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We didn’t see Roman Reigns on Monday. We saw Joe Anoaʻi. We saw someone who fans couldn’t boo and who they didn’t want to boo. The word “leukemia” is a frightening one to wrap one’s head around and it sobered up the silliness of the wrestling world yesterday evening. All the negativity that the persona of Roman Reigns had been the recipient of over the past four years just completely dissipated at seeing a man – who at the pinnacle of notoriety, with a family relying on him – bare something so personal with millions across the world puts everyone’s little nitpicks in such a meaningless perspective.
All “The Big Dog” buzzwords, all “The Yards” and all the Superman Punches we’d gladly take back and celebrate to know that Reigns comes back and defeats his realest and toughest opponent to date.
Seeing Roman interact with a locker room that truly loves the man for who he is only added to the human element of heartbreak (yet hope) that tends to escape us as passionate wrestling fans. A genre that so closely mixes reality with fiction, it can be so easy to cast off these people as just characters rather than the people for who they are and in turn, for the people who we all are.
Anyone who’s on social media has their own persona: either a carefully or carelessly painted picture we all want to portray of ourselves. It can be one that is smart, funny or well-connected. It can also be one that is capable of unleashing our anger, our sadness or our own dark insecurities in hope to find some sort of solace or self-worth. It, like professional wrestling for all of us: fan, competitor or writer alike is our own blurring of reality, but one that carries harmful consequences not just to ourselves, but to others. It is also one that separates ourselves from the living, breathing world that is going on around us and puts us in a rabbit hole that can be habitual to wallow in.
Whether celebrity or everyday citizen, the unbelievable battering that the Roman Reigns character has gone through over the years can mirror the very real people that get battered on social media, but unlike Reigns in the WWE Universe, it may be not as easy for victims to get back up and spear their way to the top of the card. The story that gets told isn’t always the one that’s behind the curtains.
We saw that with Joe Anoa’i on Monday as he stood inside the ring in street clothes, as he fist-bumped and embraced his bleary-eyed brothers at the top of the ramp and as he stoically and humbly made his way to the rental car that he was embarrassed to show on camera.
We all saw ourselves in Roman Reigns last night. Hopefully we all see that hero of Joseph Anoa’i in ourselves too.
#ThankYouRoman.
#ThankYouJoe.
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