Vale: Edward “Umaga” Fatu
After returning from the Australian Hulkamania tour, yet to screen on ONE, former WWE wrestler Edward Fatu dies at the age of 36.
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Former WWE wrestler Edward “Umaga” Fatu has died in his hospital bed in Houston, at the age of 36.
The giant Samoan had recently returned from a wrestling tour of Australia with Hulk Hogan -the event is yet to screen on ONE.
Brother of Solofa Fatu Jnr, he made his debut on WWE television in 2002 as Jamal in the tag team, 3 Minute Warning and would later debut under his new gimmick, ‘Umaga’, in 2006 edition attacking Ric Flair.
He returned to the US from the Australian tour last week. A day later was discovered unresponsive in his Houston home by his wife, after falling asleep watching TV and he was rushed to hospital. It was determined he had suffered a heart attack as a result of abusing prescription drugs. The cause of death is believed to be a second heart attack while in the hospital.
ONE screens the 3 hr event Hulkamania filmed at Sydney’s Acer Arena at 8pm Sunday December 13th.
Source: Wrestling 101
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- Tagged with Hulkamania, WWE
7 Responses
Just read this article and it is a tradgedy to lose such a great wrestler
RIP
apparently hulkmainia didn’t go to air, with no announcements from 10 or the change even appearing on their website.
@ Steve Roderick
There aren’t too many years for pro-wrestling that are incident free.
It’s the culture of the game. There are some very interesting doco’s (Behind The Mat et al) that explore the very unusual landscape of pro-wrestling.
For all it’s choreography, or “fakeness”, as some say, the performance is still a very physical and demanding profession.
Many performers turn to prescription painkillers because they simply cannot take the time off to recover from the injuries they suffer in the ring.
Vince McMahon (owner of WWE) is very strict about the schedule his worker’s keep. They often work every night for more than 10 months a year. Probably more if you are trying to impress the boss as an up-and-comer.
Chris Benoit murdered his family, before taking his own life. Some say it was “Roid Rage”, but other evidence suggests that the damage to his brain over years of in-ring performance caused him to have little control over his actions.
The death of a pro-wrestler in his late 30’s is quite common, if you follow the show. Davey Boy Smith, Eddie Guerrero and many others have failed to live beyond their 40th birthday.
RIP Ed Fatu, you will be missed.
Still quite a shock upon reading about this on the weekend, was lucky enough to meet and have a quick chat/photo with Eddie after the Hulkamania show in Melbourne. Quite crazy to read/hear about his passing 2 week later, and at such a young age.
RIP
This year hasen’t been the best for the wrestling business.
so sad because he was so young. Still he’s the 2nd Former WWE SuperStar to die this way since 2005, Test was the other, and along with Eddie Guerro (2005) who was an active superstar at the time and was on TV days before, and Chris Benoit (2007), the 4th to di of a drug related incident since 05.
RIP Edward Fatu.
You were a top performer.