3-Minute Warning was an American

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring o ...

tag team Tag team wrestling is a type of professional wrestling in which matches are contested between teams of multiple wrestlers. Tag teams may be made up of wrestlers who normally wrestle in singles competition, but more commonly are made of establish ...

consisting of cousins Matt Anoa'i and

Eddie Fatu Edward Smith Fatu (March 28, 1973 – December 4, 2009) was an American professional wrestler, best known for his time with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) under the ring name Umaga. Prior to Umaga, Fatu was also notable for his time with Al ...

, most notable for their time with WWF/E under their ring names of Rosey and Jamal, respectively. As they were the members of the prominent Anoa'i family, Rosey was an older brother of current WWE wrestler

Roman Reigns Leati Joseph "Joe" Anoa'i (born May 25, 1985) is an American Professional wrestling, professional wrestler and former American football, football player. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the SmackDown (WWE brand), SmackDown WW ...

and Jamal was also a brother of

Rikishi A , or, more colloquially, , is a professional sumo wrestler. follow and live by the centuries-old rules of the sumo profession, with most coming from Japan, the only country where sumo is practiced professionally. Participation in official t ...

and an uncle to nephews Jimmy and Jey Uso and

Solo Sikoa Joseph Yokozuna Fatu (born March 18, 1993) is an American professional wrestler signed to WWE. He currently performs on the SmackDown brand under the ring name Solo Sikoa where he is a member of The Bloodline and a former NXT North American Ch ...

History

Anoa'i and Fatu trained together at the Wild Samoan

professional wrestling school Professional wrestling has accrued a considerable amount of jargon throughout its existence. Much of it stems from the industry's origins in the days of carnivals and circuses. In the past, professional wrestlers used such terms in the presence o ...

operated by members of their

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

. When their training was completed they debuted in their uncle Afa's

World Xtreme Wrestling World Xtreme Wrestling (WXW) is a Florida-based independent circuit, independent professional wrestling promotion which has held events across the United States and toured in Japan, the Middle East and South Pacific region including American Sa ...

(WXW), where Matt held the

WXW Tag Team Championship This is a chronological list of WXW Tag Team Champions. The WXW Tag Team Championship is a professional wrestling tag team title created in 1996 as part of for Top Rope Productions (later renamed World Xtreme Wrestling World Xtreme Wrestling ...

as one half of the

Samoan Gangstas The Anoaʻi family ( ) is a family of professional wrestlers originating from American Samoa. Family members have comprised several tag teams and stables within a variety of promotions. Famous members of the family include Rosey, WWE Hall of Fam ...

with another cousin, Lloyd Anoa'i. In 1996, Matt and Eddie were brought into the

World Wrestling Federation World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vario ...

(WWF) together to take part in an

angle In Euclidean geometry, an angle is the figure formed by two Ray (geometry), rays, called the ''Side (plane geometry), sides'' of the angle, sharing a common endpoint, called the ''vertex (geometry), vertex'' of the angle. Angles formed by two ...

with Eddie's brother

Solofa Fatu Solofa Fatu Jr. (born October 11, 1965) is an American professional wrestler, best known under the ring names Rikishi and Fatu with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), where he is a one-time Intercontinental Champion, two-time World Tag Te ...

who was working under just his family name with a gimmick that he wanted to be a positive influence on kids and that he wanted to "

make a difference Make A Difference (MAD) is an Indian non-profit organisation, working to ensure better outcomes for children in orphanages and shelters across India. Make A Difference works with nearly 3460 children in 67 shelter homes across 23 cities in India, ...

" in

inner city The term ''inner city'' has been used, especially in the United States, as a euphemism for majority-minority lower-income residential districts that often refer to rundown neighborhoods, in a downtown or city centre area. Sociologists some ...

neighborhoods. Matt and Eddie were brought in as two silent "gangsters" who would watch Fatu's matches from the entrance aisle and stalk him around arenas, making him nervous. Neither gimmick lasted long, and Matt and Eddie were sent to the WWF's

Heartland Wrestling Association The Heartland Wrestling Association (HWA) was a Midwestern independent professional wrestling promotion based in Cincinnati, Ohio. A former developmental territory for World Championship Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation during the 199 ...

(HWA) " farm league". There they used the individual names Ekmo Fatu (Eddie) and Kimo (Matt), with the team name Island Boyz. They held the

HWA Tag Team Championship The HWA Tag Team Championship is the tag team titles contested for in the Heartland Wrestling Association. It was established in 1996 when the Head Bangers (Mosh and Thrasher) became the first champions. Title history Key See also *Heartla ...

once, and for a time Haku served as their

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

. They left HWA together, and in 2000 traveled to

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

to wrestle for

Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion founded on July 28, 1989, by Atsushi Onita as (FMW). The promotion specializes in hardcore wrestling involving weapons such as barbed wire and fire. They held their ...

, where they held the FMW Hardcore Tag Team Championship. The next year they returned to the United States to wrestle for

Memphis Championship Wrestling Memphis Championship Wrestling (MCW) was a professional wrestling promotion run by Terry Golden, based in Memphis, Tennessee. The promotion's first event was on February 20, 2000, and it remained active until mid-2001. It was employed as a World ...

, where again they held gold, holding the

MCW Southern Tag Team Championship The MCW Southern Tag Team Championship was the tag team title in Memphis Championship Wrestling from 2000 until the promotion closed in 2002. Title history See also *Memphis Championship Wrestling Memphis Championship Wrestling (MCW) was a ...

on three occasions in the span of one month. In 2002 they returned to (the now renamed)

World Wrestling Entertainment World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vario ...

as enforcers for

Raw Raw is an adjective usually describing: * Raw materials, basic materials from which products are manufactured or made * Raw food, uncooked food Raw or RAW may also refer to: Computing and electronics * .RAW, a proprietary mass spectrometry dat ...

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...

General Manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

Eric Bischoff Eric Aaron Bischoff (born May 27, 1955) is an American television producer, professional wrestling booker, and performer. He is best known for serving as Executive Producer and later Senior Vice President of World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and ...

. Now known as Jamal (Eddie) and Rosey (Matt), the team was used to

squash Squash may refer to: Sports * Squash (sport), the high-speed racquet sport also known as squash racquets * Squash (professional wrestling), an extremely one-sided match in professional wrestling * Squash tennis, a game similar to squash but pla ...

any activity in the ring that Bischoff deemed "boring". They made their debut on the July 22 episode of ''Raw'', interrupting a match between

D'Lo Brown Accie Julius Connor (born October 22, 1970), better known by his ring name D'Lo Brown (also formatted as D-Lo Brown), is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his time in Impact Wrestling and WWE. Brown is also known for h ...

and

Shawn Stasiak Shawn Emile Stipich (born July 21, 1970) is an American Canadian chiropractor, motivational speaker and retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with the professional wrestling promotions the World Wrestling Federation ...

that had been previously allotted three minutes. When the time limit expired, Rosey and Jamal entered through the crowd and laid out both men, to the delight of Bischoff watching on from the entryway. The gimmick continued over the next few weeks, with Bischoff either giving people three minutes to entertain him before they were attacked, or otherwise deciding that three minutes of a segment was enough before the team appeared to end it. As a result of the time period, the team became known as Three Minute Warning. One of their attacks was on Jeff Hardy, as ordered by Bischoff who thought Jeff was leaving for SmackDown to reunite with his brother Matt, only for the actual defector to be Jeff's scheduled opponent Crash. For a time, the team used the

2 Skinnee J's 2 Skinnee J's (also spelled Two Skinnee J's or Too Skinnee J's) is an American hip hop band from Brooklyn, New York, whose music has been categorized as nerdcore and rap rock. The band was founded in 1991 by Special J (vocals), Rabbi J-Slim (vo ...

song ''3 Minutes'' as its entrance music. According to 2 Skinnee's guitarist, Lance Rockworthy, the band did not receive any compensation for the use of the song. During the September 12 episode of '' SmackDown!'' Three Minute Warning and Eric Bischoff crashed the " commitment ceremony" being held for the

Billy and Chuck Billy and Chuck were a professional wrestling tag team of Billy Gunn and Chuck Palumbo who performed in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) from 2001 to 2002. They were two-time WWE World Tag Team Champions. The two men were depicted as a same-sex ...

tag team. Afterward

Rico The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act is a United States federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization. RICO was en ...

, Billy and Chuck's manager, started managing Three Minute Warning full-time. With Rico by their side they engaged in a

feud A feud , referred to in more extreme cases as a blood feud, vendetta, faida, clan war, gang war, or private war, is a long-running argument or fight, often between social groups of people, especially families or clans. Feuds begin because one part ...

with

the Dudley Boyz The Dudley Boyz (also known as Team 3D) are an American professional wrestling tag team that consisted of kayfabe half-brothers Bubba Ray Dudley (Mark LoMonaco) and D-Von Dudley (Devon Hughes). The team was also joined by various Dudley family me ...

( Bubba Ray and

Spike Spike, spikes, or spiking may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Books * ''The Spike'' (novel), a novel by Arnaud de Borchgrave * ''The Spike'' (book), a nonfiction book by Damien Broderick * ''The Spike'', a starship in Peter F. Hamilto ...

) and Jeff Hardy which resulted in their highest-profile match as a team — an Elimination

Tables match Many types of wrestling matches, sometimes called "concept" or " gimmick matches" in the jargon of the business, are performed in professional wrestling. Some gimmick matches are more common than others and are often used to advance or conclude a ...

at the November

Survivor Series Survivor Series is a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event, produced annually since 1987 by WWE, the world's largest professional wrestling promotion. Held in November generally the week of Thanksgiving, it is the sec ...

, which they lost when Bubba Ray, the last man left for his team, received assistance from longtime partner D-Von. The team stayed on the low- and mid-card until June 2003, when Jamal was released from WWE, reportedly after his involvement in a bar fight. Rosey then went to form a superhero tag-team with The Hurricane, winning the World Tag Team Championships in the process, while Jamal did a short stint in

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling Impact Wrestling (stylized as ''IMPACT! Wrestling''), is an American professional wrestling promotion based in Nashville, Tennessee. It is a subsidiary of Anthem Sports & Entertainment. Founded by Jeff and Jerry Jarrett in 2002, the promot ...

under his "Ekmo Fatu" name before returning to WWE. They reunited one last time on WWE on a dark match for Sunday Night Heat as they defeated

Trent Acid Michael Verdi (November 12, 1980 – June 18, 2010), best known by his ring name Trent Acid, was an American professional wrestler. He worked as a tag team wrestler for most of his career, primarily as part of The Backseat Boyz with Johnny Kashm ...

and Bison Bravado on January 9, 2006. Jamal was being repackaged as Umaga, and twice winning the Intercontinental Championship. Rosey was released by the company in March 2006. Umaga (Jamal) was released by the company in June 2009.

Deaths

Fatu (Jamal/Umaga) died December 4, 2009 in Houston, Texas from a toxic reaction from mixed drugs, which caused multiple heart attacks, the second leading to a fatal brain hemorrhage. Rosey died on April 17, 2017 in Pensacola, Florida from complications brought on by congestive heart failure.

Championships and accomplishments

FMW/WEW Hardcore Tag Team Championship The FMW/WEW Hardcore Tag Team Championship was a tag team hardcore wrestling championship contested in Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling from April 2000 until FMW closed in February 2002. The title was picked up by Big Japan Pro Wrestling that same ...

( 1 time) *

(1 time) *

( 3 times) *Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards ** Worst Tag Team (2002)

References

External links

Online World of Wrestling profile
{{WEW Hardcore Tag Team Championship Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling teams and stables Independent promotions teams and stables Japanese promotions teams and stables WWE teams and stables