A true-born son of the Samoan Dynasty, Roman Reigns, or as he s called, The Tribal Chief, has conquered the greatest wrestlers of all time to become the face of the WWE!! There s hardly any wrestler who has tasted the cruelty of his superman punch or the blazing push of his spear!. Roman Reigns has built his Roman Empire in the WWE and there s no one that can bring it down! But one fact almost every fan of The Big Dog forgets is that Roman Reigns was always at the top. In fact, he worked his way up just like every great fighter you can think of. With that being said, Join us as we roll the tapes back to the beginning of Roman Reigns' career in the WWE and relive some of his most iconic moments with the shield and as a solo wrestler. But be sure to stick to the end where we reveal the epic moment he won his first WWE championship!! Let s begin . Roman Reigns whose real name is Leati Joseph Anoa'i was born in Pensacola, Florida, on May 25th, 1985. He is of Samoan, Italian, English, and Arb resh descent. Roman's father was one-half of the Wild Samoans and as a WWE Hall of Famer, he was a huge star throughout Reigns' childhood. Roman's brother, Rosey, is 15 years older than Reigns, and he recalled that the entire Anoa i family was forced to move around a lot when Reigns was just five years old. Children in Roman Reigns' school would find out who his father was and decide to air their opinion of him as a wrestler before he was forced to move away again. It was almost certain that Roma Reigns would follow the path to become a wrestler because wrestling was like a family business. He s related to Yokozuna, Rikishi, The Tonga Kid, Umaga, and even THE ROCK! Well, not directly, but The Rock is part of the Samoan Dynasty, and that makes them real-life cousins. However, Wrestling wasn't something Roman Reigns always wanted to do. Yes, he played dress-up with his father and brother's wrestling gear as a kid but when he got into Pensacola Catholic High School and Escambia High School, he played football. In his senior year, he was named Defensive Player of the Year by the Pensacola News Journal and while he attended the Georgia Institute of Technology, he was a member of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football team along with Calvin Johnson, who later became a wide receiver in the NFL. But here s exactly where the picture of becoming a wrestler started painting itself in Roman Reigns life After going undrafted in the 2007 NFL draft, Roman was signed by the Minnesota Vikings in May 2007. He was diagnosed with leukemia after his team physical and was released later that month. The Jacksonville Jaguars signed him in August 2007, only to release Roman less than a week later before the start of the 2007 NFL season. In 2008, he was signed again by the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League where he wore the number 99. Roman played for one season with the Eskimos, featuring in five games, of which he started three. And after that season, he was released by the Eskimos. It was at this point that Roman Reigns was fed up and decided to retire from football. But dropping his football vest meant joining the family business!! Roman Reigns signed a contract with WWE in 2010 and was assigned to their developmental territory, Florida Championship Wrestling. He made his televised debut on August 19th, 2010, using the ring name Roman Leakee, in a 15-man battle royal which he didn't win. Not long after that match, he had his first encounter with Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose! On the February 5th episode of FCW, he defeated Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins in a triple threat match to become the number one contender to the FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship. After WWE rebranded FCW to NXT in August 2012, Roman with the new ring name of Roman Reigns and a villain character, made his debut on the October 31st episode of NXT by defeating CJ Parker. From there, the WWE aligned Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, and Seth Rollins and branded them as .you know the name; THE SHIELD!!!! The shield turned WWE upside down! Make no mistake about it; these guys were the real deal. From their well-thought-out aesthetic to their magnificent in-ring performance, the WWE universe immediately fell in love with them! All three of them made their main roster debut on November 18th, 2012 at the Survivor Series pay-per-view. They came in from the crowd with very little of the audience knowing what was going on. They assaulted Ryback during the triple threat main event for the WWE Championship, allowing CM Punk to retain the title. The Shield then made their WrestleMania debut, where they defeated Sheamus, Randy Orton, and Big Show at WrestleMania 29 in April 2012! The following night on Raw, The Shield attempted to attack The Undertaker, but they were stopped by Team Hell No. This set up a six-man tag team match on the April 22nd episode of Raw, which The Shield won!! These guys were taking out World champions and the WWE universe loved it!! However, the Shield were given their first decisive loss in televised six-man tag team matches at the hands of Team Hell No and Randy Orton, when Daniel Bryan submitted Seth Rollins. Reigns and Rollins then defeated Bryan and Orton at Payback to retain the WWE Tag Team Championship. They also had some insane title defenses against The Usos at Money in the Bank and The Prime Time Players at Night of Champions! After different storylines that involved Triple H, Cody Rhodes, and Goldust, the WWE started pushing Roman Reigns to main-event status!!! At the Royal Rumble on January 26, 2014, Reigns entered the Royal Rumble match at number 15 and went on to eliminate 12 competitors in the match! However, he ended up getting eliminated by Batista who won the Royal Rumble. The WWE then set up a storyline that saw Seth Rollins betray the shield and align himself with Triple H and The Authority. Following Rollins's betrayal, Reigns briefly continued teaming with Ambrose, before embarking on a single run that placed him into world title contention. After winning a battle royal, Reigns was inserted into a ladder match for the vacant WWE World Heavyweight Championship at Money in the Bank; however, the match was won by John Cena. His second consecutive pay-per-view main event was at Battleground in July 2014, where Reigns again challenged for the title - this time in a fatal four-way match involving Cena, Kane, and Randy Orton, which Cena again won! From there, Roman Reigns was put into the 2015 Royal Rumble Match which he won - giving him an undisputed title match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 31. At WrestleMania 31, Roman Reigns faced Brock Lesnar for the championship. It was During this match that Seth Rollins pulled off the heist of the century by cashing in his money in the bank contract and making it a triple-threat match! Reigns eventually lost after he was pinned by Seth Rollins!!! Almost every WWE fan loved that match! 6 months after that epic match, Roman Reigns was given another chance to claim the World Championship...but this time, he wasn't going to let that chance slip away. On the October 26th episode of Raw, Reigns defeated Alberto Del Rio, Dolph Ziggler, and Kevin Owens in a fatal four-way match to become the number-one contender for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. He was supposed to face the champion Seth Rollins, but Seth had a real-life knee injury so he had to vacate the title. This led to a tournament to crown a new champion!!! Roman Reigns defeated Big Show in the first round, Cesaro in the quarterfinals, and Alberto Del Rio in the semifinals of the tournament at Survivor Series. The final of the tournament was between Roman Reigns and his longtime friend, Dean Ambrose. The match started pretty heated up with both men clobbering each other, but Roman got the better of Ambrose after he delivered a german suplex! Roman Reigns then had the upper hand for some minutes until Dean Ambrose attempted a suicide dive that sent Roman crashing to the ground. Reigns came back into the match after he delivered a spine-buster and a superman punch to Dean Ambrose. He went for the cover but Ambrose kicked out at 2!!! The match continued with both men putting everything on the line! Just when Dean Ambrose was getting the better of Roman, he ran to the opposite turnbuckle; and immediately, when he turned his back, Roman dished out a venomous spear that sent Ambrose straight to the canvas! After the three counts, Roman Reigns finally did it!!!! He finally became the WWE World Heavyweight Champion for the first time!!!!!! It was an incredible journey with so many obstacles but Reigns conquered them all.
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