Less than two months after winning the Universal Championship, WWE superstar Roman Reigns was forced to relinquish his title. Then, at the beginning of the late-October episode of WWE Raw, Reigns made the shocking announcement that he had to step away from active competition due to his leukemia resurfacing.
The typical jeer-filled response from the crowd immediately turned into support and "Thank you Roman!" chants. He did not give a definite timeline of his return, but he did promise fans they would see him in the ring again.
Although Reigns sounded very optimistic, he ultimately was at the mercy of his illness, hoping that it will go back into remission. Since then, Reigns has not made any WWE television appearances and has only been involved in company events where he is doing signings and meet-and-greets.
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Recently, some very good news was released that pointed his recovery progress in a positive direction. Reigns will be joining The Rock in the film "Hobbs and Shaw" — another spinoff in the popular Fast and the Furious movie series — and playing the role of The Rock's brother.
Based on his role in the film, Dave Meltzer described Reigns' possible WWE in-ring return in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
"The idea that Roman is able to go to Hawaii and do this type of movie at this stage is good. They talked about returning to the ring, so it's all good signs. WWE did not release any information on what form of Leukemia Roman has, but from talking to doctors, the form that Roman has, being that he had it a long time ago and was still able to perform in both football and in wrestling as a high-level athlete, and then coming back, are signs that this may not be a deadly form of Leukemia, so hopefully that is what he has."
Meltzer added that doing a movie with higher forms of leukemia is very non-feasible, but the fact that he has an active role in the movie is a good sign. Moreover, Reigns being physical in this movie role also shows that the leukemia is at a stage where it is not severely affecting his activity.
Although it is hard to create a return timeline due to the leukemia, all signs are pointing to Reigns making a return to the WWE ring.
