During an episode of his ‘Monday Mailbag for AdFreeShows’ podcast, Old School WWF/WWE referee Mike Chioda recalled having to paint the Samoan tribals on Umaga’s face for a house show, after John Laurinaitis warned Umaga that he would be fined if he wrestled without the face paint.
Here’s what Chioda had to say:
“I remember me, Johnny Stamboli, Rey Mysterio, and Ekie (Umaga) in the car and we’re driving down. Ekie’s got a, he’s started this Umaga thing with the paint and all that stuff. So he’d go to TVs and have one of the guys paint his face all the time.
We’re in the car on the way to a live event, I remember Johnny Ace calling him. He says ‘Ek, you didn’t wear your face paint last night at the live event’. Ek’s like ‘Yeah, Johnny, I put it on the TVs’. ‘You gotta start putting it on now or else you’re gonna get fined’. He was like ‘What?’.
So we tried to stop at a couple places to get some markers real quick because we had about an hour before we get to the show, then we had to do this. So we got black markers and I had to f****** paint his face in the car. That s*** didn’t come off for like three days until he got to TV.
He was so pissed at Johnny too because Johnny was serious he was gonna fine him. And every time Johnny wanted something done, ‘Vince wants the face paint on’. Vince’s name comes out all the time.”
Eddie Fatu first joined World Wrestling Entertainment in 2002 as Jamal, one half of ‘3-Minute Warning’, alongside his real-life-cousin Rosey.
In April 2006, he was repackaged as’The Samoan Bulldozer’ Umaga, a 350 lbs monster heel, who became Vince McMahon’s choice in the famous ‘Battle of the Billionaires’ match at WrestleMania 23 in 2007.
Umaga was released in June 2009 after violating the WWE Wellness Policy for a second time and refusing to enter rehab.
Eddie tragically died on December 4th that year, when he was only 36 years old.
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