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The WWE is a strange and wild place. In the WWE, real athletes will compete in matches that are often scripted. These athletes may also play characters that have a fake backstory and a fake persona.

That’s how the WWE and other wrestling organizations writes their stories, as some characters will be the heroes and others, the villains. That’s why, when Roman Reigns revealed that he has leukemia, some fans doubted him.

But, with the whole coronavirus pandemic ravaging the world, it has also provided more evidence that this wasn’t a fake diagnosis. 

A brief look at Roman Reigns’ career

Roman Reigns
Roman Reigns | Tommaso Boddi/WireImage

Reigns joined the WWE in 2010 as part of a group called The Shield. The Shield had two other members, Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose, and the three of them would compete with other groups as well as participate in shared storylines.

But, in 2014, Reigns left this group and it wasn’t long before the WWE had something in mind for him.

Reigns has a very similar real-life backstory that another famous WWE wrestler, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, has. Both men have Samoan heritage in their blood, both men played football before, and in fact, both men are actually somewhat related. Technically speaking, they’re not related by blood, but in Samoan culture, they’re practically cousins. 

Due to this connection, the WWE tried to push Reigns as The Rock’s successor. This didn’t work out, as fans didn’t like Reigns as much as they liked The Rock. But, Reigns persevered and he ended up winning multiple WWE championships. Still, fans weren’t on his side, even though the WWE tried to make him the hero in every storyline. 

Roman Reigns talks about his battle with leukemia 

In 2018, Reigns publicly announced that he has leukemia. As Pro Wrestling Sheet said, Reigns has CML leukemia, which, thanks to the fact that it was caught in its early stages, can be treated with taking a pill. It’s not as painless and simple as it may seem, though.

As Reigns said, it has side effects that make it hard for him to stay healthy enough to wrestle. That’s why he took a leave of absence after announcing his diagnosis. 

This isn’t the first time that Reigns wrestled with leukemia, either. As Reigns said in his announcement, he fought leukemia back in 2007 and was in remission until 2018.

After announcing this, WWE fans from around the world gave their support to Reigns. He didn’t get booed and, for the most part, he was only shown love.

So, when in 2019, Reigns made his return to the WWE, fans cheered for him for once. In fact, this moment was the best WWE moment of 2019, according to the ESPY awards. 

The world gets more proof that it wasn’t fake

That said, some fans thought that this was just another fake WWE storyline. Their logic is that the WWE wanted fans to like Reigns, but nothing that the WWE tried so far has worked. If the WWE faked Reigns’ leukemia battle, then he’d get a lot of sympathy and love from fans. 

But, there’s plenty of proof that says otherwise. More recently, due to the Coronavirus pandemic, Reigns pulled out of one of the biggest matches of WrestleMania 36.

The WWE wanted to carry on with the show despite the pandemic, but since Reigns has leukemia, he was in one of the at-risk groups who could be severely affected by the Coronavirus. 

Reigns is a company man, and he undoubtedly wants to support the WWE. But, since the Coronavirus may be especially lethal to people who have leukemia, it wasn’t a risk that he was willing to take. 

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