Zilla Fatu On His Father Umaga: I’m Happy That I Chose To Wrestle, Because It Brought Me Closer To Him

Zilla Fatu recalls several fond memories of his father, Umaga.

Zilla is one of several Samoan wrestlers in the world today and is the son of former WWE superstar Umaga, and is the cousin of Roman Reigns, The Usos, Solo Sikoa and Jacob Fatu respectively, as well as the nephew of Rikisihi.

While speaking on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Zilla Fatu was asked about his father Umega was and memories of him.

“Oh, man, just eating everything [laughs] and telling me, son, can you go grab that food right there? But yeah, I just remember him eating everything, and just him being a big teddy bear. Because I know everyone thinks that due to his character, he would be cocky, or arrogant, or just mean, but my dad was totally the opposite. My dad was very loving, caring, obviously he was very family-oriented. And, man, he was the glue.”

Zilla was then asked what his favorite memory of time with his father.

“It was for football. I used to play for a little league football team, and one day, I didn’t know he was gonna pull up to the game, and he surprised me. I remember right before the football game, I was stretching, and he was like, ‘Hey, son, I got a little proposal for you.’ I was like, ‘What’s up, dad?’ He was like, ‘Look, every touchdown you get, I give you $20.’ I said, really? He said, ‘Yes, I got you.’ I remember, after the game, scored five touchdowns the whole game. As soon as I saw him after the game, he already came with the money and gave it to me. But that wasn’t the most surprising. After that, he brought his T-shirts, he brought eight by 10s for the team, and he just showed love, man. He was signing autographs, taking pictures with my friends. My friends knew who he was, but they never met him. They saw him on TV, and when they saw him there, they embraced it. And me as a kid, having my friends, go, ‘That’s your dad?’ So overwhelmed and overexcited. It hit home for me, and I was just so happy. And I remember after that, man, everyone at school was talking about it, and that made me feel good.” 

Fatu was asked further about his father and following in his footsteps.

“I think obviously, when I came home from prison, from jail, I had my back against the wall. Growing up, our family always told us to do something else. Wrestling is always gonna be an option. Just try to do something else. And then, not only that, my dad used to tell us every Thursday, we had a family meeting, he always used to tell us, ‘I don’t want you guys doing this. I need you guys to be better than me. I don’t want you guys going through what I went through. I don’t want you guys putting your body on the line or whatever, I need you guys to do something more safe.’ And at that time, I didn’t really understand it. But now, obviously, since I’m in the business, I definitely understand why, and there’s a lot that comes with this that I feel like people don’t see, the media don’t see. Just being able to kind of embrace it, and then not run from it. I’m happy that I chose to wrestle, because it brought me closer to him, and now I’m learning who my dad was through wrestling. So I’m so happy that I started wrestling.”

Finally, Fatu was asked if he feels like Umaga is still with him, which Zilla noted that yes, he does.

“Oh, yes, talking about that debut, I was talking about those butterflies earlier, it went away as soon as I hit the curtain. Speaking of the debuts, when I went out there, there was a moment, if you guys go watch, there’s a moment that I wasn’t trying to be like The Rock, but I was smelling everything. I was embracing everything. And soon as I did that, everything just went away. And, like I said, I found my purpose that day and my debut.”

Elsewhere in the same interview, Zilla spoke about how he previously thought he was ready for WWE, but now knows he still has more room to grow. You can read more about that here.

Thank you to Chris Van Vliet for providing the quotes used in this article.