No wrestling fan was prepared to see Roman Reigns announce that he is dealing with leukemia before relinquishing the Universal Championship and leaving the ring with his life and career now in jeopardy. Several online reports later confirmed that most of the crew backstage in WWE were stunned by the announcement as well. The only WWE officials who were aware of Reigns’ eleven year history with leukemia were top executives such as Triple H and Vince McMahon. The backstage team, the announcers, and even most of the wrestlers only found out about Reigns’ illness as he made the announcement live on Raw a few weeks ago. Even WWE’s creative team has reportedly had to reshuffle and change several of their plans partly because of Roman Reigns now having to miss out on TV time.
Roman’s teammates in The Shield, Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins, were also unaware of Reigns’ history with the disease. Rollins was visibly emotional as he made his way onscreen with Ambrose to do The Shield’s signature hand gesture one last time before Reigns left to begin seeking treatment. While speaking with Alarabiya.com recently, Rollins provided an update on the health of his great friend. The current Intercontinental Champion mentioned that Reigns is doing well and his health seems to be fine at the moment. Although Reigns likely won’t be back for quite some time, Rollins is keeping himself busy with a feud against Dean Ambrose, who recently betrayed The Shield.
Perhaps one of the most exciting pay-per-views produced by WWE this year was the Evolution event from late October. The first-ever women’s exclusive pay-per-view in WWE history featured plenty of great matches involving competitors from the past and present. Several days later, WWE is now offering fans a small look at that took place behind the scenes during the Evolution event. This mini-documentary was uploaded onto WWE’s YouTube channel, and it features some words from the likes of Ronda Rousey and The Bella Twins. Although there is still no word on whether or not WWE is considering another Evolution show for next year’s pay-per-view lineup, but for now, fans can relive the show through the video posted down below: