Just a week after the passing of former tag team champion Matt "Rosey" Anoa'i, WWE is already under fire for how they used his passing in a storyline on an episode of Monday Night RAW.
Rosey — the real life older brother of WWE superstar Roman Reigns — had his death used as part of an angle between Reigns and his current opponent at the Payback pay-per-view, Braun Strowman. The storyline involved incorporating both Rosey's death and Reigns' on-screen beatdowns by Strowman as part of the two "roughest weeks of [Reigns'] professional career".
Here is the snippet that WWE used on both their website and on Monday's episode of RAW:
"Physically, I'm as beat up as I am emotionally. This has been two of the roughest weeks of my professional career and life. I've never experienced a loss this close since it's my only blood brother, but I've also never experienced a beatdown like Braun Strowman gave me."
This being WWE, it's unlikely that Reigns wrote that, and that makes it pretty awful for WWE to compare the death of his blood brother to a couple of beatdown on a scripted television show. Some fans weren't happy about the angle, and they took to social media to voice their opinions on the comparison:
They weren't the only ones, as Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez of the Wrestling Observer also had negative thoughts about it on their recent radio show. (subscription required)
Alvarez: It's astounding. His brother died! They've turned it into part of a storyline with Braun Strowman!"
Meltzer: Yeah, I know, I know. It's really bad if you think about it. It's really bad.
Pro wrestling has long used the deaths of former wrestlers or family members as part of storylines, but what made this one so bad was that it was blatantly scripted. While WWE may have Reigns off television right now, the right way to have him talk about his brother's death wasn't to compare it to Reigns losing a fight on television. If Reigns had come out and given a promo about it, that would be a different thing — it would show some real emotion. But to put it up as text on a screen? Just awful.
A member of the famous Anoa'i pro wrestling family, Rosey originally broke into WWE in 2002 as part of the "3-minute warning" tag team with his cousin, Jamal — who later on became Umaga. Those two never won the tag titles, but they did act as a vicious tag team under the tutelage of Eric Bischoff. Rosey would later win the tag titles in 2005 as part of a tag team with The Hurricane. He was later released from WWE in 2006.
Rosey passed away on April 17 after complications from congestive heart failure. He was 47.
