Roman Reigns Sends Final Message To Jacob Fatu Before WWE Backlash 2026
Roman Reigns and Jacob Fatu are set to main event Backlash tonight.
This will be the first time that Fatu competes for a major WWE championship since debuting in the company a couple of years ago.
The Samoan Werewolf has previously held the United States Championship as well as the Tag Team Championship once with Tama Tonga when he was part of Solo Sikoa’s Bloodline.
His feud with Roman Reigns began during the night after WrestleMania 42 on April 20, when he challenged The OTC for the World Heavyweight Championship.
Instead of immediately accepting the challenge, Reigns gave Fatu one week to reconsider his decision because they were family after all.
The following week, Fatu attacked Reigns after being deemed unworthy of challenging for the world championship. The 34-year-old pulled out the dreaded Tongan Death Grip from his arsenal, made famous by Haku during his WCW stint in the 90s.
On Monday, Reigns again fell victim to the Tongan Death Grip as the contract signing segment between him and Fatu ended with him getting smashed onto a table.
Roman Reigns Warns Jacob Fatu Ahead Of Backlash Match
Roman Reigns remains undeterred despite being attacked by Jacob Fatu on consecutive Raw tapings.
Going into Backlash tonight, he has only one goal in mind, which is to get Fatu to acknowledge him as the Tribal Chief.
The 40-year-old champion took to Twitter and addressed his opponent directly. While accepting that Fatu was his family, the OTC told him that he would understand why the WWE Universe chose to follow him.
He also reverted to using his ‘Head of the Table’ moniker, something he has not touched upon in a while. He closed the message by declaring that Fatu will acknowledge him by the end of the night.
Jacob, We’ll Always Be Family, But After Tonight You’ll Understand Why They Chose Me.
You’ll Understand Why I’m One of One.
You’ll Understand Why I Am The Head of The Table.
At Backlash You WILL Acknowledge Your Tribal Chief. #WWEBacklash
— Roman Reigns (@WWERomanReigns) May 9, 2026
Jacob Fatu Reveals Why He Went After The OTC
In the lead-up to his Backlash match, Jacob Fatu has made his objectives abundantly clear.
While confronting his cousin on the Raw episode after WrestleMania, Fatu explicitly stated that he was after every benefit and privilege that was and is his cousin’s.
During an appearance on ESPN’s Get Up, The Samoan Werewolf admitted that his family was his priority, and to give them a better life, he had to go through Roman Reigns.
You know, this is my older cousin. This is the tribal chief, but at the end of the day, what family don’t fight? I need to feed my family and take care of them just as well as he does.
Our family has been in WWE for well over a couple decades… with me coming in for two years now, it’s only right just to head to the top.
If you want to go through the top, you got to take out who’s at the top… and who’s at the top of the food chain and who has been there for a very long time—we’re talking about 12 WrestleManias—is none other than Roman Reigns.