Jacob Fatu and Roman Reigns are billed as cousins on WWE television, but the genealogy is closer than that. The Samoan Werewolf, who faces Reigns for the World Heavyweight Championship at Backlash on Saturday, walked Peter Rosenberg through the actual family tree on the Cheap Heat podcast, and explained why the Backlash main event is more than a kayfabe rivalry.
“Roman Reigns’ father is Sika. Afa and Sika have a sister, my grandmother. So Afa and Sika are her siblings. That makes Roman my uncle,” Fatu said. “But we’re also close in age, so we just call him cousin. He’s really my uncle. It just feels like cousin.”
Furniture Installation With Roman And The Usos
The connection runs deeper than Christmas dinners. Before any of them were on WWE television, Fatu, Reigns, and the Usos were all working the same blue-collar job in Florida.
“We were all working for Proactive Installations. We were all doing furniture installation. Usos, their brother, Roman, me. Like installing cubicles, furniture in offices,” Fatu said. “I seen these guys work. I seen what they went through.”
The Pensacola roots go back another generation. Fatu’s father was sent from San Francisco to live with Sika as a kid. “Grandmother sent them on a Greyhound bus. San Francisco all the way to Pensacola. 10 tuna sandwiches, $30, and a couple food stamps.”
The Tongan Death Grip Is A Tribute
The move Fatu has been wearing out on Reigns over the past several weeks isn’t a generic finisher. He cleared it with the Tonga family before bringing it back, and he says it’s the only move that fits the moment with his cousin.
“This move is a sacred move. I talked to Tala Tonga,” Fatu said. “There’s no other move that could have did this with Rome. This guy has been F5’d. This guy has been through it all.”
The homage is to Haku, who looked out for Fatu’s father in their early days in the business. “Shout out to Haku. Everything that he has done for us, for the business, also for my father. Haku is the most loving, nicest, such a great grandfather.”
Fatu also gave Reigns credit for one of the central truths of their Backlash build. On a recent Raw, Reigns insisted that he, not Solo Sikoa, was the reason Fatu got to WWE. Fatu doesn’t disagree.
“Everything that he has done for the family with the promos, with everything, everything is true. He was right on Monday. When he said, ‘You saying Solo brought you in.’ No. Solo gave me a call. Roman brought Solo in. So therefore he did bring him in. So there is truth to all of this.”