Armando Estrada worked as Umaga’s manager in WWE, and he recently recalled his memories of being paired with the late wrestling star. Estrada spoke about Umaga on Busted Open Radio, and you can see highlights below (via Wrestling Inc):
On Umaga: “Taken far too soon, 36 years old, he left four young children and a wife behind. I truly believe that the performer never got to shine as much as he could’ve… He was intense — and again, this is a guy that was probably going at 60/70% speed.”
On Umaga’s intensity: “If he liked you, you were good. If he didn’t like you? Run.”
On Umaga’s feud with John Cena: “The plan was to build him up old school — nine months — before him and Cena touched. Their first match was in Rockford, Illinois, and they went six minutes (…) bell-to-bell.” Estrada recalled that three weeks after this, the men fought at a pay-per-view. “Before that they were doing 30 minutes on live events and just killing it, I mean … the chemistry!”
On first meeting Umaga: “The day we debuted in Chicago, I actually picked him up the night before in Chicago. And that was like the first time I got to spend time with him. Twenty four hours before we walked out on “Monday Night Raw” together.”
