Roman Reigns announces he is leaving pro wrestling for now to battle recurrence of leukemia

Roman Reigns announced live on Monday Night Raw tonight that he is relinquishing the WWE Universal Title and taking a leave of absence in order to tend to a recurrence of leukemia. In an emotional opening scene on Monday Night Raw, he stood in the ring and announced the shocking news – real life, not storyline-oriented/fake – to fans who sat stunned and eventually many shedding tears.

He said he was originally diagnosed when he was 22 years old and it was the hardest time of his life. He had no money, no home, and a new baby. He said football was over for him, but the team that gave him a chance was WWE.

Fans greeted him with the usual chorus of boos when he first came out, but that immediately changed once he explained his health status.

He missed weekend house shows, and wrestlers PWTorch contacted over the weekend said they were not told why and assumed he was just given the weekend off. Fans were not told he was not on the shows, despite being advertised heavily for the three weekend events. This explains, of course, why he didn’t make the dates as planned.