Roman Reigns opens up about his brother Matthew 'Rosey' Anoa'i's death: 'It's still really tough'

Roman Reigns spoke about his late brother Matthew "Rosey" Anoa'i for the first time since his death in a recent interview with WWE. Rosey died at the age of 47 on 17 April.

The Big Dog said it was an "extremely sad weekend" as everybody came together to mourn the loss of a beloved brother.

"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," Reigns told WWE.com.

He said "it's still really tough" as the whole family is 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," Reigns said.

Talking about his relationship with his brother, Reigns said Rosey was his 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."

Rosey, the eldest son of WWE Hall of Famer Sika, was with the WWE as a member of 3 Minute Warning between 2002 and 2006. He and his cousin Eddie Fatu, whose ring name was Jamal, were enforcers for then Raw general manager Eric Bischoff.

At the end of his WWE run and following Jamal's exit from the company, Rosey changed his gimmick and teamed up with "Hurricane" Shane Helms. They won the World Tag Team Championship. Rosey also wrestled in various other pro-wrestling promotions such as All Japan and AWF after leaving the WWE.