Jacob Fatu is grateful to Triple H for giving him a second opportunity to make it in WWE.
During an appearance on What’s Your Story? with Steph McMahon (see video below), Fatu opened up about the circumstances surrounding his WWE signing, revealing that the company initially passed on him amid his struggles with addiction.
“Man, I was just sharing with Joe (Roman Reigns). Man, it was this past WrestleMania, your husband (Triple H), I don’t mean to get too deep, but before I actually got hired, I almost got fired before I got hired because of my addiction and stuff,” said Fatu. “It was just, it wasn’t really there. I know we’re gonna start it off, but I just gotta tell the truth when it comes to this. Your husband, they passed me. They did pass me. It was ’cause of me.”
Fatu recalled spending nearly three weeks uncertain about his WWE future and being unable to give his children answers about when the family would be moving to Florida. According to Fatu, Triple H ultimately decided to give him another opportunity.
“It just was all bad. 19 days, I didn’t know if I had a job. Our kids were asking me, ‘Dad, when we moved in to Florida’. I couldn’t even answer that for 19 days, cause I thought it was done. It was done. Your husband, they brought me up again, and your husband said, ‘We’ll give him a second chance. Everybody deserves a second chance. But when you get here, all that gotta stop.’ He came up to me after WrestleMania 42, and if y’all don’t realize, 42 means Fatu. That’s why we’re always wearing 42. Me and the Usos, it means Fatu in our culture. And WrestleMania 40, I went on Twitter and I put WM42. I didn’t know if I was gonna be here. I knew but I didn’t know how. So man, after WrestleMania 42, I had 41 one night, very blessed. And then, especially after this one, it meant something different.”
That journey made Fatu’s interaction with Triple H following his WrestleMania 42 match particularly emotional. Fatu said Triple H sought him out backstage after the match.
“Your husband came and found me after, and so you gotta walk back through Gorilla. Knowing me, I be jumping in the crowd. So I jumped in the crowd, and then I came the other way ‘Hunter wants to see you’. As soon as I’m walking up. Your husband’s coming down, just gave me a hug, and I remember telling him, crying, telling him, ‘Thank you, thank you, man. Just you’re the one that gave me that second chance. I remember, man.’ He looked at me, grabbed my face.”
Fatu said Triple H responded by putting the credit back on him, reminding the WWE star that he was responsible for making the most of the opportunity.
“He just grabbed my face like, ‘You did it. Don’t thank me. You did it. The only person that could mess this up is you, Jacob.’ I mean, it was a real good moment and a special moment.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Fatu revealed the unlikely inspiration behind his “Samoan Werewolf” nickname.
Fatu explained that the nickname traces back to the Twilight movies and his early wrestling days. With Gangrel’s established vampire character, Fatu’s trainers began comparing his movements in the ring to a werewolf.
“It started from the movie Twilight,” Fatu said. “When I first got into wrestling, my uncle Rikishi, we were doing this like NBA, NFL, different teams from different cities in wrestling versus different cities, territory leagues,” said Fatu. “And then when I first came in, Gangrel. Yeah, I mean, I gotta be very clear. I was trained by my uncles, Rikishi, Reno, my father as well. But Gangrel, David Heath had a lot to do with my training.”
Fatu said the vampire-and-werewolf connection eventually stuck, though he joked that he didn’t exactly have the same physique as Twilight star Taylor Lautner.
“We were on the same team,” he continued. “He was a vampire, Twilight, vampires need a werewolf. But I told my wife, I was like, his (Taylor Lautner) body looked way more better than my body. All right. So shout out to Jacob on Twilight.”
