Jacob Fatu has been on a tear in WWE, rising fast to the main event scene due to his popularity with fans, and it recently earned him a main event match for the World Heavyweight Championship against cousin Roman Reigns at WWE Backlash.
Fatu hasn’t been shy about his struggles to get to this point of his career, struggles that once included him no-showing a Reality of Wrestling Show, the promotion owned by Booker T. Fatu spoke about the incident and how the WWE Hall of Famer and his wife, Sharmell, treated him afterward on an episode of “Cheap Heat with Peter Rosenberg” where Fatu also revealed it was Booker T who helped him get into WWE.
“I would have one foot on the streets and [the other] in wrestling,” Fatu explained. “It didn’t work like that. I had a problem, too, I had a little drug problem back in the day, but that’s what it was… I was trying to figure it out. I missed Booker’s show because I was hanging in the alley, 5:30 in the morning, supposed to leave… Let me tell you one thing about Book… When I did a no-show with Book, mind you, I never talked about money, Book always took care. It wasn’t Booker I was scared of, I was scared of his wife. Because she don’t play around. She is the one, but man, the way how she embraced me and they loved me, it was awesome.”
Fatu explained before he came along, Booker T was helping The Usos. He mentioned his cousin’s “Before They Were Superstars – 10 Hours to Houston” WWE special. Fatu explained Booker T’s relationship with the Usos is partially why everyone was so upset with him when he no-showed the event.
Reality of Wrestling Leads to WWE
Fatu said that a year or two after no-showing Booker T’s event, he met up with him at his home promotion, PCW Ultra in Los Angeles. Fatu said that he saw Booker T and was scared to go into the building, but ended up running in to him and Sharmell when they were leaving. He described Booker T as being warm and pleasant to him, even after what had happened.
“I walked up to him and he’s like, ‘Hey, man. My door never closed,'” Fatu explained. “‘Yeah, you messed up… Man, my door is never closed. You’re more than welcome to come back. How’s your wife? How are you? You okay? You’re doing good, but I just want to let you know I still love you, uce. I know what you’re going through.'”
“The Samoan Werewolf” said that Sharmell also asked how he was, and they didn’t harp on him about anything. Fatu said they both said how much they’d like to have him back, and eventually, his cousin, Zilla Fatu, asked Booker if Fatu could also be part of a show.
“Went to the show, once again, when it’s off the love, off the rip, you don’t talk about money,” he said. “You don’t talk about who’s winning. You don’t talk about none of that, none of that matters. I was just happy that Book actually let me back in to be there to witness my cousin Isiah’s very first much, but not only that, to be a part of the show. We did our thing. Book gave Bruce [Prichard] a call and was like, ‘Hey man, I just had Jacob. Y’all might want to check him out again.'”
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit “Cheap Heat with Peter Rosenberg” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
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