Tiffany: Roman Reigns Doesn’t Owe You a Damn Thing!

Tiffany brings you perspective on Roman Reigns and the transparency of his leukemia and treatment.

Unless  been living under a rock on the internets, you’ve probably heard about Dave Meltzer claims and insinuations that WWE and Roman Reigns faked his leukemia diagnosis in order to get sympathy for Reigns, who was Universal Champion at the time, and to line WWE’s pockets. That’s right, a publicly traded company with ties to cancer charities, including one founded in the name of a young WWE fan that died of cancer, had their top star fake a cancer diagnosis for sympathy and money.

This is, of course, bullshit. WWE has too much to lose to pull such a stunt, but that hasn’t stopped Meltzer, ‘journalists’ like him, and the smarks that think he’s God, from not only doubling down on their claims, but claiming that WWE and Reigns need to provide proof of the diagnosis because the timeline didn’t make sense and because Reigns was able to have a small part in ‘Hobbes and Shaw’, didn’t lose his hair, and didn’t lose too much weight. Even when a leukemia charity in the UK, which presumably has more knowledge about leukemia and leukemia treatments, tried to explain things, the claims continued.

What’s worse, is that when Reigns and WWE released a WWE Chronicle which gave further explanation, Meltzer continued to spout his nonsense, claiming to ‘find’ holes in Reigns’ story: The timeline, the fact that his illness wasn’t known about before now, completely ignoring the fact that there were reasonable explanations for every ‘hole’ he claimed to find, to the point that people are demanding that Reigns release his medical records because he’s a public figure working for a publicly traded company and other sports leagues release information about injuries for their athletes.

Again, this is total bullshit. Reigns’ story isn’t new, it was actually mentioned in 2015 by MLive in an article about Calvin Johnson, a former teammate of Reigns’ during his football days, getting tickets so he could cheer on his friend. The article didn’t specify what the illness was, but it was clearly serious enough to put an end to Reigns’ NFL dreams. When the news came out, Triple H addressed the whole thing by stating that WWE had been well aware of Reigns’ illness but didn’t disclose it when they signed Reigns because Reigns didn’t want people to think he was getting anything out of sympathy. Major league sports will put out reports on injuries, but they don’t give regular updates on someone’s recovery.

Why is Meltzer doing this? Basically, for money, this manufactured controversy over Reigns’ health means getting clicks and membership from fans looking to believe the worst of Reigns and/or WWE. Which is why Meltzer has refused to apologize or admit that he was wrong and the insidious way Meltzer worded his accusations makes it easy for him to get away with it because he can claim he wasn’t accusing Reigns and WWE of anything, he just had ‘questions’.

Let’s make something perfectly clear: Cancer and cancer treatments come in many types and levels of severity and not everyone responds to treatment in the same way. There is no ‘typical’ or ‘normal’ reaction to treatment. Not everyone loses their hair or loses tons of weight, or are confined to a hospital bed. Most patients get on with their lives as best they can. Reigns was extraordinarily lucky because even ‘mild’ leukemia can be fatal.

Roman Reigns doesn’t owe Dave Meltzer, Ryan Satin, Wade Keller, or any other wrestling ‘journalist’, or the fans more of an explanation than he’s given: That he has chronic leukemia and had a flare up in October, underwent treatment for it, and is back in remission. That’s it. Yes, WWE is monetizing his remission, but no more than the Conner’s Cure bracelets.

Unless you’re an oncologist with experience in treating leukemia patients, you have no business questioning Reigns’ diagnosis, treatment, or recovery. WWE does not have the right or the obligation to publish Reigns’ medical records in order to satisfy Dave Meltzer’s ego and anyone who says otherwise validates this slandering of someone’s character for money. Let’s be glad Reigns is healthy again and leave it at that.