3-Minute Warning were a professional wrestling tag team consisting of cousins Matt Anoa'i and Eddie Fatu, most notable for their time with World Wrestling Entertainment.
History[]
Anoa'i and Fatu trained together at the Wild Samoan professional wrestling school operated by members of their Anoa'i family. When their training was completed they debuted in their uncles pro wrestling promotion, World Xtreme Wrestling (WXW), where Matt held the WXW Tag Team Champions as one half of the Samoan Gangstas with another cousin, Lloyd Anoa'i.
In 1996, Matt and Eddie were brought into the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) together to take part in an Angle with their cousin Solofa Fatu 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" in inner city 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 (HWA). 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 once, and for a short amount of time Haku served as their Manager
They left HWA together, and in 2000 traveled to Japan to wrestle for Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling, where they captured the FMW Hardcore Tag Team Championship. The next year they returned to the United States to wrestle for Memphis Championship Wrestling, where again they held gold, holding the MCW Southern Tag Team Championship on three occasions in the span of one month.
In 2002 they returned to (the now renamed) World Wrestling Entertainment as enforcers for RAW brand General Manager Eric Bischoff. Now known as Jamal (Eddie) and Rosey (Matt), the team was used to Squash 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 and Shawn Stasiak that had been previously alloted 3 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, likely chosen for the amount of time the Bischoff produced Monday Nitro used to air before Monday Night Raw during the Monday Night Wars, the team became known as Three Minute Warning.
During the September 12 episode of SmackDown! Three Minute Warning and Eric Bischoff crashed the "commitment ceremony" being held for the Billy and Chuck tag team; Bischoff was disguised as the pastor. Afterwards Rico, Billy and Chuck's manager, started managing Three Minute Warning full-time. With Rico by their side they engaged in a feud with the Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and Spike) and Jeff Hardy (whom 3-Minute Warning had attacked on September 2 on orders of Bischoff thinking Jeff was moving to SmackDown when the actual defector was Jeff's scheduled opponent Crash) which resulted in their highest-profile match as a team — an Elimination Tables match at the November Survivor Series (2002).
The team stayed on the low and mid-card until June 2003, when Jamal was released from WWE, reportedly after his involvement in a fight in a bar.
Championships and accomplishments[]
- Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling
- WEW Hardcore Tag Team Championship (1 time)
- Heartland Wrestling Association
- HWA Tag Team Championship (2 times)
- Memphis Championship Wrestling
- MCW Southern Tag Team Championship (3 times)
