Editor's Note: Roman Reigns won the WWE Universal Championship on August 30, 2020. For over 1,300 days, he held the title and remained the face of WWE. The following story from his college football days as Joe Anoa'i was previously written on April 7, 2021. This story has been slightly updated for clarity and brevity.
Roman Reigns wants to apologize. That's not like him. not now.
WWE's Universal Champion, not as a “tribal chief” who always demands respect from everyone.
But Raines is also former Georgia Tech defensive lineman Joe Anoa'i. And Anoa'ai remembers one play against Auburn in September 2005. It was the season opener. The Yellow Jackets were unranked and traveled to face the No. 16 Tigers. In the fourth quarter, Anoa'i pressured Auburn quarterback Brandon Cox and threw a pass into his arm, but Georgia Tech intercepted it.
Cox turned around on his return and Anoa'i timed him high.
“I put my forearm in his jaw. It was…” Anoa'ai said, grimacing audibly as he recalled the play. “I'm sorry. Whoever that quarterback was, I apologize. It was completely unnecessary. I could have totally done it in a better way, but I was young. If I had thought the way I do now… ”
Anoa'i paused and thought again.
“I would probably do the same.”
Georgia Tech intercepted Cox four times in the second half and won 23-14. The win ended Auburn's winning streak at 15. The Tigers were undefeated last season.
In modern college football, a blindside hit on Anoa'i is a penalty. But these days, Anoa'i is internationally famous. He is a multiple-time WWE World Champion and is about to appear in the main event of WrestleMania for the fourth consecutive time and eighth time overall. This year's WrestleMania XL will be held over two nights on Saturday and Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. Reigns will headline both nights.
Raines has previously talked about his time with the Yellow Jackets. The Athletic He also spoke with former teammates and coaches to get a broader perspective on his time at Rambling Rec.
“They're telling me my secret, aren't they?” Anoa'i said with a laugh.
They remember a player who was soft-spoken off the field, but fierce on the field and respected everywhere, much like his WWE character.
“On the practice field, he was always full-on,” former Georgia Tech defensive coordinator John Tenuta said. “He was his own cowbell when he was relaxing. He was a funny guy. But when the ball was snapped and he was wearing a different colored jersey, he was a very intense guy.”
Reggie Ball arrived at Georgia Tech in the same freshman class as Anoa'i. The quarterback, a huge wrestling fan, didn't know about his new teammate's wrestling pedigree until the topic came up while talking in the back of the conference room one day.
Ball is shocked when he learns that Anoa'ai's father and uncle, Shika and Afa, are part of the tag team Wild Samoans, and that another wrestler, Rikishi, is his cousin. So is the fact that Anoa'i is also Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson's cousin.
“When I found out, the first thing I did was call my brother and my dad and let them know,” Ball said. “Rikishi was a great athlete. Everybody loved him. When he found out, we kind of went crazy.”
Georgia Tech running back Tashard Choice was also a big fan. Choice wanted to know about the rigors of the job, how hard wrestlers have to work, and how it differs from the sport. He also asked specific questions.
“When I was a kid, I was scared of 'The Undertaker,'” said Choice, now the running backs coach at the University of Texas. “(Anoa'i) told me that she saw him. I asked her, 'Were you scared?'
Even Jim Ross couldn't cast the magic. pic.twitter.com/dxC7e9QAcX
— Jenny Omega (@G0AwayHeat) March 24, 2024
Pro wrestling wasn't Anoa'i's goal from day one. When he arrived at Georgia Tech from Pensacola, Florida, he knew he wanted to play pro football. Safety Nathan Barton, now Troy's assistant defensive coordinator, remembers Anoa'i thinking about football and business. He was attracted to Georgia Tech because of its academic reputation, location in Atlanta, and networking potential.
“I wanted to be some kind of star,” Anoa'ai said. “Whether it was a sports star or a WWE Superstar, I wanted to be someone who was influential, someone who was admired and people wanted him to be. That's what I wanted as a kid. He was like a superhero type.”
Anoa'ai played linebacker in high school, but switched to the defensive line at Georgia Tech. He was an edge rush specialist with the speed to get past offensive tackles, but also the ability to get inside. The coaches knew about his family's history in sports and wanted to use his help. Once he arrived on campus, Georgia Tech used him in third-down pass rush situations.
In Anoa'i's second year, Tenuta used a three-man front more. If Anoa'i wanted to stay on the field, he needed to bulk up and be able to move inside at times.
“Our strength coach was like, 'Look, we want you to gain weight.' We want you to eat pizza and drink protein shakes at night,” Anoa'i said. “I was given the green light to get fat and have a great time as a college student.
“If I could go back, I would do things a lot differently. I'd love to dress like Aaron Donald. I'm smarter about nutrition now.”
Anoa’i spent three years at Georgia Tech. He earned first-team All-ACC honors as a senior in 2006. In the 2006 season opener, he slapped Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn with what looked like a wrestling crossbody slam. It's a play Tenuta remembers fondly.
“He came in and Brady Quinn sprinted and blew him away. That was a highlight play,” Tenuta said. “When we play against certain teams in the first series, I tell Joe to line up on the right edge because (offensive tackles) are rookies, so I want them to knock him out. He'll do it. He would play left, right, outside…he was a very versatile player. He was undaunted. ”
“Everyone took Joe more seriously at that time,” Ball said of Anoa'i's performance at Notre Dame. Notre Dame, ranked No. 2 in the nation, won 14-10, but Anoa'i finished with six tackles and one sack.
Joe Anoa'i, 96, tackles Notre Dame's Darius Walker during a 2006 college football game. (Scott Cunningham/Getty Images)
Off the field, Anoa'i was laid back. He stayed out of trouble. He often played his Halo on his Xbox.
This was in the early 2000s, before Wi-Fi was ubiquitous, but Georgia Tech dorms had Ethernet landlines installed in the Olympic Village where athletes stayed. Football players were playing dozens of games at once. The ball had an extra controller, so it often flew into Anoa'i's room.
“I don't think the general public knew about it either,” Anoa'ai said. “We'll be running her two, three, four parties for her Halo games. I used to control those guys. 'Call of Duty' is coming. Before, “Halo'' was the mainstream.
Anoa'i also took his teammates to a WWE show in Atlanta. This was a dream come true for some of the guys who grew up watching wrestling.
The players were drawn to Anoa'i, and he became team captain as a senior. He remained calm. He kept the players in line. He wasn't loud, but he wasn't quiet either.
“I needed to embody a certain kind of toughness,” Choice said. “He had to go through some kind of battle to gain respect. You have to earn the right to be in his circle. That's how he carried himself. was.”
“When Joe said something, everyone listened,” Barton added.
Even after all these years, one moment still eats away at him. During Anoa'i's senior year, Georgia Tech advanced to the ACC Championship Game, but lost 9-6 to Wake Forest in one of the ugliest games in recent college football history. Georgia Tech led 6-3 in the fourth quarter, but the defense allowed two field goals in the final nine minutes and lost.
Ball remembers Anoa'i telling the team that he had let the team down.
“I remember being really angry after that game,” Anoa'i said. “Throughout my career, our defense ranked pretty high. Coach Tenuta was just that guy, one of my favorite coaches. He just spoke my language. But that was a tough game. You've got Calvin Johnson (on the offensive end). I think it's better to just throw deep to C.J. every series than not move the ball. No matter who's on the field, he was the best player on the field. It was the most boring game ever for the fans.”
Although it was a disappointing result, Anoa'ai focused on his next goal, the NFL. Anoa'i signed with the Minnesota Vikings after going undrafted in 2007.
But once he got the opportunity, everything changed. He was diagnosed with leukemia during a team medical checkup. The Vikings subsequently released him.
He had slow-growing chronic myeloid leukemia. Thankfully, doctors caught it early and his cancer eventually went into remission. Anoa'i signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars in late 2007, but he was released before the season. In 2008, he played one season with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the CFL before his release.
It's hard to know how much more Anoa'i would have been able to do on the field if he hadn't been battling the disease, both before and after his illness was discovered. But without soccer, the cancer might not have been detected so early.
Ball recalled watching practice footage at Georgia Tech and noticing that Anoa'i overpowered the offensive linemen too much and took them too easy.
“Joe could have had a 10-year career,” Ball said. “He was very good.”
With football out of the picture, Anoa'ai turned to his family's professional wrestling business, signing a developmental contract with WWE in 2010. He's known wrestling all his life. It was in his blood. But it didn't get any easier.
“Nevertheless, this transition is very overwhelming and shocking,” Anoa'ai said. The Athletic “You're like being on a soccer field, decorated and covered with pads. Before you know it, you're walking around in public in your underwear and it's embarrassing. It’s a big change getting used to yourself, your body and your self-esteem.”
But he had everything. He looks smoldering. body. Physical abilities cultivated through soccer. (He was 6-foot-3, 303 pounds, and draft-eligible, according to draft scouts.) Less than two years later, he was on WWE's main roster.
By 2015, he was competing in the main event of WrestleMania. Anoa'ai was forced to retire in 2018 due to a recurrence of cancer, but returned to remission and returned to the ring in 2019.
Choice was playing for the Indianapolis Colts when he learned that Anoa'ai was wrestling. Anoa'i told Trent Richardson to say “hello.”
“I would be proud of who he is,” Choice said. “I remember being shocked because I didn't know what he was doing. But I should have known he would do well.”
Coaches always want their players to be successful outside of sports. When Barton was an assistant at the University of West Alabama from 2014 to 2016, Anoa'i stopped by Livingston, Alabama, and met Barton and Head, a graduate assistant at Georgia Tech during Anoa'i's senior season. Greetings to coach Brett Gilliland. Barton likes to tell his kids that he used to play with Roman Reigns.
“When Joe comes on (TV), we all watch it,” Burton said. “I try to let them see him work.”
Anoa'i continues to hold Georgia Tech football close to his heart. He watches as many games as he can. In 2018, Anoa'ai returned to campus as a model for the Yellow Jackets' new uniforms. This request was likely to be ignored by WWE as it was not a payday, but Anoa'ai wanted to help promote his alma mater.
Former head coach Jeff Collins joined Georgia Tech's staff as recruiting coordinator in 2006, Anoa'i's senior year. When Collins returned as head coach in 2019, he leaned into Anoa'i's reputation. The Georgia Tech staff all wore his WWE shirts from Anoa'i that read, “Destroy everyone and leave.”
𝐖𝐑𝐄𝐂𝐊 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘𝐎𝐍𝐄 & 𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐕𝐄@WWERomanReigns defend him #universal title tonight #smack down 💪#4the404 /// @WWE pic.twitter.com/JXNV5BuUKi
— Georgia Tech Football (@GeorgiaTechFB) October 16, 2020
“I was fortunate to be around him in 2006. … I was able to continue that relationship and build on that,” Collins said. “He makes us proud by who he is, what he does and all those things. To see him continue to be such a dominant force on the world stage. I’m really looking forward to it.”
Anoa'i has made a career out of doing the same thing he did to Brandon Cox 19 years ago. His wrestling career reached new heights with his sharpness.
Destroy everyone and leave.
(Top photo: Mike Zarrilli / Getty Images and Louis Grasse / PXimages / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
