Roman Reigns

Background

Roman Reigns is a celebrated W.W.E. wrestler and the holder of the Universal Champion title in the world of wrestling. Born on May 25, 1985, in Pensacola, Florida, he is half-Samoan and half-Italian. Reigns played football in high school and was named the “Defensive Player of the Year” by the “Pensacola News Journal” in his senior year.

He joined the Georgia Institute of Technology after high school and was part of the Georgia Technology Yellow Jackets football team. He missed getting picked for a team at the 2007 National Football League draft but was later signed by the Minnesota Vikings. However, he was released from the team after being diagnosed with leukemia. Reigns was signed by the Jacksonville Jaguars after recovering but was dropped from the team later. He went on to join the Edmonton Eskimos, a Canadian Football League team. After playing five games as part of the team, Reigns decided to retire from professional football.

In 2010, he signed a contract with the W.W.E. and was assigned to the Florida Wrestling Championship. He fought his first match in the same year in a 15-man Battle Royale. He was part of a 30-man Grand Royal and a Florida Tag Team championship in 2011. In 2012, he became a main eventer and defeated the Florida Heavyweight Champion at the time, Leo Kruger. He went on to win a match against Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins, becoming the number one contender for the FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship. He lost the title to Kruger but won the Tag Team Championship with Mike Dalton.

In the same year, Reigns joined the main W.W.E. event as a villain character, competing against fellow wrestler Ryback during the triple threat main event for the W.W.E. championship. Although CM Punk won the title, the match established Reigns as the villain character. Reigns won several matches in his villainous persona. He won the Universal Championship for the first time in 2018, defeating Brock Lesnar at the SummerSlam. He let go of the title after his leukemia returned later that year. After being declared to be in remission in 2019, he returned to wrestling. In 2020, the wrestler “The Feind” won the title, but Reigns won it back a week later at the W.W.E. Payback, defending it from wrestlers Jey Uso, Kevin Owens, Edge, and Daniel Bryan. He retained his title at SummerSlam 2023 and extended his incredible W.W.E. Undisputed Universal Championship run after defeating Jey Uso.

He made his Hollywood debut with “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw” (2019) and has also acted in two more films, “The Wrong Missy” (2020) and “Rumble” (2021), since then.

Reigns has been married to Galina Becker since 2014 and they have five children. They met as students at the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2006.