Matt Anoa’i, who wrestled in the WWE as Rosey, passed away at age 47, just 10 days after his birthday. The news was posted by WWE on its WWE.COM website. Matt is the son of WWE Hall of Famer Sika of the Wild Samoans and the older brother of Roman Reigns.
Matt made his WWE debut in July 2002, teaming up with his cousin Edward Fatu, then known as Jamal, as part of the 3-Minute Warning tag team. The two were “hired” by Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff and they attacked random Superstars every week on the orders of Bischoff if he didn’t find the act entertaining within three minutes, hence the name.
After his tag team partner was released a year later, Matt, still using the name of Rosey, teamed up with The Hurricane and he named him S.H.I.T., short for Super Hero In Training. The super hero duo won the Tag Team titles from La Resistance at Backlash 2005, his only gold while in the company. He was released in March 2006 from his WWE deal and then moved to do some wrestling in Japan and toured the indie scene. His cousin was eventually rehired and went on to have a successful run as Umaga.
In January 2014, he was hospitalized after suffering from congestive heart failure, five years after his former tag team partner passed away from a heart attack at the age of 36.
