Unlike most of my anniversary posts, this is not a memory of
a happy time. It’s a memory of one of
the hardest times I’ve ever faced. I had
just seen Noah Cyrus perform the previous night, so I was in a good headspace. I got back to my Apartment after the bus ride
and settled in front of my laptop, heading into my Internet Browser. Idly, I put in letters, seeing familiar
webpages and some popular searches. When
I hit “R,” my heart sunk. A popular
search term at that point was “Roman Reigns,” my favorite wrestler.
Four years prior, because people on DeviantArt were big
wrestling fans, I saw my first WWE event, a taping of Smackdown Live at the
KeyArena, which is now renamed Climate Pledge Arena. Many wrestlers, some now retired, others
still on TV, fought that night. The one
most loved by my social media acquaintances, AJ Lee, fought in a match which
she lost by being outside the ring for 10 seconds because she leapt at her
rival at the time, Paige. Other fun
experiences included an intense match between Dean Ambrose, a scrappy fighter
(who reminded me of Anguirus from the Godzilla series), and Cesaro, a taller
Swiss wrestler. The main event of the
night, the last match, was between The Miz, a wrestler who at the time played a
role like Perez Hilton or other celebrity bloggers in that he was obsessed with
himself and putting down his guests, and Roman Reigns, a tall, muscular Samoan
man who is the cousin of The Rock (yes, that The Rock; Dwayne “The Rock”
Johnson) and a premium powerhouse at 265 pounds of muscle (I’ve watched enough
of his matches to memorize his weight).
His signature moves are a leaping cross punch called the Superman Punch,
and a fearsome lunge to an opponent’s midsection termed the Spear. It was an exciting match and Roman was a
powerhouse, defeating The Miz and getting help from Dean Ambrose and Sheamus
when the Wyatt Family tried to ambush him after the match. A few months later, the WWE returned for a
non-broadcasted event called Road to Wrestlemania, where Roman appeared again,
fighting a tall, massive man called Big Show.
An interesting note is that both Roman and Big Show played themselves in
a WWE-Jetsons crossover. The match was
intense and grueling, but Roman had a “never say die” attitude, one of his
trademarks, that made me love him. He
honestly reminded me of Godzilla, being attacked just made him want to fight
back harder, he would take on any and every challenge and he had earned his
respect instead of just being given it.
After a rough match that seemed to go on for 15 minutes, Roman pinned
Big Show, heading to the top rope, taking off his shirt and posing with his
arms raised over his head, presenting a dominant alpha male image that sent the
crowd into a frenzy. Both of those
events made him my favorite male wrestler, my favorite woman wrestler would
change depending on who was a heel, who was a face, what friendships were
lasting and how adorable those friendships were.
Roman and his Shield teammate Seth Rollins had also teamed
up with Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston of the WWE Tag Team The New Day on
Xavier’s YouTube Gaming Show “UpUpDownDown,” to play the Call of Duty game that
takes place in outer space and it was the first time I laughed after the 2016
election. He is also Roman Catholic and
is one of at least two pro wrestlers to make the Sign of the Cross before
entering the ring, the other being luchador Rey Mysterio.
It should be noted, you only become a popular search item if
you’ve either done something controversial, died or people are otherwise
concerned about you.
Sure enough, I went to wwe.com. He had to relinquish his title because he had
to fight Leukemia. This preyed at my
mind. Here was a man who had struck down
opponents taller than him, more fearsome than him and giants as big and
aggressive as him, and as RWBY would say less than a month later about the
first life of Ozpin, the reincarnating mentor figure, “he could destroy giants,
and yet a few microscopic life forms could bring him down.”
That night I watched his Iconic Matches DVD and would ask
for more wrestling DVDs that Christmas of Pay-Per-Views, matches I enjoyed
hearing about. That night I saw him and
Shield Teammate Seth Rollins defeat Kane and Aberdeen, WA’s own Daniel Bryan,
win a Royal Rumble and lay low many challenges.
It was amazing to see him and Daniel Bryan smash into each other with
Steel Steps, enduring a punishment that would knock most unconscious within
seconds, yet still fight on for over twenty minutes of grueling punishment and
ultimately reach a pinfall. It was like
watching a giant monster movie played out with men.
The matches I got for Christmas were the 2017 Survivor
Series where the Shield fought and defeated the New Day, the 2018 Money in the
Bank event where he fought Jinder Mahal, an annoying loudmouth heavyweight
Indian Nationalist (as in, he is a nationalist of the country of India) who
once referred to Japanese wrestler Shinsuke Nakamura as being from “an inferior
Asian country,” and his triumphant claiming of the Universal Championship over
Brock Lesnar at 2018 Summerslam.
I got fairly obsessed with that winter’s blockbuster movie
of Aquaman since Jason Momoa bears more than a passing resemblance to Roman
Reigns, which makes sense, since Momoa is from Hawaii and Reigns is from Samoa.
I had already planned well in advance
that Aquaman would be my Halloween costume of 2018, but I would often mimic the
raised arms pose and Superman Punch poses Reigns does while alone and in
costume, as well as state that the oceans were “my yard,” a variation on one of
Roman Reigns’ phrases, “This is my yard.”
With the loss of my Uncle at the end of November, after
Christmas I honestly felt dead inside. I
went through the motions, feeling like there was no point to anything and
Church was my only comfort, and yet, it wasn’t total comfort as I know
sometimes hardship has to happen to make us better people. Sometimes, evil or pain does succeed no
matter how hard you pray, I prayed for a different result to the 2016 election
and it didn’t happen, I imagine people were praying World War II would be
averted or that the Nazis tactics wouldn’t lead to the Holocaust and those
happened anyway, sometimes, evil happens because Earth is not all humanity will
get to experience, but that doesn’t offer much comfort when you don’t know how
long it will be until you reach Heaven or if you’ll experience it at all.
However, In February, he would return and announce words I
was very glad to hear; “I’m in remission, y’all.” But if there’s one takeaway I want you to
know, it’s what else he said that night.
“Tomorrow’s not guaranteed.”
No matter your profession or beliefs, this is a universal
truth. If you have the ability and
confidence to do something good, don’t wait. My cousin said it this way, “I hate New
Year’s Resolutions. Don’t wait until a
new year to improve your life. Do it
RIGHT NOW.” Don’t wait, if you can, do
what will help you and others right now.
You may not have tomorrow.
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