Umaga/Edward Smith, Samoan-American wrestler, Died at 36

  Dead Famous

Dead, Edward Smith “Eddie/Eki” Fatu on December 4, 2009 at the age of 36, he was a Samoan-American professional wrestler.

Born on March 28, 1973 to Vera and Solofa Fatu, Sr. Fatu was a member of the famous AnoaŹ»i family. His mother, Vera, was the sister of Afa and Sika of The Wild Samoans.

His two older brothers, Sam and Solofa, are also professional wrestlers, he was the uncle of The Usos and he was a cousin of Roman Reigns, Yokozuna and Rosey.

During Fatu’s first stint with WWE, he was known as Jamal and Matt was billed as Rosey. In late 2005, Fatu returned to WWE. Repackaged under the ring name Umaga, Fatu went undefeated for many months on WWE’s Raw brand throughout much of 2006, before suffering his first defeat under the Umaga name in January 2007.

Umaga, having still not been pinned in the WWE, was then deemed the number one contender for the WWE Championship and placed into a feud with then-champion John Cena over the title.

Cena retained his belt at the New Year’s Revolution pay-per-view by pinning Umaga with a roll-up, officially ending his undefeated streak, which had lasted 34 televised matches and spanned from his re-debut in April 2006 to January 2007.

In that time Umaga was never pinned or made to submit on television, although he did lose two matches by disqualification and another went to a double count out. For the rest of the month, Estrada played down Cena’s victory, claiming it was a fluke, until a Last Man Standing rematch was signed for the next pay-per-view, the Royal Rumble.

On an episode of Raw between the two pay-per-views, Umaga attacked Cena causing a worked injury to his spleen and putting the match in jeopardy. Cena kayfabe refused a medical exam, the results of which could cause him to forfeit his title, and then defeated Umaga by 10 count, after wrapping a loosened ring rope around his neck during an STFU.

After having a short lived rivalry with Mr. Kennedy and Big Show, Fatu suffered a torn PCL at a SmackDown live event in Johnson City, Tennessee on
August 2 during a match with Jeff Hardy. On the January 30, 2009 episode of SmackDown, Umaga returned to action with his unstoppable persona and won his return match against Jimmy Wang Yang.

Umaga then suffered his first defeat since his return by losing to Triple H by disqualification, after Triple H was attacked by The Legacy (Randy Orton, Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes).

After a short hiatus, he returned on the May 1, 2009 episode of SmackDown, attacking CM Punk on multiple occasions, repeatedly interrupting Punk’s attempts to cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase.

At Judgment Day, Umaga defeated Punk, and on the May 22 episode of SmackDown, he spoke in English for the first time under the Umaga gimmick, when he challenged Punk to a Samoan strap match.

Fatu was married, and had 4 children.