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Umaga Appreciation Thread


Onyx2

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Umaga.png

 

We're a couple of months shy from the fourth anniversary of the death of Eddie Fatu. It was a relatively short career but the final flourish of his years as Umaga were as one of the WWE's most tremendous heels who could really work.

 

He went through Ekmo and Jamal before really landing on his feet as Umaga. In 2006, with Armando Alejandro Estrada as his mouthpiece, Umaga debuted and picked up a string of victories against Triple H, Shawn Michaels and John Cena in his first 8 months.

 

In a non-speaking role (but with a really effective, old-school whiny manager), he really got over with the wild-eyed stare, crazy face and snug working style. The announce team and his opponents really got his finisher over, selling the Samoan Spike (a thumb to the throat! A proper pro-wrestling looks-like-doomsday-no-risk-at-all move) like death.

 

Some memorable matches:

 

Umaga vs. John Cena, Last Man Standing at Royal Rumble 2007

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Probably his greatest match and one of Cena's best brawls. it took being choked out by the ring ropes to put him down and Cena looked like he couldn't give any more to win.

 

Umaga vs Jeff Hardy – Steel Cage match at Raw January 2008

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One year on and Umaga is giving Jeff Hardy the rub of all rubs to help propel him to the best Jeff ever was.

 

Umaga vs. Bobby Lashley, Hair vs Hair Battle of the Billionaires Wrestlemania 23

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Not exactly a classic but some wicked bumps taken here. It says a lot if you're chosen to represent Vince in the match that would potentially get mainstream interested in the possibility of Trump losing the do.

 

Great worker, great look and could really get a bumping face over. He had at least five years of good stuff left, if not more. Imagine the work he'd do with Ziggler or Miz now. Sadly his drug habit cut his career short.

 

What are your favourite Umaga memories?

 

Choice vids:

 

 

PS. I'm sure software developers will get a kick out of the thread's abbreviation.

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As soon as I think of Umaga, it's straight to the LMS match with Cena, after that it's the cage match with Jeff. Can't really think of many other significant stand out matches.

 

That said, he was a tremendous worker for his size, everything looked so believable and violent. I'd love it if he was on Raw today battling the likes of Punk and Orton- and if one of them turned face, Umaga vs Brock Lesnar would have been immense IMO.

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When I think of Umaga my first thought is always William Regal calling him Umanga.

 

Umaga was great though. When he showed up I was coming to the end of my smarky workrate perv phase and I thought 'oh it's the not as fat one from 3 Minute Warning, in paint'. But straight away his matches with Cena were excellent and he carried the gimmick off really well.

 

His match with Jeff Hardy from Great American Bash 2007 was fantastic as well. That's probably my highlight of Umanga.

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I'd go with The Bash and the Cena matches as my Umaga highlights. Just before he left, he'd added speaking to the character, which would've opened more avenues for feuds. Although WWE was really toning down on feuds then anyway, he left right at that point in 2009 when they just started wasting loads of potential PPV feuds on telly.

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I remember the sheer disgust when Umaga debuted. People hated him with a passion. People seemed to resent the fact that he wasn't Samoa Joe (who people were convinted was in mind for the character, even though he wasnt). Umaga was great, though. Just went to show old monster, savage gimmicks can still work if you give it the time to develop. Umaga, Boogey Man, Khali and Hornswoggle were all on the same roster. I believe Super Porky was around for a little while as well. What a great time in WWE.

 

Fun fact, Gary Hart was the original choice to be Umaga's manager, but turned it down. Court Bauer came up with the name and the gimmick for him and gave Gary a ring to ask if he'd be interested. He wasn't. I dont know if Gary would have been better from a viewers standpoint (Armando was great), but I'm certain WWE would have preferred a Gary Hart like figure. Always heard they hated Armando and his little catchphrases and felt they took away from the big mans aura.

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his work in All Japan was very good. He had a match with Kawada in 2004 (maybe 2005??) which was one of the best matches in Japan that year.

 

I remember the first match he had with Punk on PPV (before the strap match)

 

Punk was doing his comeback then out of nowhere Umaga just twatted him with 3 high impact moves then the Samoan Spike in quick succession. Always thought it was a cool finish as it just looked savage. Punk sold it like a trooper as well.

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When WWE have their talent clearances I often think of Umaga in the context of "who could go to Japan, learn how to work, and come back and be a bona fide main event level/high mid card star".

 

So far I can't think of anyone who has surpassed Umaga's achievements in this respect. Although Davey Boy Smith Jr is probably my likely current candidate. I kinda hoped Masters would have been "that guy".

 

I can't recall timescales, but in the big scheme of things I don't think he died too long after his WWE release, and certainly not long after his match with Ken Anderson on the Australian Hulkamania tour.

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I remember him debuting and people on here being pretty unexcited about him to say the least. However he soon won me over after a few of his entertaining squash matches. My favourite Umaga memories were the Last Man Standing match with Cena, his Elimination Chamber performance which included an awesome exchange with Chris Jericho and the time he absolutely crushed Maria before Cena saved her from getting decapitated

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Umaga was also brilliant to play as in the Smackdown vs Raw game he was in. Dragging an opponent into the crowd, putting him on a table and delivering a massive splash from the rafters was always amazing. He had a great moveset actually - the big splash, the running butt to the face in the corner, the Samoan drop and the Samoan Spike. It's really a testament to how good Mr Fatu was that he could get what was nothing more than a thumb to the throat over as both an exciting and devastating manouevre. Oh and his entrance music was great too. I wish they'd kept Estrada to the end though. The "I'm snapping this cigar in half which is what you have to do to that poor bastard in the ring" routine was always great to watch and his "My naaame is Armandoooooooooooo Alllleeeejaaaaaandroooooo Esssssssstradaaaaa" bit always got the crowd going.

 

A bit morbid but some folk might be interested if they haven't read it but here's the big man's autopsy report http://www.autopsyfiles.org/reports/Celebs...ward_report.pdf

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Such a pity, his passing, though I do recall they seem to have run out of things to do with him at the point he was released. I thought he was fantastic, one of my favourites to watch - a real spectacle.

 

 

In this day and age I reckon they would give a lot for a big heel like him now. They have Henry, but he's at the end of his career.

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Without completely hijacking this thread about the great Umaga, does anybody have a solid reason why the higher ups disliked Masters enough to not push him and eventually sack him, despite being one of their top workers and constantly showing he could make the most of what little they gave him?

 

On Umaga, I only seen his stuff from 2008 onwards and he was pretty excellent, all things considered. He had that enjoyable blend of a watchable character that he carefully worked into his matches, to great results. Also, never got why people disliked the Samoan Spike.

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