Zilla Fatu Shares Emotional Memories Of Umaga’s Final Days

Posted By: Ben Kerin on Dec 05, 2025

Zilla Fatu appeared on Maven Huffman’s YouTube channel for a look back at the final match of his father, Edward Fatu, known worldwide as Umaga. During the discussion, Zilla opened up about the events leading to his father’s passing in December 2009 and reflected on what he later learned about Umaga’s on-screen presentation.

Zilla recalled the moment he was pulled out of school the day before everything changed for his family.

“I was at school, man, and when I was at school, usually you have something called early dismissal, and they get on the intercom and they will say your name and say hey, man, they have to come to the front office,” he said. “I went to the office and I seen my uncle just with his head down. He didn’t tell me what happened or anything. He would just say, ‘Come on, let’s go. We have to go pick up your brothers.’ And at that time, my brothers was in high school on a varsity football team, and we went there, went to the high school and picked them up in the middle of their practice.”

He described returning home, being told to pack a small bag, and eventually waking up outside a hospital.

“I remember just us going home, and he was like, ‘Man, pack a small bag.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, what is this for?’ He just said, ‘Shut up. Just pack. Let’s go.’ I got my stuff, got in the car, and I just remember going to sleep and waking up in the front of a hospital. And I didn’t think … anything of it. I just thought, okay, my dad’s probably hurt. And I went in there. As soon as we went in there… we went up to the floor, and all I remember just walking in the room, just he was connected to all these machines and blood coming out. Just all his whole body, just blood.”

Zilla explained that his father had suffered two heart attacks.

“He had one heart attack at my house, and then after my mom was able to get him up, and get him to the hospital, he suffered another heart attack when he got there, like, literally, like, a couple minutes before we pulled up, and then he was unresponsive, but he was connected to the machine with just a lot of blood,” he said. “The doctors came in there, and they was like, ‘Hey, man, we can keep him on the machine. We can keep giving him meds, but it’s just not gonna get any better.’ And then my mom was like, ‘Nah, nah … we’re gonna keep fighting. We’re gonna keep fighting.’”

He remembered the family gathering the following morning as snow fell over Houston.

“I remember the following day, after that, it was snowing, man, it was snowing. And I remember all my family members just huddling around my dad, you know, us saying our prayers, and my mom pulled us to the side, just the boys, just her sons, and was like, ‘Hey, like, it’s just gonna get worse and worse and worse. You know, what do we do?’ And I think that was the hardest decision, you know, yes, me and my family to make we didn’t know what to do, and someone had to, you know, pull the plug or whatever. And I [get] the call… And I just remember, because it never snowed in Houston, but it did that morning.”

During the episode, Zilla and Maven watched Umaga’s match against Mr. Kennedy from the Hulkamania Tour in late 2009. Zilla pointed out one detail that immediately stood out: Umaga’s face paint.

“You probably pull up to this show late because he painted his face half. Usually when he does that, it’s rather he’s late or he doesn’t want to do it,” he said. “If we get half a face paint, he didn’t have time, or he was late… Because usually he paints the whole face… And if he’s not on time, you see the half face… I remember that because Black Uce Shelton [Benjamin], he used to tell me that really, that’s why Shelton always, like, ‘Get to the venue earlier. Make sure you get there early.’ When I was a kid, I used to hear him talk about it like, ‘Oh, no, I don’t want to do the whole face paint. I don’t have time.’”

Maven later asked Zilla for his thoughts on WWE never formally acknowledging Umaga’s passing.

“I think you know in their minds, maybe it was because of the reasoning of him passing away, you know, maybe they didn’t want to… shed the light on that, but… I don’t know, but I just wish he was acknowledged, but it’s okay, because he’s getting acknowledged through my work,” Zilla said. “People already acknowledge him, and I think I’m content with that, and I’m okay with that, and I’m happy that I started wrestling… because it brought me closer to him. You know, I got to learn who my dad was through wrestling, through this, through meeting my dad’s old friends… He didn’t die. He lives through Me.”