This weekend, Jacob Fatu faces Roman Reigns with much more than the WWE World Heavyweight Championship on the line. At Backlash tonight, Fatu takes on his cousin, who has long been hailed as the Head of the Table and Tribal Chief in The Bloodline, both on and off screen, as real life has become intertwined with wrestling folklore.
Learning from The Bloodline
Speaking with Metro over WrestleMania weekend in Las Vegas with WWE 2K26, the Samoan Werewolf exclusively broke down his family ties and how he has managed to stand out in his own right. 'Man, a good thing about standing on my own, it was learning from The Bloodline,' he revealed. He namedropped everyone from Solo Sikoa and Jimmy and Jey Uso to Roman himself, as well as Tama Tongo and the since-released star Tonga Loa.
The Bloodline's impact on the wrestling world is legendary, with generations of stars in the Anoa'i family tree ranging from The Wild Samoans, Yokozuna, Rosey, Umaga, Roman Reigns, and Fatu's father the Tonga Kid, to the likes of Fatu himself, Zilla Fatu, and The Usos. They are connected by an ancestral blood oath between Reverend Amituanaʻi Anoaʻi and Peter Maivia, which means Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson is also linked.
Last year's video game was centered on them, with a Showcase mode focused on their history (this year's is all about CM Punk). While Fatu has learned from 'everybody else around' him, his blood and 'people' have been the biggest source of inspiration to get him to where he is today.
'[I was] taking it in before I actually left to go do my own thing,' he explained. 'But it's just something that my uncles actually taught me as well, training me on the independents before I actually left on my own. So, you know, when they say it took a village to really raise somebody, it's definitely a right saying!'
He added: 'I was very happy to have them because, you know, other people are fortunate to have other people when they get here. I'm at least happy to have my family to help me, guide me to, "Hey, do this, do that!" "Hey, [Jacob], don't do this. Hey, don't do that. You're messing up." "Hey, that's good. Keep doing that." I'm very fortunate to have them.'
A Journey of Redemption
Fatu joked that he is doing 'pretty good' to get to a point where he was talking to us during a hectic media day over WrestleMania week. His journey has not been easy, as Fatu ended up in jail aged 18 after being arrested for his involvement in an armed robbery in California. That past was referenced in the build to his match with Drew McIntyre in Las Vegas, while Fatu has been open about how seeing cousins Jimmy and Jey on TV in his cell was the spark he needed to turn his life around and go into the family business.
'I think about where I came from every day,' he admitted. 'There's not a day I don't come by, and I don't think about what it took for me to get here. And it also needs to remind me just how fast all this could get taken away if I'm not on top of my s***, if I'm not on top of my game.'
He added that he knows 'where I could be' and how quickly everything can be taken away. 'I know next week, "Hey, man, s*** ain't working out". The show still must go on,' he said. 'Even when I got taken out from the surgery recently, me being out, you know, the show's still gonna go on. You can't sit there and dwell on it. You gotta just make a change. I've been blessed.'
Family First
For Fatu, who also praised the likes of the Street Profits, Kevin Owens, and Randy Orton for helping his rise up the ranks since his WWE debut in 2024, family is everything. 'So I think wrestling is one of the highlights for us to showcase our talents, just like football, just like any other sport,' he said. 'But as of now, to be clear, there's only the Fatus on the rise, and this is what makes our family tree so great.'
He pointed out that rather than saying 'he's just a cousin, or he just knows them', everyone is actually linked. 'We're really all blood, I mean, and this is why it works out so well,' he explained. 'And people feel the story, because it is The Bloodline. It's not just the work, not just putting two people together, making them a tag team, calling them brothers, you know? I mean, man, there's just a lot of rich history from over there.'
He pointed to how the current generation's families 'made so many sacrifices over the years, and Fatu wants to honor that commitment. 'The schedule now is way more lenient and easier. I'm so grateful for everybody who's put time in before, because I know what it done. We seen it up growing up not having our dads,' he said. 'With us being able to have the platform we have now, but still be home with our families, it's pretty cool right now.'
For Fatu entering the business, he knew he simply had to do his part. 'You just had to be able to pull your weight, pull your weight, and make it happen. And we're forever blessed and forever grateful for this, and what it's been since the early 80s, since our family's been in here,' he smiled. 'Even with us being here now, me, Solo, our younger cousins and my younger brother and them on independents, you gotta be able to pull your weight.'
At Backlash, he has a chance to do just that. WWE 2K26 is out now. WWE Backlash airs on Netflix live tonight at 11pm.
