John Laurinaitis Threatened To Fine Umaga For Not Wearing Face Paint During WWE Live Events

May 2024 · 2 minute read

John Laurinaitis was the former Head of Talent Relations of WWE and made headlines for all the wrong reasons after he was allegedly involved in Vince McMahon’s hush money settlement scandal. It all came crashing down right after that in a huge way. While he is no longer associated with WWE, it appears he threatened to fine Umaga for not wearing face paint during WWE live events.

Umaga was one of the most feared competitors in WWE during the mid to late 2000s, as he was known as the Samoan Bulldozer. His threatening face paint would add to his overall looks as well.

While speaking during an episode of Monday Mailbag, former WWE referee Mike Chioda recalled John Laurinaitis threatening to fine Umaga for not wearing face paint during WWE live events, which became a frustrating affair for the late WWE Superstar.

I remember me, Johnny Stamboli, Rey Mysterio, and Ekie [Umaga] in the car and we’re driving down. Ekie’s got a — he’s started this Umaga thing with the paint and all that stuff. So he’d go to TVs and have one of the guys paint his face all the time. We’re in the car on the way to a live event, I remember Johnny [Ace] calling him. He says, ‘Ek, you didn’t wear your face paint last night at the live event.’ Ek’s like, ‘Yeah, Johnny, I put it on the TVs.’ ‘You gotta start putting it on now or else you’re gonna get fined.’ He was like, ‘What?

So we tried to stop at a couple places to get some markers real quick because we had about an hour before we get to the show, then we had to do this. So we got black markers and I had to f***** paint his face in the car. That s**** didn’t come off for like three days until he got to TV. He was so pissed at Johnny too because Johnny was serious he was gonna fine him. And every time Johnny wanted something done, ‘Vince wants the face paint on.’ Vince’s name comes out all the time.”

Umaga passed away in 2009 at the age of 36 and his legacy is now being carried on by his son Zilla Fatu and family member Solo Sikoa. We’ll have to wait and see if Fatu will end up in WWE as well.

What do you think of this story? Are you surprised John Laurinaitis threatened to fine him? Let us know in the comments!

September 6, 2023 1:28 pm

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7s7XNoKqinJWjsri%2FjZympmdiZX90e49yZmluX5%2B8qbqMpZiuqpmjrqrAyKxkraCimq61sc2em2asn2KzqrrEZqymmZeWeqe70WalqKxdrLKivsinnmaekZiybrzAoqWtZZSqv6q6xmausJ1doba3sYyerZ6mpKh8