Former WWE referee Mike Chioda talked about a wide range of topics on a Monday Mailbag episode on Ad Free Shows.
During it, he recalled a situation where then-WWE Head of Talent Relations John Laurinaitis had heard that Umaga would not apply the facepaint on house shows. He threatened him with disciplinary action if he didn’t do it.
“I remember me, Johnny Stamboli, Rey Mysterio, and Ekie 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,” Chioda recalled. “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.”
Umaga passed away in December 2009 at 36 years old.
H/T to Wrestling Inc for the quotes
