Jacob Fatu isn’t hiding how bad things got before he made it to WWE. Years before reaching the biggest stage of his wrestling career, Fatu says a serious cocaine problem and ecstasy use pushed him to the point where his wife was ready to leave him.
While speaking to Stephanie McMahon on her What’s Your Story? podcast, Fatu opened up about the darkest period of his life and why those experiences now keep him from ever getting too comfortable with his position in WWE.
For Fatu, getting comfortable carries a very different meaning than simply taking his WWE career for granted. He has already seen where that mentality can take him.
“When I got here, you know, I got comfortable to where it was like, no. Hey, brother, remember what comfortable got you? Comfortable got you going to jail. Comfortable got you not caring, you know? Comfortable will get you here, will make you lose your job over here. I’m not saying no, but that’s how I’m looking at it. That’s how I’m holding myself accountable for things, you know? And you gotta stay ready over here. You gotta stay legit. ‘Cause if you not, hey bro, the door right there. Hey, the show must go on without—”
That led McMahon to ask about the lowest point of his life and how he managed to pull himself out of it. Fatu didn’t dance around the answer. His drug use had become a major problem. Fatu revealed he was heavily using cocaine and taking ecstasy pills while simultaneously trying to build his wrestling career on the independent scene.
“Man. It was my drug habit. I had a big cocaine problem. It was my drug habit, popping E pills. Like, nah bro, if y’all ain’t know, bro, Jacob Fatu is really one of them. Like, this ain’t no, ‘Oh, I’m from the streets.’ Oh, no, no, no, bro. I really had a struggle, you know? And it wasn’t, ‘Okay, my life is hard.’ No, it was my drug habits.”
Fatu said drugs were constantly around him where he lived, but he wasn’t interested in using his surroundings as an excuse. He said the decision to take them was his, admitting that even while wrestling on the independents, he still had “one foot in, one foot out.”
“You know what I mean? Um, it was, like I said, it was around us where I lived at. It was just in our face. Like, I’m not blaming it on the community. No. Like, this goes back to what you said. Everybody has choices. I chose to do that. I chose out there to go get it in, including with me being on independents. I was one foot in, one foot out.”
Eventually, what was happening outside the ring nearly cost Fatu his family. Fatu revealed there was a point when he disappeared for three days. His wife Elizabeth had reached her limit and was prepared to leave, forcing him to confront exactly what his drug use and behavior were doing to her and their children.
“And my wife had—I was out for three days. My wife had—she just, ‘How to get it together. How to get it together for her and the kids.’ ‘Cause, man, they got a point, you know, where like she was gonna leave and everything. And so happy she didn’t, you know what I mean? Because I don’t know, I would have not been here if it wasn’t for my wife.”
There was another conversation Fatu hasn’t forgotten either. His wife confronted him over how he could constantly talk about loving his family while treating them terribly at home.
“My wife had to tell me, man, ‘You talk about us. You love us so much, but you treat me like shit. You treat us like crap.’ You know what I mean? And that’s how I was going through at that time. And it wasn’t her fault. Everything was my fault.”
Fatu didn’t put the responsibility on his surroundings, wrestling or anyone else. Looking back, he said there was only one person capable of destroying everything he had.
“I never—and this goes back to what, you know, what I brought up earlier—the only way everything could get messed up is if I mess it up. You know, I ain’t here to blame people, this and that. And sure, that’s exactly what you said. Who—why you feel like that? Who you blaming? Who’s to blame besides yourself, Jacob? You know what I mean?”
That history is exactly why Fatu views his WWE career the way he does now. Getting comfortable once helped send his life spiraling in a completely different direction, and after nearly losing his family along the way, he has no intention of letting it happen again now that he has finally made it to WWE.
What do you make of Jacob Fatu opening up about his past drug problems and how close he came to losing his family? Let us know in the comments below.
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