. ‘I made a choice for my family’
Roman Reigns, one of WWE’s most prominent stars, has dropped out of its biggest event this weekend.
The former champion, born Joe Anoa’i, pulled out of his WWE Universal Championship match against Bill Goldberg at WrestleMania 36, Pro Wrestling Sheet reported last week.
According to the outlet, Reigns was concerned about being exposed to coronavirus, which would be especially dangerous to him considering he is immunocompromised after facing cancer. The wrestler was first diagnosed with leukemia — which affects blood-forming tissue, including bone marrow — in 2008 when he was 22. It returned in 2018.
For the first time, Reigns spoke publicly about the decision in a six-minute video posted to his Instagram account on Monday, where he addressed the “haters” who have criticized him for the WrestleMania exit.
“For years now man, years, people have been like, ‘Don’t show up to WrestleMania, we don’t want you in it,’ you know what I mean?” Reigns said in the video.
“There’s a nice handful of dudes and haters that didn’t want me there, but the moment I make a choice for me and my family … I’m a coward? I’m a sissy? … But you don’t know the whole story.”
Reigns did not specify whether his health was the primary factor in his decision to pull out of the event.
“You don’t know what else is going on in my life,” he explained. “You don’t know if I have newborns, you don’t know if I have family in my household, older family. So, yeah I mean, just … like the old saying … go and flip that cover open and read a few pages. Get into a few chapters before you really start running your mouth.”