10 Times WWE Were Shamelessly Exploitative
6. Using Roman Reign's Leaukemia For Heat
After finally toppling Brock Lesnar following years throwing pebbles at his metaphorical Goliath, Roman Reigns was cruelly blindsided by one of fate's ironies, when he was tragically forced to vacate his Universal title following a recurrence of leukemia.
Reigns' sobering announcement reminded everybody in attendance of the real man behind the mic, and the persistent boos which had dogged the The Big Dog instantly turned to cheers of appreciation. The raw emotion was tangible as Reign's Shield brothers joined him on the ramp, their faces bewashed by tears.
Grief-stricken fans had to compartmentalise their actual feelings later that same night, when Roman's illness was used to instigate a heel turn by Dean Ambrose. In an era where the curtain has long since been removed from the rail, nobody truly bought into Dean's dastardly deceit, and instead it just highlighted that WWE were more than happy to cash-in on real life tragedy.
That wasn't even the end of it. On the 20 November 2018 episode of Raw, Ambrose intimated that Reigns' was "answering to the man upstairs" for some unrevealed misdemeanour as part of The Shield. Not only was his cancer being used as a lazy shortcut for heat, but the implication was that every sufferer of the disease somehow deserved it.