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Roman Reigns has leukemia


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It's ironic you shared that because in a similar way, I've had to do that for years. As a funeral director, I walk into a room with an often devastated family, and have to be on point, and positive in spite of the circumstances, and execute every wish in a seamless, timely manner. Almost like a wedding planner with 48 hours to plan everything. When I make arrangements for families whose young child has passed, or whose young adult had died under tragic circumstances, or someone ravaged by a horrible disease, it's all I can do to keep it together. And sometimes, when they leave, I breakdown. It's natural, but man it takes it out of you. The biggest thing I miss about promoting wrestling, above all else, was having an opportunity to have a release, somewhere to direct energy to that didn't involve death and despair. As I get older, further along in this career and further away from wrestling, it's become much more difficult.

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43 minutes ago, iwcnorm said:

It's ironic you shared that because in a similar way, I've had to do that for years. As a funeral director, I walk into a room with an often devastated family, and have to be on point, and positive in spite of the circumstances, and execute every wish in a seamless, timely manner. Almost like a wedding planner with 48 hours to plan everything. When I make arrangements for families whose young child has passed, or whose young adult had died under tragic circumstances, or someone ravaged by a horrible disease, it's all I can do to keep it together. And sometimes, when they leave, I breakdown. It's natural, but man it takes it out of you. The biggest thing I miss about promoting wrestling, above all else, was having an opportunity to have a release, somewhere to direct energy to that didn't involve death and despair. As I get older, further along in this career and further away from wrestling, it's become much more difficult.

Is it any wonder why there's such a high rate of alcoholism among funeral directors? I don't know if there's anything worse than planning a funeral and all the behind the scenes stuff for an infant. A month into my internship, we had a funeral for a girl that was little more than two years old. That was a nice intro to the funeral business.

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Meltzer said that no one on the active roster knew about Roman's leukemia until he made the announcement in the ring.  

This is patently bullshit because:  Naomi said in an interview she and the Usos knew. Also, I don't think Seth and Dean would have set up the Shield brotherhood thing at the top of the ramp unless they knew. 

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58 minutes ago, Dolfan in NYC said:

Meltzer said that no one on the active roster knew about Roman's leukemia until he made the announcement in the ring.  

This is patently bullshit because:  Naomi said in an interview she and the Usos knew. Also, I don't think Seth and Dean would have set up the Shield brotherhood thing at the top of the ramp unless they knew. 

This is what Dave wrote in the WON (And the section on Reigns is HUGE BTW)

Quote

There were several contradictory stories that came out during the afternoon, largely because, with very few exceptions, the only thing people knew is that Reigns would open the show with a promo and relinquish the title, and really, very few even knew that.

The obvious conclusion, although nobody was directly told this, was that he was injured, which also made sense of his missing the shows. But others said that he was moving fine backstage and not injured. Two people backstage in the afternoon told us that there was an issue and it would be addressed at the start of the show, with no other details.

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Reigns was kept on a bus all day before the show, at his own request. Vince made moves during the day to prepare people who had to know, without going into detail. Paul Levesque was in charge of running the show and producing the announcers, with Vince constantly in contact with him. It is believed that Kevin Dunn, along Levesque, Mark Carrano in talent relations and writers Dave Kapoor and Ed Koskey knew in advance about the content of the interview. Neither Stephanie McMahon nor Michael Hayes were in Providence.

It is believed Reigns found out about the diagnosis on or just before 10/18, because it was that night that Vince McMahon first found out. It wasn’t until the next morning when the key people knew who had to start making plans for what to do, at least temporarily, without him and how to fill the hole of his not being around. It is not clear if the angle for Strowman was going to result in a turn. Logically, the idea of the three-way in Saudi Arabia would work better if Reigns was against two heel challengers, but it’s not like that’s a lock with modern WWE booking. Ambrose was always going to turn at the end of the story being told, but obviously not this soon.

About an hour before the show, a few people, including both Rollins and Ambrose, were told that Reigns would be opening up the show and giving up the title, but were also given the same word we were, basically that it would all be explained when he did his promo. Reigns had told Ambrose and Rollins before the show to be ready to come out and meet him when his promo was done, but neither were told what it was about. Michael Cole also knew that the show would open with Reigns relinquishing the title, but it is believed he also didn’t know why. Whether he told Corey Graves and Renee Young beforehand that much is unclear.

Everyone was stunned and emotional backstage. One report listed that Rollins and Nia Jax (who has considered him a cousin although they aren’t actual blood relatives) were taking it the hardest, but everyone was, and both were said to be total pros and felt that they had to set an example.

 

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The amount of people who knew makes sense. Outside of a few key individuals to set up his relinquishing the belt, only his family would really have know before the announcement. You could btell the announce team didn't know. Corey couldn't even speak for several minutes after they came back from commercial break.

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On 10/23/2018 at 10:40 PM, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Is it any wonder why there's such a high rate of alcoholism among funeral directors? I don't know if there's anything worse than planning a funeral and all the behind the scenes stuff for an infant. A month into my internship, we had a funeral for a girl that was little more than two years old. That was a nice intro to the funeral business.

I talked about this in the movie thread, but I worked sets and stages for the movie First Man. One of my jobs was to procure the children's casket for (spoiler. It's historical fact but it might still be a spoiler) the daughter that dies early in the film. Just doing that made me feel "icky." I can't imagine doing that multiple times. Ugh. Idk how y'all deal with that.

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3 hours ago, mattdangerously said:

It seems vaguely cruel to have not told Ambrose and Rollins in advance, considering they were involved in the segment.

I normally would totally agree with you but it's so refreshing seeing something so raw and real. It's totally unfair to those who are placed under the lights but stuff like this is etched into your memories.

Eddie's tribute, Edge's farewell, that stuff still brings a flood of emotions. Those are our "where were you when Kennedy was shot."

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Some fans on the Jericho Cruise brought a "Get Well Roman" banner which was signed by pretty much *everyone* on the boat, fans and talent alike, and displayed on the last night.  Cody made reference to it and to Reigns during the post-show promo and everyone wished him well.  "He'll be back Superman punching everyone before you know it.'

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