10 Fascinating WWE Backstage Facts About Roman Reigns
4. What REALLY Happened The Night He Announced His Battle With Leukaemia
There were few bonds in professional wrestling like that between Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, and Dean Ambrose - so much so that they are oft-credited with being as pivotal to the PG Era as The nWo and D-Generation X were to the Monday Nights Wars and the Attitude Era.
It's why, in 2018, Rollins and Ambrose stripped back their characters, briefly, when consoling Reigns after he announced the return of his leukaemia. It wasn't Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose embracing Roman Reigns at the top of the stage; it was Colby Lopez and Jonathan Good embracing Leati Anoi'a.
It's a shame, then, that Vince McMahon hates friendship!
Per Dean Ambrose on the Talk Is Jericho podcast, the WWE Chairman was keen to, for lack of a better term, exploit Reigns' illness for a cheap pop or, more realistically, an increase in that night's Raw ratings. Ambrose, infamously, turned heel on Rollins at the end of the episode, Dirty Deeds-ing him after they'd lifted the Raw Tag Team Championships. The subsequent heel run was awful and, ultimately, the impetus for Ambrose to leave WWE.
Though the exact line went unmentioned, the phrasing used indicates it to have been a distasteful, potentially cancelling line for the future Jon Moxley to have uttered. Said Dean (h/t Sportskeeda Wrestling):-
“It is the worst line. I’m not going to say it on air, I’ll tell you [Chris Jericho] after we’re done, but I’m not even going to say it on air – that’s how bad it was. It would have been a thing where somebody would’ve had to get fired.”