Roman Reigns On How He's Feeling Physically In The Ring Since Battling Cancer For Second Time

Former WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns took some time to speak with Pensacola News Journal about his progress in WWE since his return earlier this year.

As is well-known, Roman Reigns made his WWE return on the February 25 RAW from Atlanta. It was his first appearance since announcing his second battle with leukemia and relinquishing the WWE Universal Title in late October 2018. Nearly five months later, Roman is grateful for the perspective that this struggle gave him.

"I feel really good," Reigns said. "It's nice to just have a greater perspective of everything and not just necessarily worrying about getting everything done. When you're in a position like I've been in for a while, you're just trying to look out for everybody and make sure your family's all good. Sometimes you can lose track of yourself, sometimes you can put yourself on the back burner."

Roman noted how appreciative he was for the warm receptions he received when he both relinquished the title and also made his return to WWE.

"It was really nice to see everybody drop the character and just pick up the man behind the character. Everybody got behind Joe," Roman stated. "For me to have that type of support, that type of love, those type of positive vibes being sent my way, I mean, I couldn't have asked for a better reception. Especially when you speak about something so personal, something that's just so tied into who I am and what I've been through, and just my story. It was really nice just to see everybody bring that positive light and pick up somebody who was struggling at the time."

As far as physically, Roman explained that he had to take his time to ease back into full, solo matches. He's at a point now that he feels reacquainted and as good as ever in the ring.

"Man, I've been killing it lately as far as my nutrition and my training so I feel really good right now," Roman said. "But, yeah man, there was definitely that transition getting back, just before [WrestleMania]. And I think that's why you saw me kind of leaning on The Shield at the time, in that very first match back. I mean, it's live out there, anything can happen, so they just wanted to make sure to kind of keep the training wheels on me for that match, and I was gliding in there. I felt really good with the role I was playing.

"Then we made the next move going into 'Mania against Drew [McIntyre] and I felt really good there," Roman continued. "It gave me a good result. I was able to go in there and kind of feel like my old self and kind of do my thing. Over the past few months now, I've really been able to hone in and take my time, work through things, and get my feet down back solid to where I'm rooted in my routine. Everything's just running on all cylinders now, it's smooth."