SAN JOSE, Calif. (KRON) — Bay Area native and WWE superstar, “The Samoan Werewolf” Jacob Fatu was set to appear at the Friday Night Smackdown live show at the SAP Center in his stomping grounds of San Jose on Oct. 17, but ended up getting pulled from the main event, leaving several fans The Finish with Kor & Tor spoke to disappointed by the fake-out.
At 2:33 p.m. Friday, the popular Sacramento-born wrestler posted “SAN JOSE ITS UP TONIGHT NOR CAL 💯💯💯💯” on X, still hyping his main event match with Drew McIntyre less than two hours before showtime.
Fans were buzzing to see their hometown hero perform — and even as the show kicked off, GM Nick Aldis continued promoting the match, despite earlier reports from PWInsider that it had been scrapped due to a real-life injury expected to sideline Fatu for an unknown amount of time.
Fatu ended up appearing only in two backstage segments and never made it to the ring. In his first, he confronted Undisputed World Champion Cody Rhodes, teasing a possible showdown for the title at Saturday Night’s Main Event — while McIntyre lingered ominously in the background. Later, as Fatu’s entrance theme hit and fans waited for him to emerge, cameras cut backstage to reveal him beaten and trapped under a steel structure, blood pouring from his mouth and what appeared to be broken teeth scattered on the floor.
The Finish with Kor & Tor caught up with fans before and after the show, capturing their rollercoaster of reactions in real time.
Here’s what they had to say:
“It sucks cause, you know, he’s from the area, up here in Northern Cali. Pretty sure everyone came out to see him, and it just sucks. Hometown boy and you can’t even get to see him. It sucks,” said Alecio of Hayward.
“The Fatu injury was kind of not a surprise. There were some leaks out there,” said Daniel of Palo Alto.
“I was crying for my money back when Jacob wasn’t coming to the ring,” said Connie of San Francisco.
Fatu is no stranger to the Bay Area wrestling scene, having competed — and held championships — with West Coast Pro Wrestling. West Coast Pro founder and owner Scott Bergante spoke about Fatu on a recent episode of The Finish, which you can watch in the video player above.
“You’ll see people at a West Coast show who’ll be on TV a few years later,” he said. “Jacob Fatu was our champion, and now he’s all over WWE. We’ve had Lee Moriarty, Brian Keith, Daniel Garcia — a lot of people the fans say were ‘adopted by the Coast.’”
Fatu is a member of the legendary Anoa’i pro wrestling family, which includes his father The Tonga Kid, The Rock and Roman Reigns, and San Francisco natives Jey and Jimmy Uso and their father, Hall of Famer Rikishi.
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