Back in October of 2018, Roman Reigns vacated the Universal Championship and announced to the world that he was taking time off to battle leukemia. It was a heartbreaking moment, and WWE had to make some major changes following Roman’s announcement.
Originally Roman was supposed to defend the Universal Title against Braun Strowman and Brock Lesnar in a triple threat match at Crown Jewel, but the match was changed to a singles match after Roman vacated the title.
Fightful is reporting that prior to vacating the Universal Championship, Roman informed Vince McMahon that he didn’t want to go to Saudi Arabia for Crown Jewel.
Following the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Crown Jewel became one of WWE’s most controversial events ever, and outside forces pressured the company to cancel the pay-per-view.
Ultimately the show went ahead as planned, but talents such as John Cena and Daniel Bryan refused to be a part of it.
