Roman Reigns advertised for match at WWE Fastlane

[KILLdozer]

And with the laundry list of things the WWE has made into an angle, including someone's ACTUAL death... Let's say they haven't left us bereft of evidence to support the idea.

Not to mention refusing to turn him heel...

Just like they wouldn't turn Cena heel. Cena is/was the last of the big merch movers, and I think the idea was for Roman to take that spot since John's finding other stuff to do.

Not only the timing of everything, but for me it's the fact that they essentially hit the pause button once he left for treatment. There was ABSOLUTELY NO REASON to put the title back on Brock, and keep the title on Brock, unless they knew they'd be picking back up where they left off in short order. There was ZERO sense of urgency to fill that top spot this entire time... you know... as if they knew he'd be back in time for 'Mania all along... and OH WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT!

The opportunities were there in Braun, Seth, Balor, and Ambrose... and the only guy that's been protected (not even pushed) during The Big Dog's absence held or feuded over the secondary title the entire time. ALMOST as if they knew they didn't need to fill the spot...

I'm not saying the whole thing was a work, but I would not be at all surprised if this was less of a "Roman Reigns is fighting for his life against leukemia" and more of a "Hey, your levels are pretty high, you should probably get off the road for a bit so we can figure out what's going on and get them back down..."

Yeah...it's Like they just didn't fuck care about the lack of main eventers after the fact.

[KILLdozer]

Yeah....PUTTING IT RIGHT BACK ON LESNAR AND KEEPING IT THERE....to quote Hank Hill once again-

"Awh. That boy ain't right...."

[Bob-O]

Yeah....PUTTING IT RIGHT BACK ON LESNAR AND KEEPING IT THERE....to quote Hank Hill once again-

"Awh. That boy ain't right...."

Just saying... it seems to me that without your "Top Guy" you'd at least want your top title on TV every week. They did a whole angle about Lesnar holding the title hostage in an effort to get Roman over... it didn't work, Roman leaves, and they go back to Lesnar holding the title hostage? To me, especially given Lesnar's contract, he's more valuable to them as a challenger than a champion. So why?

Even if you're not sure what direction to take given the unexpected exit of your top guy, isn't it common sense to get it on somebody else asap? In an era that Vince admits is lacking "stars", isn't this when you use your most valuable tool to help make some? It doesn't make sense...

To be fair, that can become a life threatening thing really quickly. My mom has leukemia, same as Roman, though thankfully she’s been in remission for 7 years. But her oncologist told her that for people who have it come back, the second or third time it’s harder to treat because it becomes resistant to some degree to the treatments that are used. So it’s better to get on top of them before they get over that 15% mark.

That changes things! I'll be the first to admit that I have no idea what I'm talking about when it comes to having leukemia, treating leukemia, having it come back, "remission", and all that. That's why I'm not real quick to blow any whistles on what happened, but just how WWE handled it.

Knowing that you've dealt with it very closely - and feel free to drop the topic if you don't want to get into it, I can't imagine it's your favorite thing to discuss - but, let's say they got on top of Roman's before he got over that 15% mark? Is the time frame plausible? How big of a deal is it if they get to it while the levels are low? You make a good point about Roman not putting his integrity as a man into question, but he technically wouldn't be even if he knew he'd be back soon, he's still spreading awareness about something that... again... myself, and I'm sure millions of people know nothing about - and being a survivor he's in a great position to do it. His Leukemia DID return, he DID in fact beat it again, and his experience should be shared!

I know I said I didn't care, but now the more we're talking about it, I guess I'm just genuinely curious. I'm not questioning whether the scenario was real, I'm sure that it was. My suspicion is that WWE knew there was a 95% chance he'd be back in time for Wrestlemania, and played it up "for the sake of awareness". Not even a conspiracy really, just me suspecting a promoter of being Carny.

*Vince Voice*
"...Well, ahem, well Roman this really couldn't have come at a worse time obviously. But here's what we're gonna do, Pal... we'll use this as an opportunity to raise awareness, to raise hope... go out there and let the people know what you've been through, but don't downplay a thing. This is a great opportunity to help you connect with the fans. Go out there and be yourself! But DO NOT DOWNPLAY it, we'll see you in a few months and pick up right where we left off..."

Or, is ANY return of Leukemia no matter what stage/level a huge question mark on what happens next?

[Serujuunin]

To be fair, that can become a life threatening thing really quickly. My mom has leukemia, same as Roman, though thankfully she’s been in remission for 7 years. But her oncologist told her that for people who have it come back, the second or third time it’s harder to treat because it becomes resistant to some degree to the treatments that are used. So it’s better to get on top of them before they get over that 15% mark.

That changes things! I'll be the first to admit that I have no idea what I'm talking about when it comes to having leukemia, treating leukemia, having it come back, "remission", and all that. That's why I'm not real quick to blow any whistles on what happened, but just how WWE handled it.

Knowing that you've dealt with it very closely - and feel free to drop the topic if you don't want to get into it, I can't imagine it's your favorite thing to discuss - but, let's say they got on top of Roman's before he got over that 15% mark? Is the time frame plausible? How big of a deal is it if they get to it while the levels are low? You make a good point about Roman not putting his integrity as a man into question, but he technically wouldn't be even if he knew he'd be back soon, he's still spreading awareness about something that... again... myself, and I'm sure millions of people know nothing about - and being a survivor he's in a great position to do it. His Leukemia DID return, he DID in fact beat it again, and his experience should be shared!

I know I said I didn't care, but now the more we're talking about it, I guess I'm just genuinely curious. I'm not questioning whether the scenario was real, I'm sure that it was. My suspicion is that WWE knew there was a 95% chance he'd be back in time for Wrestlemania, and played it up "for the sake of awareness". Not even a conspiracy really, just me suspecting a promoter of being Carny.

*Vince Voice*
"...Well, ahem, well Roman this really couldn't have come at a worse time obviously. But here's what we're gonna do, Pal... we'll use this as an opportunity to raise awareness, to raise hope... go out there and let the people know what you've been through, but don't downplay a thing. This is a great opportunity to help you connect with the fans. Go out there and be yourself! But DO NOT DOWNPLAY it, we'll see you in a few months and pick up right where we left off..."

Or, is ANY return of Leukemia no matter what stage/level a huge question mark on what happens next?

Oh I'm sure that WWE played it up, 100%. They always do. So the actual magnitude of the situation is never really going to be known to any of us, I don't think.

I have no problem talking about it at all. Just like I don't have a problem talking about my mental illnesses. People need to hear about it from people who have dealt with it, or they will have wrong ideas about it. I would rather be the one to change someone's perspective, even if it makes me a little bit uncomfortable.

As for the time frame, it's really hard to say what is "realistic" and what's not. Chemotherapy isn't the only thing that impacts the success of cancer treatment. That Roman has all the money in the world to throw at the problem is helpful, because he could take the time off of work, and de-stress as much as is possible, which is a contributing factor to success. A lot of people don't have that option. In fact, my mom was only able to get treatment because we're Canadian- and even then, her doctor had to pass off her meds as "samples" so she could get them at a significantly discounted rate. Exercise and diet are also very important, and again, this is probably easier for him because the type of diet he would need is probably fairly close to how he eats naturally. Not a lot of red meat, processed sugars and gluten- it's unnecessary stress on the digestive system. And of course he has access to exercise facilities that the most dedicated of us probably won't ever see in our lives.

The really unfortunate thing about cancer, really of any kind, is that your success is basically decided by your economic status. The more money you have, the better you can do the diet, exercise and de-stressing. And if you are on top of all of those things, as well as getting a high quality of care, which you know he was, it's not out of the realm of the possible for him to get his levels under control in that amount of time. Realistically, 15% isn't entirely that bad. Anything below that is really considered to be in remission- the percentage refers to the amount of cancerous white blood cells in the blood relative to healthy white blood cells- so if they were only moderately elevated, it isn't unrealistic for him to have gotten it under control in that short a time. Bottom line is, cancer treatment is VERY individual. You can do all the right things and it can work out perfectly for you, or you can do all the right things and still get f**ked. Any type of cancer is a big question mark, and I feel like cancers like leukemia, without an actual cancerous tumor to remove, is an even bigger question mark because there's no possibility to just excise it and get rid of most of it, following up with a course of chemotherapy. Blood cancers are notoriously challenging to prevent from metastasizing too, just because of the nature of what the blood actually does in your body. It goes everywhere! I don't know about the possibility of leukemia in particular of doing this, but once cancer gets in the lymph nodes, for instance, there's nothing to be done, that's the end. He absolutely did the right thing, even if his levels were like, 18%. It's best to get on top of it as soon as the levels go up, rather than waiting until it gets bad to handle it, because then it's more likely to get out of control.

That, and his awareness t-shirts are beautiful. My mom and I already ordered one. It's very heartening to see someone with the level of celebrity that he has, and who has actually managed the disease himself, use his platform to raise awareness about something that is objectively awful. And I even loved Roman before any of this happened. I know WWE is just looking at it seeing dollar signs, and Vince is probably salivating at the prospect of getting his guy over FINALLY, and that's their prerogative. That's big corporate. Even when the individuals are high profile, like wrestlers are, at the end of the day, they are ultimately replaceable, and all the company cares about is how much money you can make them. Anything else is just for positive PR.