WWE Superstar Roman Reigns recently spoke to CBS Sports to discuss his return to WWE after battling leukemia. “The Big Dog” talked about the amazing fan support he received after the announcement, his new perspective on life after his WWE hiatus, and giving the world more Joe (real name Leati Joseph Anoaʻi) and less Roman Reigns. Here are the highlights:
Receiving so much fan support after his leukemia announcement:
It was like a huge redeeming quality on our society to me where it was like, ‘No matter what really goes down, we have your back,'” Reigns said. “All entertainment and storyline aside, they all got behind me. Everybody put their arms around me and just made me feel like everything was going to be OK.
At a point where I was extremely scared and extremely insecure about everything, our fans and the WWE universe were able to kind of settle me down and make me know that everything is going to be alright. [It was like,] ‘There is a lot of people backing you and regardless of our opinion and what we think, we are all pulling for you and hoping for the best.’ When I got that kind of outreach, I felt like I could literally handle anything at that point.
His new perspective on life after his leukemia announcement:
It gives you such important perspective on things and for me it’s that life is short and tomorrow is not guaranteed,” Reigns said. “I don’t want to just stack up too much as far as my professional goals. Now I want to start checking off more personal goals — the relationships, the personal impact I have on the different people I meet and am involved with; just taking the time to really enjoy the second half of my career.
If I have two, three, four, five, six years left I just want to put everything I have into it because regardless of whether you are in perfect health, your body can’t wrestle it’s whole existence. It just is what it is. It’s a rough life, it’s a rough job and career. So I just want to enjoy the last few years that I have and be able to do it at a high level.
Giving the world more Joe and less Roman Reigns:
That’s the kind of weird territory I’m in,” Reigns said. “I took the mask off of Joe and I introduced him to the whole world. The weird place that I’m in is I’ve actually been able to separate who I am in real life from the Roman character. I’ve always been pleased the way I have been able to maintain my reality from what I do and create but life happens. This is not an ideal situation. I never wanted to have to reveal this type of information or relinquish the goals that I worked for. But the fact is, it is what it is and every fact happens for a reason.
Related: Roman Reigns Talks Visiting Children’s Hospital In Pittsburgh
