How Leukemia Almost Ended Roman Reigns' WWE Career, Explained
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Roman Reigns long ago established himself among the all-time greats of the modern generation of professional wrestling. After turning heel and striking gold with "The Tribal Chief" persona, Roman Reigns has made an overwhelming turn around of his career, as he was one of the more disliked wrestlers among the wrestling fandom. However, none of this would've happened if Roman Reigns didn't get past his leukemia diagnosis in late 2018, which nearly ended his wrestling career.
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Roman Reigns' Rise As A Singles Star In WWE
Since breaking away from The Shield, Roman Reigns has had an uphill battle in winning the fans over. After splitting from The Shield, Roman Reigns was pushed heavily to the main event scene despite some doubting his abilities to be the "face" of the company. Even though he's won multiple world championships and main evented numerous WrestleManias, many were under the impression that Roman Reigns wasn't being booked right regarding his character.
However, for the many years that Roman Reigns has established himself as among the top featured performers in WWE, he's garnered success that's warranted praise from fans and critics alike long before his heel turn in 2020. One shouldn't forget the many classic matches of his career before turning heel, such as the WWE Championship matches against Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania 31 and AJ Styles at Extreme Rules 2016. From when he made his WWE debut at Survivor Series 2012, Roman Reigns has always shown a massive load of potential, whether WWE's creative team booked him right or not.
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Roman Reigns Announces His Leukemia Diagnosis Live On Raw
In a shocking turn of events, Roman Reigns' career was put on hold when he announced on live television that he was diagnosed with leukemia on an October 2018 episode of Monday Night Raw. Because of the severity of leukemia, Roman Reigns vacated the Universal Championship he held at that time and went into inactivity for the rest of 2018.
Considering that Roman Reigns had no choice but to drop the Universal Championship, as he was the top babyface on the Raw brand, it showed the seriousness of his leukemia diagnosis. As there's currently no cure for a disease like leukemia, there was a good chance that Roman Reigns would've never stepped inside a WWE ring again. As much as many fans probably didn't want to see Roman Reigns retire from WWE, it's not worth giving up one's vulnerable health to put it all on the line in the ring.
It's worth noting that this wasn't the first time Roman Reigns was diagnosed with leukemia, as he was first diagnosed with the disease in 2007 when he was involved in football. However, it went into remission two years after the initial diagnosis. It stayed like that for almost a decade before Reigns was diagnosed again for the second time in 2018.
After Roman Reigns went on a hiatus in late 2018, it was unknown among WWE fans whether he'd return to WWE in the future. Regardless, someone like him has already established a legendary career and could've easily walked away with nothing else to accomplish.
Roman Reigns Returns To WWE After His Leukemia Goes Into Remission
In early 2019, WWE announced that Roman Reigns would be making a return to a February 2019 episode of Monday Night Raw. It was groundbreaking news in the wrestling world, considering that fans hadn't heard much about Roman Reigns since vacating his Universal Championship.
However, on that February 2019 episode of Monday Night Raw, Roman Reigns announced his in-ring return, stating that his leukemia was in remission. Upon his announcement, he was greeted with an overwhelmingly positive response from the fans in attendance. Regardless of how some fans may think of him as a wrestler, one can't deny that Roman Reigns' comeback from leukemia is one of the most inspiring wrestling stories of the past decade.
Roman Reigns Returns Again In 2020 And Thrives As The Tribal Chief
Although Roman Reigns immediately returned to in-ring action upon announcing his remission, he didn't get heavily pushed in 2019 as he did years before. After taking time off in early 2020, as he was pulled from his originally planned match with Universal Champion Bill Goldberg at WrestleMania 36 due to COVID-19 precautions, Roman Reigns returned at Summerslam 2020 with a new demeanor.
After turning heel and aligning with Paul Heyman, Roman Reign's career skyrocketed to new heights, as becoming "The Tribal Chief" is arguably the prime of his career so far. Coming back from leukemia to become one of the most well received performers in the industry shows how much of a remarkable talent Roman Reigns is. Considering it's been almost three years since his remission announcement, it seems leukemia won't be slowing down The Tribal Chief anytime soon.
