A profile of the real diva’s revolutionary
Trinity Fatu started her wrestling career in the late 2000s when women’s wrestling was arguably at its lowest point in World Wrestling Entertainment. The women were called “divas” and given short segments that were often pushed off the card for time, and subjected to such indignities as over the second rope battle royals. Many of them would outright quit the business in frustration but Trinity would stay and endure before finally breaking through to the other side. Today, Trinity, best known in the wrestling world as Naomi, is among one of the top acts in the company. I want to profile her career here, showing that it was not an easy ride and highlight how she stands an a true example of women’s wrestling evolution.
NXT/FCW
Naomi signed with WWE in 2009 and trained in their small developmental program at the time, Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW). Due to having an athletic background in dancing, she was able to translate that into the wrestling ring and became a standout among the women there, becoming the inaugural FCW Diva’s champion. In 2010, she competed on the all female season of NXT, when it was more of a Tough Enough style game show instead of the true developmental program.
While Naomi was impressive on the show, most eyes were on one of her peers, AJ Lee and Kaitlyn, who ended up winning. Despite Naomi clearly being the most athletic, she never seemed to gain the same level of presentation of those two, culminating in her losing said FCW Diva’s championship to Kaitlyn. This pattern would emerge and remain for the majority of her first tenure with WWE.
The Funkadactyls/ Total Divas
As a fan of Naomi, I am here to call this out. From the beginning of her career, I feel she was overlooked and less favored because she is a darkskinned Black woman. This is why AJ Lee and Kaitlyn were slotted with major TV time and storylines upon their arrival to WWE’s main roster and Naomi, in 2012, was cast as one half of a backup dancing group with a comedy act, Brodus Clay.
The only silver lining, and how I personally became a fan, was that Naomi was also cast on Total Divas, a reality TV show starring the Bella Twins on E! Television. The show followed the private lives of certain women’s wrestlers. It was through this show that Naomi gained her fanbase, seeing as how she never really got much time in her early days on the roster to showcase her wrestling ability, let alone get her personality across.
It was through this show that people saw how sweet and enduring Naomi is. It also highlighted how the company would slight her, the biggest example being her mixed tag match being bumped off WrestleMania 29. Naomi was booked to be ridiculed because she was on the Total Diva’s cast, punctuated when then Diva’s Champion AJ Lee gave an infamous promo disparaging all the ladies while they had to merely stand there and react with silly facial expressions. She was booked as a non serious competitor from the beginning of her main roster career, and was working from behind once the company decided that would try to take her seriously.
Racial Backlash from turning heel
In the spring of 2015, Naomi turned heel in the UK by attacking Paige in her home country. She was riddled with racial slurs from the crowd that night. When her gimmick changed from a smiley “happy to be here” NPC to a frustrated and angry competitor, a lot of people on the internet claimed it did not fit her, mocked her accent when she did promos, and hyperfocused on the mistakes she would make during matches. This was also when the racial harassment would begin from mostly white wrestling fans, comparing her looks to that of apes and calling her ghetto.
Let me tell you, it was so tough being Naomi’s fan during her Team BAD era. She was paired with Tamina and Sasha Banks, who these same fans praised over her. I am not here to disparage Mercedes or take anything away from her but it was hard to see, as a darkskinned woman myself, people praise a mixed race lightskinned woman and act as Naomi had no place standing next to her then. For me, Naomi was another in a short line of darkskinned women’s wrestlers that were the sole representation I had at the time, from Jacqueline to Jazz and Awesome Kong. It seemed as there was only one allowed in each era of wrestling and Naomi seemed to be the most disrespected by fans for no logical reason.
Currently, there are still some racist fans who attempt to discredit Naomi’s talent but it was a fever pitch back in 2015-2016. Hardly anyone pushed back on the awful narratives surrounding her, especially the one that she was only in the company because she was married to Jimmy Uso. Only her fans, who dubbed ourselves the NaoMob, had her back.
It’s GLOW time
In the summer of 2016, Naomi debuted her GLOW gimmick, which is a reflection of her personality. The “glow” was an inner light, a strength to face any adversity head on and with your head held high. Naomi had been pitching the gimmick to WWE management for almost a year before she was allowed to run with it. And, of course, almost all the fans were “confused” about it and reduced it to the neon gear she would wear to the ring. It was frustrating to interact with people online about it as they just said she was “trying to be Nicki Minaj” and the gimmick wasn’t about anything when it was literally just female John Cena (it’s basically his Never Give Up mantra) with a more flashy entrance.
Still, Naomi was a part of the SmackDown Six along with Becky Lynch, Nikki Bella, Carmella, Alexa Bliss, and Natalya. These six women were chosen to be the roster for SmackDown’s brand split where a new SmackDown women’s championship was created. Although not at the forefront of the division initially, Naomi impressed very quickly and did become SmackDown women’s champion at Elimination Chamber 2017, defeating Alexa Bliss.
She had to relinquish the title shortly after due to a knee injury but made a return and women the championship again, tapping out Bliss at WM 33. The match was initially slated for the preshow but fans created a hashtag and rallied for the match to be put on the show proper, where Naomi would get a proper entrance and win in her hometown.
Unfortunately, though more and more fans got behind Naomi and her GLOW gimmick, WWE management did not see her as comparable to the new slew of main event talent in the women’s division. Thanks to the Four Horsewomen-Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch, Bayley, and Charlotte Flair-the women were given longer matches, bigger storylines, and the name “divas” was abolished. There was a clear line of who the company considered top tier and who wasn’t. Despite being able to keep up in the ring with these women and her overall popularity, Naomi was not considered on their level, made very clear with how during a four month second title reign she was only booked to successfully defend her championship against, Lana, who was never a solid wrestler during her tenure.
But this was nothing new. Years prior, Naomi had been put in the ring with Aksana, who injured her eye horribly. And it would become a pattern for her after losing the SmackDown women’s championship to Natalya at Summerslam, which the last time she would have a singles match on a Big 4 PLE during her first stint with the company. If there was a wrestler who wasn’t very good but management were behind because of their look, they would be put in a feud with Naomi. From Mandy Rose to Lacey Evans to Sonya Deville, Naomi was tasked with trying to make them look passable in the ring and help them try to get over, and by no fault of her own the desired results just did not come (it’s no coincidence that none of those women, albeit for different reasons, are any longer with the company). From 2018 through 2021 when she wasn’t doing this kind of thing she was relegated to doing high spots to pop the crowd in Royal Rumbles and Money in the Bank matches.
While the WWE Women’s Revolution was at its apex with the arrival of MMA star Ronda Rousey, Naomi was saddled with trying to make matches with Mandy Rose passable. We are talking about pre-return to NXT and Toxic Attraction Mandy Rose. The only watchable part of the feud were the backstage segments and the blowoff match wasn’t even on a pay-per-view show.
Naomi’s feud with Sonya Deville was even worse because Sonya was put in a position of power and it seemed the things she said about Naomi (not good enough, too busy making TikToks and not focused on her career, always complaining) came from management. Their feud went for months and month and the blow off was incorporated with Ronda Rousey’s feud with Charlotte because, despite the lack of effort given to Naomi, she was arguably the most over person in that situation.
And when she wasn’t feuding with someone management wanted to push but couldn’t get over, she was in short lived tag teams that inevitably went nowhere – with Asuka, then with Carmella, and finally with Lana in 2021. Naomi was in a constant state of “more over than her push” and it seemed like WWE was content on using her to get attention for others. She had two separate Rumble entrances that went viral outside of the wrestling bubble, getting real mainstream attention, and WWE did jackshit with either moment. But that was only a prelude to what would come next.
Every year since 2021 during the Road to WrestleMania, and shortly after, Tonya has contributed some thoughts about WWE. (To sample some of her previous work, check here.) You can find her at @TheWitchMilitia on Twitter.
Next in Part 2: Broken Promises, a trip to TNA, and a big return
Stroke of Genius 