Roman Reigns is involved in a huge WWE storyline with Monday Night Raw superstar Braun Strowman. Two weeks ago, Braun destroyed Roman and sent him to the hospital after toppling over his stretcher and the actual ambulance as well. However, the week after this huge event, Reigns went through a personal tragedy when his older brother Matt “Rosey” Anoa’i died at the age of 47.
Roman Reigns conducted an interview with WWE.com and spoke about the death of Rosey and how it has affected him as he continues his role as one of the biggest stars in the WWE. According to Reigns, it has caused some conflicting emotions that are making things tough on him right now.
“When you live in a big family, it’s always great to be able to come together, but to have to come together to send off a brother — and not only was he my brother, but in our family, even when you’re cousins, we’re all so close that we feel like brothers. That’s the type of connection we have in our family. It was an extremely sad weekend, and it’s still really tough.”
Roman Reigns was 16 years younger than Rosey and the two of them even debuted in the WWE 10 years apart from each other. Rosey debuted as part of the heel tag team 3 Minute Warning with his cousin Umaga. However, he enjoyed his biggest success in the superhero tag team with Gregory “Hurricane” Helms. The two of them won the WWE tag team titles.
By the time Roman Reigns made his WWE debut as a part of The Shield, Rosey was already finished in the WWE, although he was still wrestling in the indies.
When Roman Reigns talks about the size of his family, he isn’t kidding. In the professional wrestling business, the size of his family is immense. Roman Reigns and Rosey are the sons of Sika of the Wild Samoans tag team.
Sika was the partner of his brother Afa, who helped train many of the younger generation of the Samoa Anoa’i family. Afa’s son Samu was part of the Samoan Swat Team with his cousin Rikishi, who is the late Umaga’s brother. His other son Manu was part of Legacy at one point in the WWE with Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase. Samu’s son Lance is the youngest of the Samoan wrestling family.
Rosey and Roman Reigns are also cousins of the late Yokozuna, The Tonga Kid. Rikishi’s sons are The Usos, who currently compete on SmackDown Live . Finally, the most famous member of the Anoa’i family is Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, whose grandfather is High Chief Peter Maivia, the uncle of Afa and Sika.
Roman Reigns said that having a hundred-plus family and friends there to celebrate the life of Rosey was special because he meant a lot to a lot of people. He said that the family remains strong and moves on. Losing his blood brother Rosey was tough, but as Roman Reigns said, they are all like brothers and have also lost Yokozuna and Umaga, both at a young age as well.
According to Roman Reigns, this is a tough time in his life but he took the time to thank his fans, who were supportive of him over this time. He said that he just wants to continue to represent his family and push their legacy on. He called Rosey his number one fan and never missed anything he did in the ring.
Roman Reigns is next scheduled to fight Braun Strowman at Payback with revenge in his mind. According to Roman, he plans on taking that as his first chance to go into the ring and represent the memory of Rosey and his family. While Roman Reigns said that he is in a lot of physical and emotional pain, the memory of his brother Rosey will push him on.
[Featured Image by WWE]
