WWE US CHAMPIONSHIP (Pre-Show)
Apollo Crews (c) vs. MVP Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin are banned from ringside.
Winner: Apollo Crews
WWE SMACKDOWN WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP
Bayley (c) w/Sasha Banks vs. Asuka
Winner: Bayley
– After the bell, the music hits but Banks immediately rushes the ring and unloads on Asuka while she’s down. They double team Asuka and drive her into the mat. Bayley exits the ring with the title and kicks at some of the virtual fans at ringside. We go to replays. A furious Asuka recovers in the ring as The Golden Role Models taunt her from the ramp.
WWE RAW TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
The Street Profits (c) vs. Andrade and Angel Garza with Zelina Vega
Winners: The Street Profits
No DQ (Loser leaves WWE)
Mandy Rose vs. Sonya Deville
Winner: Mandy Rose
STREET FIGHT
Seth Rollins with Murphy vs. Dominik Mysterio with Rey Mysterio
Winner: Seth Rollins
WWE RAW WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP
Sasha Banks (c) with Smackdown Women’s Champion Bayley vs. Asuka
Winner and New RAW Women’s Champion: Asuka
WWE CHAMPIONSHIP
Drew McIntyre (c) vs. Randy Orton
Winner: Drew McIntyre
WWE UNIVERSAL CHAMPIONSHIP – FALLS COUNT ANYYWHERE
Braun Strowman (c) vs. Bray Wyatt
Winner and New WWE Universal Champion: “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt
– After the match, The Fiend stands tall with the title as the music hits. Fiend is suddenly attacked by someone from behind. It’s the returning Roman Reigns. Reigns takes Fiend out with a Spear. Reigns unloads and then hits a Spear on Strowman at ringside. Reigns yells that he made Strowman and Strowman isn’t a monster unless he’s here. Reigns grabs a steel chair and unloads on Strowman at ringside, over and over with chair shots while he’s down. Reigns returns to the ring and takes Fiend out with another Spear. Reigns picks the title up and talks trash down at The Fiend while he’s on the mat. Reigns raises the Universal Title in the air as SummerSlam goes off the air.
WWE has yet to confirm on TV that Roman Reigns will be out of the Universal title match at WrestleMania this weekend … and now Paul “Triple H” Levesque has explained why.
Speaking with Ariel Helwani, Levesque said the following in regards to the match:
“Well it’s a funny thing. I think you can watch our business in multiple different ways and one of them is the storyline aspect of it, and follow the storyline. Another way is the online component of it and the reality of it behind it. Roman has his situation and his reasons for doing the things that he’s doing, but I will say from our standpoint and the storyline standpoint, it’s going to play out in a unique manner and we want it to play out that way. It’s not necessarily putting me in an awkward position. It’s just, for me, saying I don’t want to give away the ending of the movie before the movie takes place. So I think everybody just has to watch and see how this unfolds. But it will unfold in a unique way and I think it will be meaningful for everybody.”
Reigns confirmed his absencefrom this weekend’s event on Instagram and said he made the decision for him and his family. WrestleMania was pre-taped last week and Roman was scheduled to face-off against Goldberg for the Universal Championship.
During the interview with Helwani, Triple H additionally addressed criticism of WWE for continuing to run events at the Performance Center during this pandemic.
“Look, there’s going to be critics of everything. I think we’re doing this to provide what we believe is an essential service in entertaining our fans, entertaining people around the world,” he stated.
“We’re working with the government officials very closely,” Levesque added. “We’re taking all of the precautions, we’re screening our talent. We’re making sure that there are no risks. Anybody that’s uncomfortable doing this doesn’t have to. The crew and the staff is very, very limited. We’re working the talent in waves, where we bring them in for their particular stuff and then they can leave, and keeping people as separated as possible. Trying to do this in as safe a way as possible, while still being able to perform a vital service.”
Roman Reigns was set to compete in one of the main event matches at WrestleMania 36, taking on Goldberg for the WWE universal championship. The event — already moved from Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, to the WWE Performance Center in Orlando with no crowd in attendance due to the global coronavirus pandemic — was pre-taped in recent days. But Reigns’ past battles with leukemia have left him immunocompromised, and the superstar made the decision to remove himself from the event.
In an Instagram post on Monday, Reigns confirmed that he did pull out of WrestleMania, but he did not specify the reason. Rather, he addressed assumptions made by media and fans about his withdrawl.
“You already know what’s going on. It’s all over the news — the dirtsheets, whatever you want to call them — that I pulled out of WrestleMania,” Reigns said while exercising outdoors. “It’s funny because, for years now, man, years, people are like, ‘Don’t show up to WrestleMania. We don’t want you in it.’ 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’ — a lot of different things that I am now.
“But you don’t know the whole story. All you know is what you think: ‘Oh, well, his health,’ and this and that. You don’t know what else is going on in my life. You don’t know if I have newborns. You don’t know if I have family in my household, older family.”
Reigns’ decision to pull out of the event was first reported by Pro Wrestling Sheet and later ESPN with both outlets stating it was due to health concerns. WWE declined official comment to CBS Sports and other media, potentially as to not reveal spoilers from its taped programing.
Reigns had initially been diagnosed with leukemia at age 22, and the disease unfortunately returned recently, forcing him to step away from wrestling in 2018 before an early 2019 comeback to the ring. As a cancer survivor, Reigns is considered immunocompromised. Nevertheless, he had been participating on WWE TV — albeit not in matches — over the last few weeks as the coronavirus pandemic has unfolded.
WWE had seemingly booked a slow but steady resurgence for Reigns to achieve another “WrestleMania moment” where he was expected to win the title from Goldberg on the biggest show of the year.
Watch Reigns’ video update below. The conversation turns to WrestleMania at 2:31.
WWE chief brand ambassador Stephanie McMahon has previously spoken about the company’s screening practices while holding events, including recent editions of Raw and SmackDown from the Performance Center.
“At a typical event, talent are milling about, they’re at catering or wherever when they’re not actually in part of the show,” McMahon told Variety. “That’s not allowed now. There’s extensive testing and screening when you first come in the facility regardless of whether you’re a talent, a crew member, or anyone else. Working with our doctors, you have your temperature taken. If you have a temperature over 100.4 degrees, you are automatically asked to leave. If you’ve been out of the country or been in touch or in contact with anybody who’s been out of the country, you’re not allowed in the facility.”
WrestleMania 36 will air on WWE Network on April 4 and 5 as a two-day event hosted by former NFL star Rob Gronkowski. It will begin at 7 p.m. ET each evening. Preshows begin at 6 p.m. ET and will air on FS1.
FOX is ringing in 2020 with the help of Roman Reigns, as “The Big Dog” will be featured in a match during their New Year’s Eve special hosted by Steve Harvey in Times Square.
According to Deadline, Maria Menounos and Rob Gronkowski will co-host the evening set to include a live performance by The Village People while a group of people attempt to set the world record for largest YMCA dance.
The report says also says the evening will “feature a WWE match with Roman Reigns,” but it’s not specificied if it will be taped, an older match or if Reigns will be wrestling during the show.
Additional performers include LL Cool J, DJ Z-Trip, The Chainsmokers, The Lumineers, Florida Georgia Line, Backstreet Boys, Tyga and The Killers. Gordon Ramsay, Will Arnett and Jenna Dewan will also make appearances on the show.
Pro Wrestling Sheet reports that Roman Reigns recently signed a new WWE contract.
According to their sources, Reigns signed on the dotted line last month for a deal that will keep him with WWE for at least a few more years — though the exact length is unclear.
Roman returned to WWE programming in February and announced his leukemia had gone into remission. After a reunion with The Shield, Reigns once again began competing in singles action by facing-off against Drew McIntyre at WrestleMania 35.
Reigns is currently in the midst of a whodunnit angle playing out on WWE TV and is scheduled to wrestle against Buddy Murphy on SmackDown tonight to further the storyline. He’s also in the #1 movie in America — “Hobbs and Shaw” — and on the cover of WWE2K20 alongside Becky Lynch.
Despite being moved to the SmackDown roster via the Superstar Shake-Up, yesterday, Roman Reigns announced he would be on this week’s RAW. Reigns wrote on Twitter, “I’m back on #SDLive, but I still have some business on #Raw. I’ll see y’all Monday. #ProtectTheYard”
Shortly after that, WWE responded to Reigns, turning down his offer.
“WWE officials have learned of Roman Reigns’ desire to appear on Monday Night Raw, but as of now, and due to his obligations as a SmackDown Live Superstar, he will not be appearing on Monday Night Raw.”
WWE postponed Monday’s SmackDown live event in Corbin, Kentucky as it’s expected a few SmackDown stars will show up tomorrow to help build towards Money in the Bank on May 19.
This past week’s historic low ratings may also be playing a factor into drumming up more interest in advance of next week’s shows. Both RAW (2.158 million viewers) and SmackDown (1.833 million viewers) were the lowest non-holiday ratings in each show’s history.
Last night on SmackDown Live Vince McMahon announced that Elias as the biggest acquisition in SmackDown history. Roman Reigns came out and interrupted Elias. Reigns his Elias with a Superman Punch then laid out Vince with a SuperMan Punch then laid out Elias with a spear. Reigns claimed SmackDown as his yard.
When Roman Reigns was first diagnosed with leukemia 11 years ago, everything was new to him and he didn’t know what his symptoms meant. When he experienced those same symptoms again in 2018, he recognized the red flags immediately and knew what was going on.
As a part of making the official diagnosis that his leukemia had returned, Reigns underwent a blood test where it was revealed that his white blood cell count was over 100,000, which is over 10 times the average range. Further tests showed that Reigns had an enlarged spleen and that was when he made the call to remove himself from the ring.
“That was the immediate physical scare of having to get me out of the ring,” Reigns told The Undefeated. “With a ruptured spleen, it’s obviously going to be a major operation, but people can die from it. It was a situation we didn’t want to put ourselves in, no matter how hardheaded I can be.”
Reigns was a football player the first time he went through leukemia but was still virtually unknown. That wasn’t the case the second time around as he is now a global Superstar and battled the disease publicly. He says that he still has trouble with dealing with the disease in such a public way as he’s not one to seek sympathy from others.
“There’s still things I deal with on a day-to-day process,” Reigns said. “It’s still weird to meet strangers and they’re like, ‘How are you feeling?’ It’s like an immediate sympathy for me. That’s something I didn’t want, the part I don’t like, because I don’t want people to feel worried for me or feel sorry for me.
“It’s all coming out of a good place, but it’s one of those deals that I’m still struggling with, my health being so public and that’s the first thing people think or know about you.”
While Reigns is appreciative of the support and the recognition for bringing awareness to those battling leukemia, he still strives to be known for what he does best and that’s being a family man and a WWE Superstar.
“For me, I just want to get back to where I’m leading a pretty normal life and I’m just doing the things that I love and getting the recognition for the things I was getting recognition for before this.”
Roman Reigns recently appeared on the Sports Illustrated Media podcast and said he wants to change his current character to include more of the real man behind the gimmick, Joe Anoa’i.
Reigns said he started that process the week after he returned to WWE TV following his second battle with leukemia.
“I honestly think last week, that was one of my goals. I was like, ‘OK, I knew the first week was gonna be crazy emotional, but I don’t wanna be the guy who comes out there and everybody gets semi-sad or gets super heavy all the time.’ I want people to have fun. I want to create escapism. It’s like a mini vacation [for the fans] on their couch. Let’s get into these storylines. Let’s take all this positive sensitivity being sent to me and shift it and send it to people in need. That’s where I’m at now, shifting all this positive energy from me to the people in need,” Reigns said.
Reigns said he believes it would be “pretty neat” if he can show different sides of himself over the next few years, including more of how he is when he’s chilled out, more comedy and more emotions.
He continued, “But also with the storylines and character, because we have introduced Joe, especially last week, I felt like there was a lot of Joe within the promo of Segment One. Even with the interaction with Seth [Rollins], I just feel like with me integrating the characters and who I am in real life and who I am on stage, for me to kind of mix them, it allows me to laugh at Roman a little bit and have a little more fun and be a little more loose as opposed to the stoic brawler. If you know me in real life, I’m kinda like my cousins [The Usos], I’m a bit of a clown, I act up, we goof off a lot. We’re silly. We’re big kids. We’re always goofing around, trying to laugh. If I can add that in the next couple of years, those layers of being chilled out, little more comedy, a few different emotions, I think that would be pretty neat.”
You can listen to the full podcast appearance at the link below:
Roman Reigns discussed his return to WWE last week following his battle with leukemia on the latest episode of Chronicle, which premiered Monday night on the WWE Network. During the episode, Reigns discussed learning that his leukemia had returned last October.
Reigns said he was at a live event on either October 20th or 21st when he was told by a WWE doctor that something was off with his blood test. He took another blood test and got to the RAW tapings that Monday and was told that Dr. Amann and the medical staff wanted to see him. Reigns noted that he could tell that something was wrong. He was told that his white blood cell count was elevated and that with his history, they figured what was likely going on.
“I just had to ask myself if I really wanted to share this news, but I didn’t want people to think that it defeated me,” Reigns said.
Reigns noted that vacating the WWE Universal Championship “drove him nuts,” and that he was worried that the world wouldn’t take to the news properly. After telling people, he was relieved that he could talk about it and not bury it. He had been insecure about it because he looks healthy, and he wasn’t sure how people would react. He stated that he would let children know that he has leukemia during Make-A-Wish visits.
Reigns said that for the first couple of months after relinquishing the title, he spent most of his time on the couch and couldn’t move. He credited his wife for taking care of everything during that period.
Reigns also revealed that he has CML leukemia which was caught in its early phases, noting that “It’s pretty much where you want to catch this disease.”
According to Cancer.org, CML is a type of cancer that starts in certain blood-forming cells of the bone marrow. It is a genetic disease, but is not hereditary, and there is no evidence that it can be passed on to his children. CML occurs mostly in adults, but it can occur in children as well. 1 in 599 people will be diagnosed with CML in their lifetime.
The life expectancy was only 3-7 years after the diagnosis was determined at one point, however tyrosine kinase inhibitors, which are pills taken orally, have allowed people with CML to live a normal lifespan.
“There’s a pill that they make, there’s an oral chemotherapy,” Reigns stated. “There’s a few different types now, when they started there was just one. It’s not like taking Advil, it’s nothing like taking radiation and true chemotherapy.
“It does have its side effects,” Reigns continued. “It does have nastiness about it. But at the end of the day, if you’re lucky enough to just take a pill, you’re ahead of the game.”
While the treatment keeps CML from progressing, the disease is currently not curable, so Reigns would likely have to take the drugs indefinitely. Reigns said that the treatment allows him to stay out of pain and maintain a certain level of health. He admitted to having a little arthritis, but admitted that he would “take a little arthritis than going through radiation any day.”
Reigns said that he hopes that he can use his battle to inspire others. He feels that he has more of a purpose than just the Roman Reigns character, and that he hopes that he can give other people battling illness some hope.
“In a weird way it makes me sad, but it makes my happy too,” Reigns said. “It makes you feel like, ‘man, this is what had to happen to reach some of these people?’ At the same time, I’m just glad it reached some people. If it reaches one child, that one kid fighting for his life, sitting in his bed by himself and if he can use me as an image to work towards something to drive them. If that one kid can say, ‘if Roman can do it, I can do it,’ then I think my job is done. If I can be a figure that makes these children – or anybody that’s going through blood cancer – fight a little extra and want to live for an extra day or give them the strength to keep going, to keep pushing through treatments and through life, then I think that my story landed and did what it needed to do.”
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