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Name a kayfabe and a real behind-the-scenes reason why and how Umaga turned face against Carlito & Randy Orton during the Summer of 2007?

927 views 6 replies 6 participants last post by  Buster Baxter 
#1 ·
Eddie Fatu was first mentioned when he was one of the Fatu family members (except for The Rock and Roman Reigns) to team up with former Headshrinker tag team member Samu in a possible feud with Fatu in a battle between the former '93-'94 Headshrinkers teammates, but that angle was cancelled and 20 years to this day, the possible Headshrinker/Headshrinker feud was a mere footnote.

But the future Umaga's first full-fledged WWE run lasted for 2002-03 when he was a member of 3 Minute Warning, a team of enforcers for Raw brand General Manager Eric Bischoff. However, his stay in WWE barely lasted long as Jamal was released from his WWE contract in 2003 for his reported involvement in a bar fight.

However, in December 2005, Eddie Fatu re-signed with the WWE. Initial signs pointed out to a reunion of 3 Minute Warning, with the former team of Matt Anoa'i (Rosey) and Eddie Fatu (Jamal) wrestling dark matches to showcase a reunion. But Rosey was released from WWE before the team could officially be reunited. So Fatu was left alone and needed a singles gimmick so he could be taken seriously.

On April 3, 2006 on Raw, Fatu debuted a new gimmick similar to that of Kamala and The Headshrinkers, now called Umaga, a destructive Samoan savage who could only be controlled by his manager Armando Estrada. From 2006-07, Umaga initially did squash matches before meeting up with Ric Flair at the 2006 edition of Backlash.

After dealing with the likes of Triple H, Shawn Michaels and John Cena, who were looked at as Raw's top babyfaces at the time while also having to deal with other faces like Kane, Umaga's first notable achievement in kayfabe was defeating Kane to send him to the SmackDown! brand for the first time since the 2002 Brand Extension was enforced. However, Umaga's monster rampage came to an end when he lost cleanly to John Cena at the 2007 edition of New Year's Revolution.

After his brief run in the world title picture and his subsequent WrestleMania 23 match which involved Vince McMahon and Donald Trump in which Vince had his natural toupee shaved off as he just considered getting hair transplants that make it look just exactly like his natural toupee as you can see today, and after a brief feud with initial face Santino Marella for the WWF Intercontinental Belt,...

,...Jeff Hardy (one of Raw's top faces at that point in time in Summer of 2007) was suspended for violating the WWE's Wellness Policy (initially worked for the first few years of its existence since Chris Benoit's suicide, but nowadays the Wellness Policy only applies to midcarders and undercarders), which meant that Umaga's 2007 face turn really came outta nowhere since Umaga can only be taken seriously when he is a monster savage heel like he's Sabrewulf.

So in storyline terms for Umaga's brief face run, Umaga seemingly joined forces with John Cena to take on the makeshift Raw heel tag team of Carlito and Randy Orton (without his Rated-RKO tag team partner since Edge was abruptly shipped to SmackDown! in 2007 because it was obvious John Cena and Triple H would bury Edge so it made sense for Edge to go back to SD! where he will be in a fair playing field unlike Raw). As a makeshift face, Umaga overcame the odds when he defeated Mr. Kennedy and Carlito in a Triple Threat match for the WWF Intercontinental Championship at SummerSlam '07.

As it was planned, once Jeff Hardy returned from a drug suspension, Umaga was no longer needed as a face, so now it made more sense for Umaga to just come out and interrupt a RAW match between Kennedy and Jeff Hardy by attacking Jeff and turning heel in the process once again.

So for all the WWE fans who grew up watching Umaga and his Samoan Spike finisher, tell me a kayfabe reason and a real behind-the-scenes reason why Umaga needed to turn face for the Summer of 2007?
 
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#6 ·
You all ready answered the behind the scens question.

As for kayfabe there was no reason behind it other than the fans starting to like him
and maybe wanting to cheer for him as a babyface as they no longer had a Jeff Hardy to get behind in the IC title scene.
 
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