Roman Reigns

• ROMAN REIGNS STOOD in a WWE ring, his slick, long hair pulled back into a ponytail. The red WWE Universal championship belt sat on his left shoulder, while he held a microphone in his right hand.It was Oct. 22, 2018, and as had been happening for years, the Raw crowd booed Reigns as soon as he put the mic to his mouth. Reigns had been positioned as the top babyface -- or good guy -- in WWE. But the fans were rejecting it, treating Reigns like he was undeserving of that role.

What Reigns said next turned those fans that night in Providence, Rhode Island, from hostile to stunned to respectful. Reigns told them that his real name was Joe, that he had been battling leukemia for more than a decade and that cancer had returned to his body. He said he had to give up the Universal title and go away indefinitely for treatment.

Reigns, a 6-foot-3, 265-pound former All-ACC defensive tackle at Georgia Tech, let down his guard. He dropped character. And he confessed a secret to millions that only his closest friends and family knew up to that point.

"It was the most terrifying thing I've ever had to do in front of a live crowd," Reigns told ESPN.

Four months later, Reigns returned to WWE and announced his remission. A year after that, Reigns stepped away again, removing himself from a high-profile WrestleMania match, at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic.

The starts and stops have given way to a new Reigns, a villainous, more authentic character that ironically has finally earned the fans' respect. Reigns, now dubbed "The Tribal Chief," will go into the biggest match of this historic run -- a record of 575 days holding the Universal title -- against Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 38 on Sunday in Arlington, Texas. His journey to the moment seemed anything but clear just two years ago, but through a strategically planned return, Reigns, as he says, is "The One" that not only leads WWE now at this moment, but has emphatically changed the game.

Going up against Lesnar is symbolic. The two met at WrestleMania 34 in 2018 and the match was booed lustily because the fans had not accepted Reigns. "The Tribal Chief," the vision laid out by Reigns and his on-screen -- and off-screen -- adviser Paul Heyman during Reigns' pandemic sabbatical, has become one of the most compelling WWE personas in recent years, a mob-boss-inspired character who rules over his fiefdom with a toxic blend of respect and fear. Both Reigns and Heyman said they might not have returned to WWE unless they were given permission by WWE CEO Vince McMahon to execute this story in a mostly unscripted fashion.

And Heyman believes the foundation of "The Tribal Chief," also called "The Head of the Table," was built that evening in Providence when Reigns divulged the most personal and sensitive of secrets.

"I think it starts on that night," Heyman said. "Because what he learned on that night was he could be honest with his vulnerability and his fears and his sensitivities and his trials and tribulations and his sacrifice with the audience and not have to worry about being judged." THE NEXT FEW months were a dark period for Reigns. He thought he was experiencing gout -- an inflammation of the joints -- due to his diet. But it was really high uric acid levels caused by leukemia. Reigns had "crazy arthritis" from his feet all the way to his hips, he told ESPN in 2019.

"For about the first month, month and a half, I couldn't really walk around much," Reigns said of the treatment. "It was really painful."

Worse still was the mental toll it took. He carried fear about his health and his future, what it all would mean for his wife, Galina, and their children. He knew WWE had his back, but he worried that the business "would leave me behind."

"You don't know what the fan is going to want," Reigns said. "And what new could come. What's that new, shiny thing that swims by? I think there was a lot of internal struggle there."

Reigns was placed on oral chemotherapy treatment and made a relatively speedy recovery. Reigns returned to WWE on Feb. 25, 2019, and announced on Raw that he was in remission to a huge ovation.

The fans were back on his side, it seemed. But was it real? Or just a respectful nod out of sympathy for someone making a comeback from a frightening medical issue? Reigns still wanted and knew he was capable of something more. Yet again, though, there would be a setback.

The COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States hard in March 2020. Reigns was scheduled to challenge for the WWE Universal title against Goldberg at WrestleMania 36. But on April 3, 2020, it was announced that Reigns was pulling himself from the match and from WWE indefinitely due to coronavirus. Reigns, as someone who has battled leukemia, is immunocompromised, and Galina at the time was pregnant with twins. Reigns said his conversation with McMahon about his decision "wasn't a good one."

"We didn't have enough information [about COVID-19]," Reigns said. "We didn't have a proper protocol for protection. I think I made the very smart choice in stepping back and kind of game planning and figuring this thing out and seeing where it went."

Meanwhile, Heyman had just about finished his near-decade-long run as part of Lesnar's act. Lesnar lost the WWE title to Drew McIntyre at WrestleMania 36 and his contract expired shortly after. Heyman was off television, but while taking that time away, he was on the phone with Reigns, helping devise a plan to bring them back into the fold with a brand new presentation.

Reigns acknowledges he got very comfortable during his time away at the start of the pandemic. He and his family, including newborn twins, moved into a new Florida home, which he describes as a "compound" that had "everything I need." Reigns, 36, had already made millions and said he was smart with his money. He had headlined WrestleMania four times and was a multiple-time former world champion. If he was going to leave the new house and his family to go back to that grueling road life with WWE, during a time of uncertainty, it would have to be for something remarkable.

"It has to be groundbreaking," Reigns said. "It has to be history-making