Roman Reigns and the Bloodline
The Tribal Chief and his 1,316-day reign. Roman Reigns built a family stable around himself and held the Universal Championship for 1,316 days, the longest WWE title reign in decades.
Roman Reigns and Paul Heyman at WrestleMania XL, 2024: Diego Serrano, CC BY 2.0
A wrestling dynasty
Leati Joseph Anoa'i was born in Pensacola, Florida, on May 25, 1985, into one of wrestling's great families. His father, Sika, was one of the Wild Samoans, and his relatives include Rikishi, Yokozuna and Umaga, plus his cousins The Usos and Solo Sikoa. Before wrestling he played college football at Georgia Tech and spent the 2008 season with the CFL's Edmonton Eskimos.
He rose to fame in WWE as Roman Reigns, one third of The Shield alongside Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose, and later spent years as the company's top hero.
The Tribal Chief
In August 2020 Reigns returned with a new attitude and a new advisor, Paul Heyman, turning villain for the first time since 2014. At Payback on August 30, 2020, he won the Universal Championship. He soon forced his cousin Jey Uso to acknowledge him as the Tribal Chief, head of the family.
By July 2021 the group was officially The Bloodline: Reigns, The Usos and Heyman, later joined by Solo Sikoa and, as an honorary member, Sami Zayn. Its story of loyalty and betrayal inside a real family ran for years and became one of WWE's most talked-about storylines.
1,316 days
In January 2022 Reigns passed Brock Lesnar's 503 days to become the longest-reigning Universal Champion. Months later he added the WWE Championship and defended both belts as the undisputed champion. In January 2023 his reign became the longest of any WWE championship since 1988. It finally ended on April 7, 2024, on the second night of WrestleMania XL, when Cody Rhodes beat him in a Bloodline Rules match. The final count was 1,316 days, the longest reign in the Universal title's history and the fourth longest world title reign in WWE history.
Head of the table again
Without Reigns, Solo Sikoa took over the Bloodline. Reigns came back as a fan favorite and, on the first Raw on Netflix on January 6, 2025, beat Sikoa to reclaim the Ula Fala necklace and the Tribal Chief title. In 2026 he won the Royal Rumble for a second time and beat CM Punk in the WrestleMania 42 main event on April 19 to become World Heavyweight Champion, then began rebuilding the Bloodline with The Usos.
- Wikipedia: Roman Reigns
- Wikipedia: The Bloodline
- Fightful: Cody Rhodes beats Roman Reigns at WrestleMania XL
- WWE.com: Roman Reigns wins the World Heavyweight Title at WrestleMania 42
Facts on this page were checked against these sources.
