It will be a moment Trinity Fatu never imagined happening.
The 35-year-old spent 14 years as Naomi in WWE and is a former SmackDown women’s champion and women’s tag team champion in the promotion.
She had no plans of ever leaving with her husband Jimmy Uso also a WWE star with his brother and tag team partner Jey.
All that changed when she and Mercedes Mone’ (Sasha Banks) left behind their WWE women’s tag team titles and walked out on a “Monday Night Raw” in May of 2022, frustrated over the events of the day.
A little less than a year later Fatu, who goes by just Trinity now on screen, debuted in Impact Wrestling in search of a fresh start, a place to grow as a performer and the time to pursue an interest in acting and take a stab at her dream of being on Broadway.
With all of that coming together, she finds herself with a chance to become a world champion for the first time since 2017 when she faces three-time champion Deonna Purrazzo for Impact’s Knockouts World Championship at Slammiversary at St. Clair College in Canada on Saturday. (8 p.m. FITE).
“[Winning] would be very surreal because I never even thought of competing anywhere outside WWE, ever, ever, ever,” Fatu said in a Zoom interview. “But I also know that if I do win it is because of everything that brought me to the moment. I will know that I worked very hard to get here. It will be an honor to hold up that championship. I think I will carry it well.”
She said she came to Impact after a year away from the ring and shoulder surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff needing to rediscover her confidence as a performer.
Fatu felt the promotion would give her the support, the opportunities she needed and the competition where she would “have no choice but to step up.”
The Knockouts division headlined by Purrazzo, KiLynn King, Masha Slamovich and Taylor Wilde is as deep as any in pro wrestling.
“Just being in a space where I can be heard, where my ideas can be heard, where I feel seen and valued, that is everything to me at this point in my career,” Fatu said. “Impact has definitely helped me in every way to help me regain my confidence and giving me the platform and becoming a new home for me and just the leeway to create and trust in my ideas and trust in myself.”
Fatu said she is enjoying getting longer match times and more promo opportunities. She even had her first intergender match last month against Jai Vidal — something she wants to do again potentially with “Speedball” Mike Bailey. She feels herself already becoming more comfortable and natural on the mic.
“I’ve always been a little timid [with promos],” she said. “I’d rather have an hour-long match than a 10-second promo. I think that in matches there are ways to cover it up and correct and fix if something doesn’t go well. But in promos, it’s very hard to hide the nerves and the shakiness in my voice at times. I’m really enjoying it now.”
It’s been everything she hoped for after her very public and polarizing exit from WWE — which she called a “very unfortunate situation.”
Fatu reaffirmed the decision she made was because of how she was treated that day by WWE.
“There was a lot that happened,” she said. ‘There was a lot that was said that ultimately led to me being put in a position and feeling like that was the best for me and what I needed to do. I still believe that. I still stand on that and that’s just what it is.”
She and Mone’ we supposed to be in a six-pack challenge match to determine the No. 1 contender for the Raw women’s championship, which could have taken some of the creative focus off their reign as tag champions.
She said the end of the story from that day was told and nothing was said about “what got us to this point.”
Fatu hopes fans look back on her and Mone’s decision as two people standing up for what they believed was right.
“I just hope that through all of the drama and the rumors and the messiness that the one thing people do know about us is how much we care about women’s wrestling,” Fatu said.
The experience only strengthened her and Mone’s friendship.
They were always close behind the scene but their departure left them just having each other and few close friends to lean on as the industry went on without them for a while. Her “whole family” was gone in a way.
“Me and her, we just had each other it felt like,” Fatu said. “Other than Tamina, Bayley checking in on us regularly, that was it. We just had each other going through that.
“Nobody understands the magnitude of what happened and what really went on and why we feel the way we feel and where we are but me and her and the people that were involved that day. It just goes to show how real our friendship is and how real all of this is.”
The two have continued to support each other’s career with Fatu traveling to Japan for Mone’s debut with New Japan at WrestleKingdom in January. Mone’ made it back from working in Japan to be at Fatu’s Impact debut in April.
While Mone’ is injured now, Fatu is open to doing something with her on screen in the future if the situation is right — knowing what that would mean for the industry.
“I wouldn’t want to do it with anyone else other than her, whatever that is,” she said. “I’ll always do what’s best for her, what’s best for me and what’s best for the business. And if it’s something that comes up that makes sense for the both of us, hell yeah!”
All of those experiences have brought her to this opportunity with Impact.
“I was very unsure going through that,” she said. “I’m just extremely thankful for Impact giving me a new home to express my creativity and do what I love to do and continue to glow.”
Fatu, with a few tweaks, chose to stick with the “Feel the Glow” persona she used in WWE instead of trying to reinvent herself right away.
In her mind, this is how fans knew her and they were still connecting with it. The persona is an extension of herself and there were still areas of it for her to take a look at.
“I just feel that it’s special and that I haven’t reached the peak of it yet and I still feel there are things to explore with the glow that I haven’t done yet,” Trinity said. “I’m looking forward to it evolving. I think as time goes on in Impact we‘ll get to see that. Maybe, get to see a bad side to the glow? It’s just cool, I love it. Until I naturally feel it’s time to move from it, I will.”
What she has moved on to is exploring opportunities outside of wrestling.
She and Mone’ walked the runway at New York Fashion Week last September. Fatu has been cast in the “Queen of the Ring”, a biopic about women’s wrestling pioneer Mildred Burke and has been attending dance classes and sessions at the Steps on Broadway studio in her free time as she pursues that dream as well.
“That’s the last thing for me that I want to accomplish,” she said. “Who knows how long it’s gonna take and if I got what it takes. We’ll see.”
All her new ventures have forced her and her husband Jimmy to adjust to what she calls a new dynamic in the marriage after being joined at the hip for all their years together in WWE. They are still traveling together as much as possible.
“It’s really weird because it feels like I’m on the road full time because if I’m not with Impact I’m there [with him]. I’m not at the [WWE] shows but there, I’m around. We make it work.”
What’s in front of her now is a match with Purrazzo and a chance to be called a world champion again.
The two have crafted a storyline where they have been loose but testy allies to ensure the other makes it to Slammiversary, based on the respect they have for each other. Fatu said the “claws will come off” on Saturday, however.
“Now that we’re there, what it comes down to is that championship,” she said. “By any means necessary, I’m gonna do whatever I have to do to obtain it.”
By doing so, it would reaffirm to herself after some trying times that she belongs with the top women in the industry.
“Especially after the year that I had and just seeing the things that have been said about me [online], to me that is what I need to prove to myself — not anyone else — but just to myself,” she said. “I desire to compete against the best and that I am as good as I feel that I am and I know that I am inside.”
