The 10 iconic WWE images that define the last decade

#8 Roman Reigns' leukemia revelation

Roman Reigns had to vacate the Universal Championship due to leukemia

At SummerSlam 2018, Roman Reigns finally did the unthinkable and defeated Brock Lesnar in the main event of The Biggest Party of the Summer, as 'The Big Dog' finally won the coveted WWE Universal Championship for the very first time. In doing so, Reigns ended Lesnar's reign at 504 days and shifted his focus on Braun Strowman, as the two men re-ignited their feud.

With Reigns' Shield brethren Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose giving their best in order to make sure 'The Big Dog' retained the Universal Championship over 'The Monster Among Men', WWE announced a Universal Championship Triple Threat Match between Reigns, Strowman, and Lesnar for Crown Jewel.

However, on October 22nd, Roman Reigns kick-started an episode of Monday Night RAW by relinquishing his Universal Championship, much to everyone's shock announcing that he has been diagnosed with leukemia after 11 years of privately battling with it and being in remission.

Reigns has successfully made the recovery and is currently back in action.

About the author

Soumik Datta is a professional wrestling journalist who has been following the business for more than a decade.

In 2017, Soumik joined the Sportskeeda Wrestling team and is best known for his work with the WWE team. He has previously contributed to the Sportskeeda AEW, MMA, and the football team where he specifically covered the Major League Soccer.

In 2024, Soumik crossed 50 million reads for Sportskeeda WWE. While working under Sportskeeda MMA, he interviewed prominent UFC fighters, including Justin Gaethje, Sean O'Malley, and Cory Sandhagen, among others. He is also being followed by John Cena on X (formerly Twitter).

Apart from his love for professional wrestling, Soumik also watches Football and has been a lifelong follower of Liverpool FC and Mohun Bagan. He has also been following the Indian Super League and remains the only content creator to have traveled across India to watch 7 ISL Matches in 7 Days, a video which currently sits at 26K views on his YouTube channel. His channel currently amasses over 120K views.

As aforementioned, Soumik also likes to make content for his YouTube channel and travel to various places either with family, friends, or solo, or go on road trips.

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Edited by Shruti Sadbhav