Reigns鈥� battle with leukemia, more
The pro wrestling world was rocked to the core Monday night at the beginning of Raw when Universal champion Roman Reigns announced that he was relinquishing the Universal title because of having leukemia.
It is Reigns鈥� second bout with the disease, as he was diagnosed with it at the age of 22.
When Reigns went out to the ring, only the highest member of WWE management knew about the diagnosis, and the entire locker room was backstage to watch Reigns鈥� interview.
As I watched the interview on delay on my DVR, I instantly tried to think back to other times that I was in shock from a pro wrestling announcement.
The most recent was in 2007 with the Chris Benoit double murder and suicide while I also thought of when Eddie Guerrero was found dead in 2005.
But both of those events had been leaked out and information was known.
The last time a pro wrestling happening left me speechless and frozen was when Owen Hart died in 1999.
Leukemia is a form of cancer, and the illness has affected someone close to almost all of us.
Reigns is in for the biggest battle of his life, and here is to hoping he can spear it for a second time.
Jewel staying in Saudi Arabia
During WWE鈥檚 third quarter conference call Thursday, it was announced that WWE is moving forward the Crown Jewel show in Saudi Arabia on Nov. 2.
Word is that John Cena and Daniel Bryan may have reportedly informed WWE that they will not work the show.
WWE stated, 鈥淎s always, we maintain an open line of communication with our performers and will address each situation accordingly.鈥�
Another way of saying that is that the bigger the star you are, the better the chance of you pulling off the event and not having it held against you.
The two big announced matches are the Universal title match between Brock Lesnar and Braun Strowman and the returning Shawn Michaels teaming with Triple H to take on The Undertaker and Kane.
There will also be an eight-person elimination match as well as another match or two.
Could the show be the reason WWE鈥檚 stock closed Friday at $69.78, its lowest in months?
It was an almost six dollar drop from Thursday.
WWE 3rd quarter numbers
Revenues reached $188.4 million for the third quarter and a record $657.7 million for the year through the end of September, according to the WWE conference call.
This represents a 12 percent growth over the prior year period.
Also, there are now 1.66 million subscribers to the WWE Network.
More on WWE network tiers
Last Sunday, WWE recorded its house show in Boston.
The event featured both Raw and Smackdown wrestlers, and a limited production crew went to the event to film it for trial work towards future content on the WWE Network.
WWE is said to be considering filming some house shows in the future and including them on the higher-priced tiers of the network once it starts charging different amounts for different options.
The same will happen next month when WWE presents Starrcade in Cincinnati.
More on Fox and WWE
Last week we looked at how Fox is dropping hints as to what it wants from WWE once Smackdown moves to the channel next year.
Now the word is that Fox wants former UFC heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier as an announcer on Smackdown.
This makes sense as Cormier was at WWE鈥檚 Performance Center last week doing some announcing work.
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