Tear Jerker / Roman Reigns

Another brother. Another stab to the back.

• Seeing Reigns backstage after beating The Undertaker at WrestleMania makes you see how much he didn't want to be the one who retired The Undertaker.
• His brother, Matt "Rosey" Anoa'i, died on April 17, 2017 at the young age of 47. Unfortunately for him, this did not stop people from saying that they wished that he died instead of Rosey. Thankfully for him, however, a lot of tweets (many of which were by people who hated his character) were sent to support him, along with calling out the people who wished for his death instead.
• On October 22, 2018, he revealed that he had suffered from leukemia 10 years prior, and it had returned after a period of remission, forcing him to give up his Universal Title. The way he brings this up is also tragic. He enters the ring as Roman, being booed and jeered as he begins to speak into the mic. But then he begins speaking as Joe and talks about his struggles, and the whole crowd goes into Stunned Silence. By the time he's stopped speaking and laid down his belt, he's receiving massive cheers from the crowd, a "THANK YOU, ROMAN!" chant has started, and Dean and Seth show up on stage to give him a hug.
• His feud with his old friend, Seth Rollins. You think it would be a nostalgia act of two brothers reuniting, well.. you guessed wrong.
  • In his Tribal Chief era, Roman usually presents a cool headed and smug attitude when he is facing his opponents, except when his opponents decide to get physical with him, such as Finn Balor for example. However, when Seth Rollins brought up one topic in their feud that everyone thought had been forgotten long ago, the usual smug, cold hearted Tribal Chief, looks devastated... to the point that he could not make a comeback at Seth's mockery, The topic? The dissolution of The SHIELD.
  • This is Harsher in Hindsight, when you think about all of the times that Roman and Seth interact, Roman seems to be not at all bothered by Seth's betrayal and is the one to quickly forgave him all those years. It is finally revealed that through all those years of back and forth team ups, Roman has never forgiven Rollins, and has always hated him. It's just that unlike his other brother he managed to conceal it... until now.
  • Doubles as heartwarming, as Roman said that he could never forgive Rollins for what he did to "us". For those who are familiar with their history, we all know who he is referring to... and no... it's not Seth Rollins.
  • It all comes to a head at their match at Royal Rumble 2022; throughout the match Seth continually provokes Roman with reminders of their SHIELD days, using their music, dressing in their old gear, and mockingly offering him a fist bump. Incensed, Roman locks in the guillotine choke, and when the ref demands he break the hold because Seth reached the ropes:
    "No! I'm never letting go! He won't allow me to let go! He won't allow me!"
  • And after losing their match via DQ, Roman proceeds to give Seth a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown with a steel chair. You can see it in his eyes that this is pure catharsis for him.
    “You made me like this!”
    “You took a piece of me that I’m never gonna get back!”
  • Comes full circle at WrestleMania 40 with Seth coming to Cody Rhodes's aid in full SHIELD gear. It gets to the moment where he could finish Cody off and retain the title - again. Instead he takes the chair and hits Rollins in the back, just like Rollins did to him long ago. The fact that even now he still wasn't able to get over it would ultimately lead to his defeat.
• Just when it seemed like Roman was ready to open up and finally accept Sami into The Bloodline with the "final test" of letting Sami deliver the final chair shot to a bound and near-unconscious Kevin Owens at the 2023 Royal Rumble, Sami makes his true loyalty known...by cracking Reigns in the back with the chair. A moment of vindication perhaps for Sami, but for Roman? It's just another "brother" stabbing him in the back. The more-stunned-than-hurt look on Roman's face after the chair shot was palpable.
  • It makes the ensuing No-Holds-Barred Beatdown of Sami all the more tragically devastating, as it's possible Roman wasn't just seeing Sami's betrayal of his family, but having to relive the moment his brotherhood with The Shield was shattered, and Roman just SNAPS.
    • What Sami did to save Kevin was no different than what Seth did for his own career.
  • On the following Smackdown, Sami jumps Roman, but the Tribal Chief soon gains the upper hand, telling him that he "broke" his family. If the comparison wasn't obvious before, it was now.
  • It’s a tear jerker for Jey as well. When Sami first hits Roman, Jey just yells at him more in disbelief than anger. When the family then attacks Sami, Jey looks on clearly torn and eventually walks away without joining in the beating or defending Sami. By the time he gets back to the ramp, he looks like he’s legitimately about to cry. Not only does he look devastated by the dissolution of Sami in the Bloodline but looks practically traumatized by the beating, likely remembering his own at the hands of Roman during their Hell in a Cell match that forced him into the group in the first place.
    • More so when you realize the parallels between the ending of Jey's HIAC "I Quit" match with Roman and Sami protecting Owens from utter annihilation. Sami was able to overcome Roman's vitriol, verbal abuse and threats to the bond he shared with KO, even at the cost of his own well-being...whereas Jey "quit" and acknowledged Roman the moment his cousin had an injured Jimmy trapped in the Guillotine Choke rather than try and free his brother. It could be that Jey realized in that moment that the road he took was the wrong one.
• We all knew it was coming...we all knew Roman had it coming for months and months...and we all knew it would be a shocking, tragic moment when it would go down, and indeed it was: As of Night of Champions 2023, THE BLOODLINE IS NO MORE.
  • To elaborate, Roman and Solo were challenging Sami and KO for the Undisputed Tag Team Titles in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and, credit where it's due to the Tribal Chief and his Enforcer, they were proving to be every bit the threat to the champs' reign as predicted despite being a fledgling team in comparison to the Usos. However, things began to unravel after an errant Spear had taken out the ref and Owens looked to take Reigns out of the match for good. Jimmy and Jey, despite being told they would remain stateside fr the event, came out of nowhere to assault KO at ringside, laying him out with a double superkick. They would then assault Sami with a bevy of superkicks and readied another double superkick...only to miss and kick SOLO instead! Reigns watched on, absolutely gobsmacked that the Usos defied him yet again and rolled in to confront them. Jimmy would barely get two words out before Roman just shoved him away in frustration, only to be preempted by Jey, who was desperately trying to defuse the situation and quell the Tribal Chief. Roman, having already reached his limit with his cousins' incompetence, was boiling over, angrily muttering that the Usos should. not. be. here, before pie-facing Jey as well and saying in no uncertain terms, "THERE AIN'T NO DAY ONE NO MORE!" And then...*BAM* The superkick heard around the world!...from JIMMY Uso.
    • That's right. Jimmy Uso. For months, everyone thought it'd be Jey that would snap, Jey that would throw that fateful superkick, Jey that would have enough of his cousin's emotional and mental abuse and throw off the proverbial Tribal shackles...and yet many viewers overlook that it was a still-injured Jimmy that Roman physically abused to press-gang Jey into servitude, Jimmy who himself was guilted and gaslighted into joining the Bloodline and following Roman's edict, and suffering as Jey did when he would fail. It wasn't a superkick borne of frustration, but one of catharsis...before delivering an even more cathartic second superkick to a stunned Roman on behalf of Jey, telling his brother that he was "DOING...WHAT YOU SHOULD'VE DONE...A LONG TIME AGO!"
    • The finish was academic, with KO and Sami capitalizing on the chaos to hit a Stunner-Helluva Kick combo on Solo for the finish and retaining the titles. As they celebrated, Sami stood on the turnbuckle closest to where a dejected, almost shell-shocked Roman Reigns sat, looking him dead in the eyes with a look that screamed I Warned You. In that moment, Roman may have well realized that for his 1000+ days as champion, the tremendous legacy and dominance he has built in the last three years, it all adds up to him ALONE on his "Island of Relevancy." Each man is an island unto himself, indeed.