up the stage to do one final farewell with his Shield brothers in Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose.
Reigns comes from a history of wrestling being of the same Samoan Anoa’i family heritage as The Rock, Rikiski and The Usos, just to name a few. He first broke through in 2012 as a member of ‘The Shield’ after spending two years in NXT. He was almost immediately vaulted into top-tier feuds with the likes of Daniel Bryan, Kane, CM Punk, Randy Orton, Triple H and The Undertaker in their first year. Shortly after they split up, Reigns was in pole position as the man to carry the company.
In his short time atop the WWE roster, Reigns racked up a laundry list of accolades. Reigns joined Hulk Hogan as the only men to headline four straight WrestleManias, he won the Royal Rumble in 2015, he has won the Intercontinental, United States, Tag Team and Universal Titles one time each and the WWE World Heavyweight Championship three times.
We send our best wishes to Reigns as he battles this horrible disease.
