MVP says Zilla Fatu’s name has moved him to the front of the queue, and that the same name means he will be allowed fewer mistakes than anybody else in his class. Speaking on Marking Out, MVP framed it as a straight trade.
“You walk in the door as Umaga’s son. Everyone knows this. So there are certain expectations placed upon you,” he said. “You are expected to be as great as your father. Maybe not right away. And all of those that came before you. You carry the Fatu name.”
The upside is obvious to him.
“You are going to get a head start. You are going to move to the front of the line because your name is already bankable,” MVP said. “He’s a big kid, good-looking kid, has presence, has charisma, has agility. He has a huge upside and could be a big star. They see that in him.”
So is the cost.
“But that weight comes with it, and if you don’t perform up to the level that they’re expecting you to perform, you’ll probably get a little bit more leeway, but you’re not going to get as much,” he said. “You won’t be allowed to make the same amount of mistakes as somebody who’s not getting that kind of look, that kind of a push.”
MVP said what will decide it is not the surname.
“No, his talent, his ability, his desire, his drive. He can be great,” he said.
He also drew a parallel with his own life. MVP served time as a young man before wrestling, and said Zilla’s route in had a similar obstacle to clear.
“He was in the Texas penitentiary when he was young, as a teenager. He was wiling out, being foolish. Caught a case, did time. He got out. He was on paper. He had to get his paper cleared up before he could get a chance to go to NXT, for them to take a chance on him,” MVP said. “Sound familiar? I went through the same thing. Teenager, bad choices, did time, got out. Wrestling saved my life. Wrestling has given me an amazing life. I didn’t have a legendary father whose name could open that door for me.”
His warning was about what getting signed actually means.
“People think, well, you got to NXT, you made it. No, you didn’t, because now you really got to turn up,” MVP said. “You’ve got to show up for practice every day. You’ve got to do the promo classes. You’ve got Shawn Michaels there overseeing everything. And if you want to make it to that next level, you have to perform at a level commensurate to main roster television. Then they go, okay, you made it to the main roster. No, now you have to prove that you belong there.”
He finished by backing him anyway.
“Zilla’s work is just beginning, but I believe wholeheartedly that he can succeed, and he’s already got cousins and family there to bring him along,” MVP said. “I’m going to predict that Zilla Fatu will be a star for the company for years to come.”
MVP also used the conversation to correct a common assumption, which is that the Bloodline is one family. He said the Anoa’is and the Fatus are two separate lineages within Samoan wrestling who call each other cousins, with Reigns on the Anoa’i side and Umaga on the Fatu side. He hedged twice that he might have some of the detail wrong, and noted that Polynesian wrestlers broadly refer to each other as cousins regardless of island.
Zilla Fatu made his NXT debut this year and was in the four-way at Heatwave on August 30 where Grayson Waller won the NXT Championship. Tommy Dreamer said on Busted Open last week that he wants him called up to the main roster to stand with the Bloodline against 946.
Umaga, whose real name was Eddie Fatu, died in 2009 at 36. MVP said he was next-door neighbors with Shelton Benjamin and remembered the smile more than anything.
