Jacob Fatu recently spoke with Bootleg Kev for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling.
During the discussion, “The Samoan Werewolf” reflected on training with Jelly Roll,
Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview where he touches on these topics with his thoughts. Also embedded below is a complete video archive of the discussion.
On his experience training with Jelly Roll ahead of WWE SummerSlam 2025: “You see cats come in all the time and just get it in. You’ve seen the transformation in him. But it was more than that. It was when I got out the ring with this guy from training and it wasn’t just me. Shout out to Stacks (Channing Lorenzo)and shout out to the other homie. But it was what he did after [that made me] like, ‘Damn, bro.’ I already knew. I knew the background he came from but it’s the shit that he did afterwards. When you get done training, you got to clean the ring, sweep it, spray it down. We were all sweaty up in there. I saw this man. He up to the homie and said, ‘No, no. Let me clean it.’ He’s like, ‘No, no, I got it, sir.’ He said, ‘Nah, bro. Give it. Tell me what I got to do.’ He’s not making a scene about it. I’m tucked off with the other homies. We were chopping it up. But I’m watching. [He] just cleaned the whole ring, did what he had to do, wiped his feet. But I also saw the love and the passion. I spoke about this earlier… Professional wrestling, that’s what I love about this. Not only because my family’s in it. Not only because we are one of the dopest families up in it. What I love about it is professional wrestling brings different colors, different cultures, different backgrounds all together.”
On the origins of The Fatu Shake: “I got it from Boogie. He used to make me laugh when he used to come out and do it. I just did it one day and I just remember Solo laughing like, ‘Man, what the fuck was that?’ I was like, ‘I don’t know.’ But then I kept doing it to make him laugh. One day I just let loose and I just did it. The headshake started overseas with Tama and T. So the headshake, we would go in there, remember I would just always stay like this [does praying hand gesture]. So we would go in and we were trying to find ourselves. Solo wasn’t on tour with us. He was doing his thing. So it was only me, Tama Tonga, and Tonga Loa… Instead of coming out in order, we just came out… and that’s just where the headshake came from.”
On Oba Femi: “I feel like it’s a whole special time right now to be a part of professional wrestling. I feel like now where we’re going into the transitional … we’ve seen this done before in the past. But for him to get that moment, once again, this is a man that’s worked for his stuff. A man that’s not from America, somebody who came out of nothing, not growing up to want to wrestle. But man, when he came into this place, I’ve seen how Oba respects it. I see how he carries himself in the locker room. Not only that, one thing I do love about Oba … he’s not changing. He’s still the same Nigerian brother. He’s still walking back there with sandals on. He’s not showing off. You could tell he’s humble. He’s very thankful for what he got and every dollar that he has made before he got to the main roster, you could tell brother’s stacking because he knows what he come from. He knows what he could go back to. Not only that, we are talking about a great physique and we are talking about who else is on the roster who think that they could take Brock.”
