WWE WrestleMania 37: Roman Reigns, Edge and Daniel Bryan reflect on unique journeys to improbable main event

All three WWE superstars nearly had wrestling ripped away forever due to individual health scares

On Sunday night, WrestleMania 37 will conclude its two-night extravaganza with a main event featuring Roman Reigns defending the universal championship against Edge and Daniel Bryan. The match is one of the most unlikely in the decades-long history of the biggest event WWE has to offer. All three men have previously faced health situations that have left them to face a life without wrestling. After more than a decade in remission, Reigns, real name Joe Anoa'i, was forced to vacate the universal title in 2018 when he found himself in a battle with leukemia. He would return to action in 2019 when the cancer again went into remission. . Bryan, real name Bryan Danielson, suffered a series of concussions that forced him into an official retirement in 2016. It would take more than two years of evaluations and persistence before he was finally cleared for in-ring competition in 2018. For Edge, real name Adam Copeland, the journey was even longer. In 2011, Edge was forced into retirement when he began to feel numbness in his arms after a previous cervical vertebral fusion. Doctors told him that continuing to participate in wrestling matches could result in paralysis or death. It wouldn't be until the 2020 Royal Rumble when he appeared as a surprise entrant into the match that Edge set re-entered a wrestling ring as a competitor.