Roman Reigns is considered one of the best wrestlers to step inside a WWE ring but do you know about his journey of battling leukemia from a very young age? Here is everything about that story.
The current WWE Universal Title Roman Reigns shocked the WWE universe in October 2018 when he announced fighting Leukemia (Blood Cancer). Reigns were the WWE World Champion then and had to relinquish the title due to the treatment. However, he fought the battle and within months made a comeback to WWE after defeating Leukemia.
Let us look at the whole story in fragments
- The Beginning
WWE star Roman Reigns was just 22 years old and was signed with Minnesota Vikings for a free agency rookie camp. During the medical test, it was found that Roman had only 70-80,000 white blood cells. Reigns were sent back to his house; he went to the hospital to check it and found that he was diagnosed with Leukemia.
The news devasted reigns as he was very young, married, and his daughter was also on the way. Everything was falling apart for him and his family as he didn’t have any money left. Reigns didn’t had any job, didn’t have any home as well, and had left football.
But Roman decided not to give up on life and changed his workout routine and daily food habits. As a result, he finally defeated Leukemia with the support of his family and friends.
Reigns decided to become a wrestler, and the only industry that gave him a chance was WWE. Soon after joining, he made his debut in the main roster and finally became the WWE Champion. But that was not the end of the story.
- The arrival of Leukemia again
October 22 saw Roman Reigns in the ring of WWE Raw with his WWE Universal Title not to fight but to announce the arrival of Leukaemia again. As a result, he relinquished the WWE Universal Title and took some months off.
This is how he got to know about Leukemia for the second time.
He revealed this in an episode of Chronicles on the WWE network about how his chronic myeloid leukemia will require chemotherapy for life. He will be on life-saving drugs as relapse can happen at any time.
Roman was at a live event when he remembered one of the doctors telling him that he had something going around in his blood tests. So they did another blood test as something was off. The next day one of the refs came up to him and told about the medical staff wanting to see Roman Reigns soon. Just when he went there, he was told that his white blood cell count had elevated, and with all his history, he very well knew the reason for it.
Reigns said that the first thing that came to his mind after the news of the second arrival of Leukaemia was that he would have to drop the title now,
“Kinda the quickest thing that hit me was the fact that I’d have to drop the title.”
Reigns announced on Raw about his Leukemia on October 22, 2018, and had to leave WWE for a while to undergo his treatment.
Reigns also mentioned the disease and his treatment on the show (h/t Bleacher Report)
“It’s pretty much where you wanna catch this disease, this illness, and pretty much for me, there’s a pill that they make,” Reigns said. “They make oral chemotherapy. There are a few different types now. When I first started, there was just one.”
After the news, a lot of WWE superstars, Sports Centers showed their concerns and prayers for The Tribal Chief.
- Return to WWE and Redemption of the Universal Title again
The Bull Dog returned to WWE after defeating Leukemia again on February 25, 2019, on RAW and announced that he is ready for action to the WWE Universe.
Reigns returned to the ring by teaming up with former Shield teammates Seth Rolins and Dean Ambrose against Drew McIntyre, Elias, Bobby Lashly, and Baron Corbin, which Reigns won.
The Redemption of The Tribal Chief came back after a year of hard work and resilience. On August 30, 2020, Roman Reigns became the Universal Championship Title at WWE Payback against The Friend – Bray Wyatt and Braun Strowman.
Reigns still holds the championship belt – one of the longest championship reigns ever.
Remarkably from then until to this date, he holds the Universal Championship title, making it one of the longest reigns in WWE history. That’s how “The Tribal Chief “made a comeback.
This shows the kind of fighting spirit and willpower. This man has, after going down by Leukemia twice. However, the Tribal Chief made a comeback and even won the title. Reigns is an inspiration to all the fans in the WWE Universe and all the people who seek hope and fight their wars of life.
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