Roman Reigns had some heartbreaking news to share with the WWE Universe on this week’s episode of Monday Night RAW in Providence, RI at the Dunkin Donuts Center on the USA Network. He revealed that he’s been living with leukemia for 11 years, and unfortunately it’s back. As a result, he is forced to relinquish the WWE Universal Title as he said that needs to focus on his family and his health.
However, he made it known that this is “no means a retirement speech.” He ended the segment by promising to fight leukemia and come back home to the WWE. He would lay the WWE Universal Title in the ring then walked up to the stage where did the Shield hand signature with Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins.
Reigns was supposed to defend the Universal Title against Brock Lesnar and Braun Strowman in a triple threat match at WWE Crown Jewel on November 2nd, 2018 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia at the King Saud University Stadium on the WWE Network. Obviously, WWE will have to make changes to this match. The title is now vacant and as of this writing, WWE has yet to comment on this upcoming title match between Lesnar and Strowman.
WWE issued the following statement:
“Tonight on Monday Night Raw, Roman Reigns (aka Joe Anoa’i) announced that he is relinquishing the WWE Universal Championship and taking a leave of absence from WWE as he once again fights leukemia, which had been in remission since late 2008. Reigns is taking his battle with leukemia public in an effort to raise awareness and funds for research in order to advance cures for the disease.”
