His reign of 1,316 days as Universal Champion is the fourth-longest world title reign in WWE history and the longest championship reign of any title in WWE since 1988.[a] He is also a former United States, Intercontinental, and WWE Tag Team Champion (all held one time), the 2015 Royal Rumble winner, the 28th Triple Crown Champion and the 17th Grand Slam Champion. Reigns has been in the last match of many premium live events, including WWE's biggest yearly event, WrestleMania. He was praised for playing his heel character as the Bloodline's leader.[7][8] However, he was criticized when he played a face from 2014 to 2020.[9]
Football career
Before he started his professional wrestling career, Anoa'i played football at the Georgia Institute of Technology and was named first-team All-ACC his senior year. He went drafted in the 2007 NFL Draft but ended up being signed by the Minnesota Vikings.[10] He was picked up by the Jacksonville Jaguars to provide depth at defensive end to their roster and in 2008 he was signed by the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and accepted a spot on the team's practice roster.[11]
Professional wrestling career
WWE (2010–present)
Florida Championship Wrestling and NXT (2010–2012)
In July 2010, Anoa'i was signed to a developmental contract with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and was put on their developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW). He debuted under the ring name Roman Leakee on September 9, 2010 and competed in a singles match that resulted in a loss to Richie Steamboat. He then lost to Idol Stevens and Wes Brisco and finally earned his first win on September 21 in a match against Fahd Rakman.
Roman Reigns along with Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins, made their main roster television debut on November 18, 2012 at the Survivor Series pay-per-view alongside, triple-powerbombing Ryback through the announce table during the triple threat main event for the WWE Championship, which allowed CM Punk to pin John Cena after an earlier Shell Shock from Ryback to retain the title.[13]
Personal life
In early 2005, while studying at Georgia Institute of Technology, Anoaʻi met and began dating Galina Becker.[14] They were married in December 2014,[15] and live in Tampa, Florida.[16] Their first child, a daughter, was born in December 2007 .[17][18][19][20] They had twin sons in November 2016, followed by another set of twin sons in March 2020.[21][22]
On the October 22, 2018 episode of Raw, Anoaʻi announced that he had been living with chronic myeloid leukemia, a form of blood cancer. He was diagnosed in 2007 during his American Football career and continues to take medication.[23][24][25] Because of his leukemia, he took a break from professional wrestling until February 25, 2019,[26] and again for some months in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.[27]
↑WWE also acknowledges the NWA (before 1993) and WCW titles as world championships, listing Reigns as the sixth-longest reigning world champion in professional wrestling history
↑The title was named "WWE World Heavyweight Championship" during his first three reigns and simply "WWE Championship" during his fourth reign..
↑Meltzer, Dave (February 2023). "February 2023 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Results of the 2022 Wrestling Observer Newsletter Awards". Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
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