Shawn Michaels Speaks On How Roman Reigns’ Leukemia Has Affected WWE

Roman Reigns made an announcement on the October 22nd edition of Monday Night Raw that will never be forgotten. The Universal Champion announced his real name was Joe and apologized because he could no longer carry the title. He announced that 11 years ago he had defeated leukemia but it has come back. Now he needed to go home and fight for his life once again.
Shawn Michaels recently sat down with ComicBook.com where he revealed how much it meant to the WWE locker room and the company in general when Reigns had to leave the fold to go home and beat leukemia once again.

“It’s someone in your line work, a person that you know, a person that you understand is a leader of this locker room, a leader of this generation, a role that once you have played or have seen other people play and understanding that that guy is going through something tough. And for us, that’s when it gets real.”
“We live in a constant world of make-believe. and on one hand, it’s the greatest thing in the world because it allows none of us to have to grow up and become adults. Every now and then real life comes in an throws you something in your face that makes you understand that real life does happen. And also to appreciate the time that we have with each other.”

HBK continued to discuss how much it meant that Roman Reigns has actually battled leukemia before and beat it 11 years ago. He will beat it again, but Shawn gave The Big Dog credit in the meantime for not disclosing this information to the fans before he had to in order to get over with a population who were booing him on a rather consistent basis in spite of the fact he was being booked as a babyface.

“To understand that that’s something he’s fought through before, that was a revelation I don’t think anyone knew about. It’s encouraging on one hand, but it helps you understand and get to know him. He could have used that to help in the wrestling business to help him ‘get over’ but that was something the human being, who he is, the real-life person didn’t want to do that he just wanted to put that behind him, go on his own merit, go on his own ability and be judged on that. And that speaks to the real character behind that young man.”

Roman Reigns’ journey back to the pro wrestling ring will be a difficult journey, but he has faith that he will beat leukemia again and he will make a return. It won’t happen anytime soon as Reigns has only just started his treatments to get back to health. But we can’t wait until his music hits out of nowhere to pop a crowd upon his WWE return.