Jacob Fatu says he was already under WWE contract when he showed up at WrestleMania 40 in April 2024, moving through the weekend in a hoodie to keep his identity quiet. He said he was in Philadelphia for WrestleMania 40 and the Hall of Fame ceremony while waiting on the company to decide when to use him.
“I got there at WrestleMania, still didn’t know, I was signed already. I just got signed but I didn’t know when I was coming,” Fatu said, adding that he was “hidden in plain sight” while the rest of the locker room and the WrestleMania crowd carried on around him.
The weight of that weekend was bigger than a cameo. Fatu said he saw Roman Reigns, The Usos, Solo Sikoa, Tama Tonga and Tonga Loa during the period, and that Reigns gave him direct advice: do whatever he had to do and come back looking different. He also said Tama Tonga and Tonga Loa were called up after WrestleMania 40, a reminder of how quickly the family story around him was changing even before he debuted.
Fatu said the original plan had been to introduce him at Money in the Bank, but that changed and WWE moved the debut to SmackDown. He made his first appearance on a June 2024 edition of the show, attacking Cody Rhodes, Randy Orton and Kevin Owens to make clear where his loyalties stood with Solo Sikoa.
What happened after that only deepened his place in the picture. Fatu later won the United States Championship after splitting from Sikoa and held it for nearly 70 days, a run that gave his arrival on the main roster immediate proof it was more than a one-night shock.
Now the timeline has moved again. Fatu returned earlier this year after a brief hiatus following an attack by an unknown assailant in October 2025, then interfered in Rhodes and Drew McIntyre’s title matches. He is now set to face McIntyre in an unsanctioned match on Night One at WrestleMania 42, another step in a career that went from being hidden in a hoodie at WrestleMania 40 to a featured place on WWE’s biggest stage.
