What's the story?
Speaking to Yahoo Sports, former WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns opened up on a myriad of topics.
Most prominently, Reigns expounded upon his real-life battle with leukemia being incorporated into the WWE's on-screen storylines. Addressing the same, Reigns asserted that while it did faze him to a certain extent, he'd given his permission to the company for them to use his leukemia as a part of the WWE's storylines.
In case you didn't know...
On the October 22nd, 2018 episode of Monday Night RAW, then-Universal Champion Roman Reigns announced that he'd previously battled the deadly disease, leukemia, and that it'd been in remission for several years.
A former WWE writer just went after JBL for his comments HERE
Reigns added that his leukemia had returned, owing to which he'd have to step away from in-ring competition -- Following which, 'The Big Dog' vacated the WWE Universal Championship.
Fortunately, Reigns recovered from his second battle with leukemia, and made his in-ring comeback on the February 25th, 2019 episode of Monday Night RAW.
The heart of the matter
In a recent interview with Yahoo Sports, Roman Reigns elucidated that for him as a person -- Joe Anoa'i -- seeing his real-life battle with leukemia being used in on-screen angles such as in Dean Ambrose' feud with Seth Rollins, was quite hard.
Additionally, Reigns noted that by including his real-life battle with the dangerous disease, the WWE as well as its talented Superstars broke down the fourth wall, as a result of which the WWE Universe's emotions were all over the place.
Moreover, Reigns compared the usage of his leukemia battle in the company's on-screen storylines, to a car wreck, akin to hitting a wall. Nevertheless, Reigns explained that he'd already given his permission to WWE for them to include his leukemia battle in storylines:
“For me, as Joe, it was hard to tell, but as Roman, I just thought ‘next man up’ like in any professional sport or form of entertainment, the show must go on. I felt comfortable with that fact that we need to continue to entertain our fans, push these storylines and our product."
"As long as I was on board with it, it wasn’t going to be tasteless. I think it came off great, it had such a huge impact that night.”
What's next?
The Shield (Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose) take on the team of Drew McIntyre, Baron Corbin & Bobby Lashley in a 6-Man Tag Team Match, at WWE's Fastlane PPV on Sunday, March 10th.
We, here at Sportskeeda, send our good wishes to Mr. Leati Joseph Anoa'i -- congratulating him on his successful recovery, and hereby hoping he has a healthy and prosperous life moving forward.
Also Read: 3 possible reasons why Roman Reigns is not headlining WrestleMania 35
What are your thoughts on Roman Reigns' statements? Sound off in the comments!