Former WWE manager Armando Estrado appeared on Busted Open Radio to talk about a number of topics, including the late great Umaga.
Estrada said, “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 when he first met 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.”
You can check out the complete podcast below.
