Roman Reigns Announces He Is Battling Cancer On WWE Raw
Reigns relinquishes the Universal Title on an emotionally charged night.
Roman Reigns is fighting leukaemia.
The 33-year-old announced it himself in a devastating Raw opening promo, revealing that he has lived with the disease for the past 11 years. He fought it back into remission at the age of 22 (which was a revelation in itself), but it's back, and he must now return home to focus on his family and health.
Introducing himself as Joe (Anoa'i), Reigns opened up for the crowd. On top of revealing that he was relinquishing the Universal Championship, he paid tribute to the crowd, thanked them for always reacting to him, and the company for "making [my] dreams come true."
"This isn't a retirement speech," he added. "When I beat this, I will come home and show everyone that I will stand here and swing for the fences. I will beat this, and I will be back, and you'll see me very soon. Thank you so much, I love you, and believe that."
Leaving his title in the ring, Reigns left to chants of "thank you Roman," and met friends Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins in a tearful embrace.
Our thoughts and well wishes go out to Roman and his family. He has already beaten this terrible illness once, so let's hope he's able to do it again, and get back to doing what he does best.