Roman Reigns The wrestler 💀🐱‍👤

Leati Joseph Anoia was born in Pensacola, Florida, on May 25, 1985. His father is of Samoan descent and his mother is of Sicilian ancestry. Both his father Sika Anoia and his brother Rosey were professional wrestlers. As a member of the Anoia wrestling family, his cousins include The Tonga Kid, Rikishi, Umaga, and Yokozuna, while his first cousins once removed include The Usos and Solo Sikoa.

 

Anoia attended Pensacola Catholic High School and Escambia High School, before going on to major in management at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He later said that he considers Bret Hart his wrestling idol.

Roman Reigns made his main roster television debut as on November 18, 2012, at the Survivor Series pay-per-view event alongside Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins, assaulting Ryback during the triple threat main event for the WWE Championship, allowing CM Punk to retain the title, thus establishing themselves as villains. The trio declared themselves The Shield and vowed to rally against "injustice", while also denying working for Punk, even though they would routinely emerge from the crowd to attack Punk's adversaries, including Ryback and WWE Tag Team Champions Team Hell No (Daniel Bryan and Kane). This led to a six-man tag team Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs on December 16, in which Reigns, Ambrose and Rollins defeated Team Hell No and Ryback in their debut match.  The Shield continued to aid Punk in January 2013, attacking both Ryback and The Rock. On the January 28 episode of Raw, it was revealed that Punk and his manager Paul Heyman had been paying The Shield and Brad Maddox to work for them.