Roman Reigns

About

Roman Reigns (real name Leati Joseph "Joe" Anoaʻi) is an American professional wrestler signed since 2010 to World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., where he's been part of the stable The Shield and won three WWE World Heavyweight Championships, a United States championship, and a Tag Team championship. Online, Roman has gotten mixed reactions due the attempts from the WWE to position him as the new face of the company, making him one of the most polarizing figures in modern wrestling.

Wrestling Career

Prior to wrestling, Roman had a brief football career: he went undrafted in the 2007 NFL Draft, signed and soon after released from both the Minnesota Vikings and Jacksonville Jaguars, and in 2008 played for the Edmonton Eskimos in the Canadian Football League for one season before retiring from football in November.^[1] Roman first began his wrestling career in July 2010, signing a developmental contract with the WWE and getting sent to their developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW). Roman would wrestle in FCW (later became NXT) for two years before leaving for the main roster in late 2012.

On November 18, 2012 at the Survivor Series pay-per-view, Roman debuted on the main roster alongside Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins as part of The Shield, intervening during the main event and allowing then-WWE Champion CM Punk to retain his title.

Roman partnered with The Shield until June of 2014, when Rollins betrayed The Shield by hitting Reigns in the back with a chair. He then entered singles competition as has been positioned by WWE as the new face of the company, headlining multiple pay-per-views, including Wrestlemania 31, 32, and 33.

Reputation

Though his character is a "babyface" (good guy), Roman Reigns has grown into one of the most polarizing figures in WWE due to what fans perceive as an undeserved "push" the company has given him to make him the new face of the company.

Royal Rumble 2015

Arguably the start of Roman Reigns' poor popularity with fans began at the 2015 Royal Rumble. Longtime company "manager" and personality Paul Heyman theorized as such on a podcast with WWE Nation (shown below). At the event, Roman won the 2015 Royal Rumble, earning him the right to compete in the main event of Wrestlemania 31. However, at the time, the far more popular Daniel Bryan, a smaller wrestler with a more "everyman" look who had become incredibly popular with the fans, was returning from injury, but eliminated in the match. This turned the crowd against Roman Reigns, who they believed was getting an unfair push to be the next big star of the company.

Wrestlemania 32

After a year that saw Reigns win and lose the World Heavyweight title on two separate occasions after brief runs, Reigns earned the right to face Triple H, the wrestler and Authority figure who ostensibly worked to give Roman adversity all year, at the main event. There, Reigns defeated Triple H, again to boos. At the following night's Monday Night Raw, Roman opened the show to a chorus of boos. In an attempt to win the crowd over, Roman pleaded, "Aw, cmon. I'm not a bad guy! I'm not a good guy. I'm the guy." This would become his catchphrase over the next few months.

Wellness Policy Violation Suspension

On June 21st, WWE announced that Reigns would be suspended 30 days for violating their Wellness Program. Reigns apologized for the violation on Twitter and appeared at the Battleground Pay Per View a month later, losing a Triple Threat match to Dean Ambrose for the World Heavyweight Title.

Wrestlemania 33

At Wrestlemania 33, Roman Reigns defeated and appeared to retire longtime fan-favorite wrestler The Undertaker in the main event. The following night on Monday Night Raw, the crowd chanted "Undertaker" for several minutes, until the crowd turned the chant into a "Roman Sucks!" chant. After Roman entered, the crowd erupted in several distinct chants, many including obscenities, as Roman stood in the ring (shown below).

Leukemia Diagnosis

On October 22nd, 2018, Roman Reigns announced to a live Monday Night Raw crowd that he has leukemia and that he would be relinquishing his championship and taking time off to focus on battling the disease.^[3] He revealed that he was diagnosed in 2008 at the age of 22 and the cancer quickly went into remission but has returned. He also stated his intent to beat the disease and return to professional wrestling.

The announcement prompted strong responses of encouragement from other wrestlers. John Cena tweeted:

‘Courage – strength in the face of pain or grief.’ You have given us your everything including a courageously vulnerable moment. We, your WWE family, give you all of our love and support. #ThankYouRoman #NeverGiveUp

Hulk Hogan tweeted:

.@WWERomanReigns The power of the Big Dog is in the heart. The hulkamaniacs, the #wweuniverse and I stand with you. We pray for you and we’ll all be waiting for you to hurry back in good health. Gods got you. Only Love HH

Remission Announcement

On February 25th, 2019, Roman Reigns returned to Monday Night Raw and announced that his cancer was in remission and that he was returning to wrestling. Later on the show, he appeared to deliver assistance to former Shield member Dean Ambrose in a match (shown below).

However, some fans were suspicious of the announcement, suspecting WWE had invented the story that Reigns had cancer and overcame it in an attempt to make him more popular with the fans. Many of these conspiracies centered on the fact Reigns' appearance had not changed, not losing any hair and weight unlike what they believed most cancer patients go through (examples shown below). Others noted that in his time off, Reigns filmed Fast and Furious: Hobbs and Shaw and the timing of his return was convenient, as it was about a month before Wrestlemania.^[4]

This viewpoint was roundly chastised on social media. In particular, the account for UK-based Leukemia Care^[5] addressed some of the misconceptions about Leukemia treatment, highlighting the differences between chronic and acute leukemia, and explaining that not all Leukemia treatments cause guaranteed hair loss. User @WWEGlorimarR tweeted their disgust at such theories, gaining over 55 retweets (shown below, right).

Online Relevance

Roman Reigns is one of the most popular wrestlers in WWE, with over 17 million Facebook likes.^[2] However, he is also one of the most hated wrestlers. Pro Wrestling Illustrated named him the Most Hated Wrestler of the Year in 2016, and Wrestling Observer Newsletter named him the Most Overrated Wrestler. Online, Reigns image macros and jokes reference his general unpopularity with the fans, as well as his difficulty cutting promos and talking into a microphone. Many jokes are derivatives of Cena Wins Lol, a joke popular when John Cena was the face of the company and thus seemed to never lose matches. They also reference Roman's popular catchphrases, including "Believe… that" and "I'm not a bad guy. I'm not a good guy. I'm the guy."

Search Interest

External References