Roman Reigns Wins First-Ever WWE Award At ESPN's ESPYS, Reigns Comments, Top WWE Stars In Attendance

By Marc Middleton

Roman Reigns just won the first-ever Best WWE Moment award at the 2019 ESPN ESPYS from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. Reigns won the award for his "triumphant return to Monday Night RAW" earlier this year following his second battle with leukemia.

The other nominees were Becky Lynch for winning the RAW Women's Title and SmackDown Women's Title at WrestleMania 35, Kofi Kingston for winning the WWE Title at WrestleMania 35, and Ronda Rousey for winning her first RAW Women's Title at SummerSlam 2018.

As we've noted, this was the first time that WWE had an award category at the ESPYS, under the Best Performance category.

"For to me just to be able to be healthy was the only award I needed. This is just so flattering for everyone to kind of lift me up and show me that support system and love from everybody," Reigns said in WWE's announcement on the award. "It was never about awards or anything like that. It was just about awareness, it was just about sharing my story and hopefully someone could use it for a little bit of hope."

WWE noted that Reigns was congratulated during during the red carpet special by Triple H, Stephanie McMahon, the RAW Women's Champion Lynch, and WWE Universal Champion Seth Rollins.

That ESPYS red carpet special is airing now on ESPN. The main award ceremony begins at 8pm ET on ABC.

Below is the announcement from ESPN along with WWE's announcement:

Roman Reigns wins the first-ever Best WWE Moment award at the ESPYS

WWE and the ESPYS have made history tonight!

For the first time ever at this yea”s ESPYS, Best WWE Moment was awarded on the red carpet. Fans have been able to vote once a day and named Roman Reigns' triumphant return to Monday Night Raw the moment of the year!

"For to me just to be able to be healthy was the only award I needed. This is just so flattering for everyone to kind of lift me up and show me that support system and love from everybody," Reigns said. "It was never about awards or anything like that. It was just about awareness, it was just about sharing my story and hopefully someone could use it for a little bit of hope."

Reigns was congratulated during the red carpet special by Raw Women's Champion Becky Lynch, Universal Champion Seth Rollins, Chief Brand Officer Stephanie McMahon and Executive Vice President, Talent, Live Events & Creative Paul Levesque.

Reigns bested the following other moments:

* Becky Lynch wins Raw and SmackDown Women's Championships at WrestleMania 35
* Kofi Kingston wins first WWE Championship at WrestleMania 35
* Ronda Rousey captures her first WWE Women's Championship at SummerSlam

The ESPYS gather top celebrities from sports and entertainment to commemorate the past year in sports by recognizing major sports achievements, reliving unforgettable moments and saluting the leading performers and performances. The show recognizes achievements in categories such as "Best MLB Player," "Best Team," "Best Female Athlete" and "Best Upset," and inspiring human stories are showcased through three pillar awards: the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage, the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance and the Pat Tillman Award for Service.

The ESPYS red carpet special airs from 6-8 p.m. ET on ESPN. The ESPYS air tonight at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

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