Roman Reigns - Professional Wrestler, Timeline and Personal Life

Roman Reigns was born Leati Joseph Anoa’i on 25th May, 1985 to Sika and Lisa Anoa’i in Pensacola, Florida. His father, Leati ‘Sika’ Anoa’i, was a former American Samoan professional wrestler.

He is the younger brother of Matthew Anoa’i who later became famous by his ring name ‘Rosey’. Roman Reigns grew up in a family of wrestlers so sports was a huge part of his life, but unlike the rest of his family, he took keen interest in football. Roman Reigns attended ‘Pensacola Catholic High School’ and later went to ‘Escambia High School’. In both schools he became a part of the school football team.

He won several inter-school competitions and was titled ‘Defensive Player of the Year’ by ‘Pensacola News Journal’. With education being his top priority, he graduated from high school to seek admission in ‘Georgia Institute of Technology’.

In college he became a member of the ‘Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Football Team’ and was the team captain in senior year. In 2007, he was signed by the ‘Minnesota Vikings’ and became a part of the ‘Edmonton Eskimos’ in the ‘Canadian Football League’ in 2008.

However, he retired the same year turning towards his family profession and began training as a wrestler. His brother ‘Rosey’ who was by then already an established wrestler rendered him valuable advice for a career in wrestling.

In 2010, he signed a developmental deal with WWE and became a part of its ‘Developmental Territory Florida Championship Wrestling’. His debut was against Richie Steamboat and was then known by the ring name ‘Roman Leakee’. He, however, lost the singles match.

He lost a couple more matches before he won in a singles match against Fahd Rakma. That year he continued to compete at FCW participating in mostly all tag team matches’.

Before forming a tag team with Donny Marlow, he had entered into a 30 man ‘Grand Royal’ competition but was eliminated from it. However, he later beat Deam Ambrose and Seth Rollins in a triple threat match to become the first contender of the ‘FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship’ but couldn’t claim the title.

It wasn’t until he made his roster television debut on18th November 2012 alongside Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins that he became a popular figure. The trio after the event declared themselves as ‘The Shield’.

For several six-man tag team matches ‘The Shield’ pulled of consecutive victories and later at the ‘Extreme Rules’, Roman Reigns and Rollins together defeated ‘Team Hell No’ and were titled the winners of ‘WWE Tag Team Championship’.

After ‘The Shield’ split in 2014, Roman was roped in as a singles wrestler in the ‘World Title Contention’. On 16th June 2014, he won a ‘Battle Royal’ to occupy a spot on the ‘WWE World Heavyweight Championship’ ladder match. However, he lost the title and went on to start a feud with Randy Orton.

Rollins’ betrayal before ‘The Shield’ split caused enmity in both Ambrose and Reigns. While Ambrose lost five matches to Rollins, Reigns challenged Rollins but lost to him eventually owing to an incarcerated hernia.

However, reviving his glory he held the title of ‘WrestleMania’ after defeating Daniel Bryan via a pinfall. Moving on to challenge ‘Big Show’ once again in April and won the match.

Next, he competed for the ‘Money in the Bank’Ladder Match in a feud against Bray Wyatt which was followed by a few defeats and disqualifications in the tag team rounds. Eventually, Romans did go on to win the ‘Hell in a Cell’ match against Wyatt.

After winning a four-way fatal match against Alberto Del Rio, Dolph Ziggler and Kevin Owens, he became the first contender to climb to the ‘WWE World Heavyweight Championship’.

With the defending champion Seth Rollins injured that year, the title lay vacant to crown a new champion. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Reigns went on to win the first round against Big Show and took on Cesaro in the quarterfinals.

He later won the semi-final round against Alberto Del Rio and was eventually victorious in the finals against Dean Ambrose. This was the first time Roman claimed the title of ‘WWE World Heavyweight Champion’.

However, in a feud that followed only five minutes after the championship, Roman lost his title to Sheamus who pinned him down with Reigns unable to defeat Sheamus.

Owing to the unstable win Mr. McMahon granted Reigns a rematch against Sheamus in which he regained his title making him the ‘WWE World Heavyweight Champion’ for the second time.

He became a third time ‘WWE World Heavyweight Champion’ after winning a match against Triple H but was later suspended after a violation of the ‘WWE Wellness’ rules and apologised on ‘Twitter’ for the same.

After a hernia surgery he appeared on television once again on the 8th episode of ‘Raw’ in 2014, in which he accepted the ‘Slammy Award’ for ‘Superstar of the Year’.

Apart from claiming the ‘WWE World Heavyweight Championship’ thrice, Roman Reigns challenged Rusev to become the first contender for the ‘WWE Universal Championship’.

On 25th September 2016, he defeated Rusev at the ‘Clash of Champions’ which led to severe brawling for a week between the two before Rusev was defeated in the ‘Hell in a Cell’ round to claim the title of ‘WWE Universal Champion’ on 30th October.

He dated the beautiful Galina Joelle Becker for several years and together they had a daughter on 14th December, 2008. Roman married Galina in December 2014 and their daughter was a flower girl at their wedding.

Roman’s elder brother ‘Rosey’ died on 17th April 2017 due to congestive heart failure. Thus, Roman remains the only heir of the Samoan wrestler Sika Snoa’i.