Professional wrestling's legendary Anoa'i family is mourning the loss of former WWE star Matt Anoa'i, better known as Rosey, who passed away earlier this month at the age of 47. Anoa'i was the son of WWE Hall of Famer Sika, a member of the Wild Samoans, and the brother of current WWE Raw star Roman Reigns.
It was confirmed on Monday night's episode of Raw that Reigns will return this weekend at the upcoming Payback pay-per-view, and WWE also shared a statement from Reigns, who spoke about his brother's passing for the first time.
Via WWE.com:
"When you live in a big family, it’s always great to be able to come together, but to have to come together to send off a brother — and not only was he my brother, but in our family, even when you’re cousins, we’re all so close that we feel like brothers. That’s the type of connection we have in our family. It was an extremely sad weekend, and it’s still really tough. Everybody’s grieving. But to see our family come together and have a hundred-plus family and friends come together to celebrate my brother’s life really meant a lot. It just continually picks up our family and keeps us moving on.
.... This is a tough time but like everything in life we can learn from it and get better from it. My only hope now is that I can continue to represent my family and represent my brother and continue to push our legacy. He was my number one fan. He never missed a match, he never missed anything I did in the ring, he always had great advice for me and always reached out to talk. Payback and 2017 and any chance I get to go in that ring I’m representing him."
