Last month, WWE star Trinity Fatu, stood in the middle of a wrestling ring in Philadelphia. Thousands of fans were stunned silent. They watched as she sobbed in the ring.
“Every time I start to clock in and care for myself,” she yelled at the crowd, “all of you turn your backs on me.”
It was a defining moment for Fatu’s on-screen character, Naomi, who has been a beloved fan-favorite since she debuted in 2012. But that night, she did something that could make or break her career: she turned “heel,” becoming a main event-level villain for the first time. But she not only became a villain, but she did so to further a storyline that culminates in a match at WrestleMania 41 this weekend. She has to get it right. These are the highest stakes in her career.
“There was definitely pressure,” Fatu told Andscape. But she also knows that the best way to solidify a great promo is to make the emotions real. To make them come from a real place.
“I think it’s just a lot of feeling not validated,” she said, fully in character. “Not feeling respected, not feeling appreciated, and not getting what I feel like I give my friends in reciprocation.”
“We’re all so talented,” she continued. “We know the importance of it, that we are all giving it our all. No matter whose perspective you choose to take, we’re putting everything into it, because it’s that meaningful.”
One of the most critical moments that determines the success of a heel turn is the opening promo, the first time the newly-minted villain explains their motivations. A great heel promo — like The Rock joining the Nation of Domination in 1997 or Seth Rollins after he joined The Authority in 2012 — can redefine a character for the foreseeable future. A bad promo can potentially lose fans and jeopardize the WrestleMania match.
That was the pressure Fatu felt when she grabbed the mic and justified her dastardly actions: Last November, Jade Cargill, one-third of a group that consisted of Bianca Belair and Fatu, was found backstage after suffering an off-camera beating from a mystery assailant. After months of speculation, it was revealed that Fatu, aka Naomi, was the culprit.
That’s where the heel promo came in: Fatu in the ring explaining her motivations for the betrayal while Belair looked on. It was the promo of her life and her entire career was leading up to this moment.
Fatu, a Sanford, Florida native, started her entertainment career as a dancer for the Orlando Magic, touring the country with the team. When she found out the WWE was looking for new talent, she joined the developmental company, Florida Championship Wrestling, before making the main WWE roster in 2012. Fatu’s original WWE character was as a “Funkadactyl,” a backup dancer for male wrestler Brodus Clay. She would carve out her own name as a singles star even in the WWE “divas” era when female wrestlers weren’t given adequate TV time. In 2013, for instance, her match was cut from WrestleMania at the very last minute. Fatu would find her footing, rebranding herself as an ultimate performer, a “glow” character that channeled her dancing background and athleticism, finally becoming the first Black woman to earn the title of SmackDown Women’s Champion in 2017. She’d also gain mainstream recognition from starring in WWE’s reality show Total Divas centering on women wrestlers.
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Fatu’s popularity would continue to grow for years until 2022 when creative differences with WWE forced her to leave the company. At the time, she was one half of the tag team champions with Sasha Banks, who also walked out. Yet the creative plan for them as champs was insufficient and lacking real direction. And according to Fatu, the disrespect was just too much to bear.
“Ultimately, I left that day because of the way I was talked to and handled,” she said in an interview with Busted Open Radio in 2023. “Everything kind of just broke me that day. It had nothing to do with anything else, anybody else. That was just it. I had to.”
Being a WWE superstar is the dream for any professional wrestler. Walking away, let alone walking away while champion, takes an immeasurable amount of courage and belief in oneself. For months, Fatu spent time away from wrestling and self-doubt began to creep in.
“I definitely thought I was done,” she admitted. “That was scary too, because all I’ve done since I was eight years old was perform.”
Then Fatu got calls from Gail Kim and Scott D’Amore, who work at another wrestling company, Total Nonstop Action. “They literally got me off my couch to come work at TNA.”
At TNA, Fatu started to find her stride again, becoming the Knockouts champion. Her time at TNA marked some of the best matches of her career, even as she was navigating backlash from online trolls who were attacking her for walking out of WWE. Her connection with fans kept her motivated. “The negativity on social media got to me,” she said in 2023. “I felt so broken down mentally that I didn’t want to come back to wrestling, but the fans constantly brought me positivity. Their care gave me that confidence and belief in myself.”
Another moment that gave Fatu her confidence came when she was approached to play pioneering wrestler, Ethel Page, in the movie Queen of the Ring.
“That was during my walkout as well,” she said. “So I was really going through a difficult time. That lifted me up. Ethel opened doors for me. I felt a lot of inspiration from her story. I am a direct result of her and it made me feel like I have to keep going.”
No one ever truly stays away from WWE. Wrestlers fall out with management and eventually return. Fatu was no exception as she knew she’d end her career there. Her return, though, would present a watershed moment in professional wrestling.
Within a few months of Fatu’s reintegration into WWE, another star, Jade Cargill, would make her debut. Cargill, who began her career in All Elite Wrestling, is as surefire a megastar as wrestling has seen, thanks to a natural charisma and a statuesque physique. The two would almost immediately join forces along with Belair, who has already established herself as a superstar in WWE. The three women would unofficially be named The Big Three — a trio of Black women who celebrated their Blackness, dominated in the ring and captivated fans.
“Our representation in that moment was everything,” Fatu said. “It was history-making, especially as Black women, because for so long, there was only one of us in at a time for maybe, like, five, six years.”
The Big Three would make their debut at WrestleMania in 2024 and follow that with months of viral moments centered around celebrating Black women. For example, in August they wore costumes (designed by Bianca Belair) that paid homage to Simone Biles. Before that, they paid tribute to Beyoncé. Their camaraderie and authenticity in the ring allowed them to connect with fans, especially Black women fans, who haven’t had many storylines or groups in wrestling catered to their fandom. Belair, Cargill and Fatu changed that.
“It was jaw dropping,” said Jaida Parker, a star at NXT, WWE’s developmental league, and a future star in her own right. “Because I know in the WWE there really haven’t been big moments specifically like that around Black women. So for them to do that on that big of a stage for them, it was amazing. To see that moment play out on national television and on the stage that they were, it was heartwarming but also inspiring at the same time, because if they can do it, then hell, we can do it too.”
To know wrestling is to know that teams never last. Not only do they not last, they always blow up in dramatic fashion, usually at the hands of a betrayal. Which brings us to that November episode of SmackDown! that found Cargill laid out backstage. For months, fans speculated over if it was Belair or Fatu who committed the act. Eventually, it would be revealed that Fatu was the perpetrator, finalizing the breakup of the trio and solidifying her as a newly-minted villain.
Which brings us back to that heel promo.
“There was definitely a lot of nerves about it,” Fatu admitted. “Just about the unsureness, because I have such great equity as a babyface. So, definitely, there is a fear of going heel with my fan base that I’ve built over a decade.”
The promo — a back-and-forth with Belair in which Fatu confessed her sins — was a masterpiece. Fatu channeled her acting skills and even tears to conjure up the emotions of a breakup and a wrestler who was fed up with always supporting others. For Fatu, the heel turn signified her turn to be selfish. The promo was based on a very real emotional space: Fatu has always been the supporting character — the person who boosts up her teammates and is happy to uplift those around her. But with Cargill, she’d had enough.
“I let y’all be great,” she yelled at Belair as she choked away tears, eventually letting them stream down her cheek.
“That promo was everything that is great about our business,” says Natalya Neidhart, a WWE veteran who has worked with and been friends with Fatu for more than a decade. She was emotional, she was thought-provoking, she was captivating with the audience. She made you feel something when you were watching it. I felt her passion. I saw her tears, and I actually kind of felt like she had a lot of valid points. And I felt like I kind of could relate to why she did what she did. She was pushed to the edge. There’s so many people in the world today that can relate to being pushed to their limits, and not knowing when they’re going to crack or when they’re going to break, and not knowing if they can continue to be strong.”
“I think what makes it so good is the bond and connection that Bianca and I have,” Fatu said. “We are very close to each other. And we’ve always had this special connection from the time that we first met. If she sees me upset, or bothered, or crying, she feels that, and vice versa. A lot of the magic that’s happening right now is because of our connection.”
The promo was an immediate classic. It was also one that Black fans in particular gravitated toward, largely because it was an emotionally resonant and layered portrayal of Black women friendships and conflicts in wrestling, something we don’t see much of. Immediately, the internet was flooded with memes and fans declaring that Belair and Fatu would earn BET Awards or that the segment was written and produced by Tyler Perry. The promo was exactly what the storyline needed and was strong enough to propel Fatu and Cargill into a featured WrestleMania match. It’s the most rich, deeply delivered story between Black women we’ve ever seen in WWE.
Now, it’s on Fatu as the veteran to not just deliver a great match, but she has to be the emotional anchor of a major story, while making sure she helps elevate a future star. It’s not something she takes lightly.
“Being able to give the star power I have now to the next generation of women, that’s the win for me, and I take so much pride in that,” Fatu said. “I plan to just give WWE everything. Everything they need, and want for me to better this division to any capacity. I take it very seriously, because it’s important and I won’t be here forever.”