3-Minute Warning
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- For the Canadian Football League rule, see Three-minute warning (football).
3-Minute Warning (also spelled Three Minute Warning) was a professional wrestling tag team on World Wrestling Entertainment's RAW brand consisting of Matt Anoa'i (as Rosey) and Eddie Fatu (as Jamal). They were originally used as enforcers for General Manager Eric Bischoff before being managed by Rico Constantino.
[edit] History
On Eric Bischoff's first official night as General Manager for the RAW brand, July 22, 2002, he ordered a match between D'Lo Brown and Shawn Stasiak, informing them that they had "three minutes" to entertain him. After the three minutes, during which no winner was decided, Rosey and Jamal entered the ring from the crowd and attacked both men. For the next several weeks Bischoff did something similar, giving wrestlers and announcers three minutes to entertain him, and having his assailants attack if they failed to hold his attention. Eventually the team became known as Three Minute Warning, after the amount of time Bischoff gave people and the phrase he used to bring them out ("...did I just say three minutes?" "This has gone on about three minutes too long.")
The duo was used by Bischoff to crash Billy and Chuck's (Billy Gunn and Chuck Palumbo) "commitment ceremony", after which Billy and Chuck's manager, Rico, began to manage Three Minute Warning.
The team broke up in July 2003 when Jamal was released from WWE, leaving Rosey to turn face and join forces with Gregory Helms (as The Hurricane).
In 2005, Jamal re-signed with the company, and though signs pointed to a reunion of Three Minute Warning (including them competing in dark matches together in late 2005) Rosey was released on March 21, 2006 In December 2005, it was confirmed that WWE re-signed Fatu. A return of Three Minute Warning was hinted at for many weeks with the team of Matt Anoai and Fatu competing in dark matches together before RAW; however, Rosey was released in before the team could be brought back on the main show.
[edit] Trivia
- Rosey and Jamal were first known as The Island Boyz on the independent circuit.
- For a time Three Minute Warning used the 2 Skinnee J's song 3 Minutes as their entrance music. According to 2 Skinnee's guitarist, Lance Rockworthy, the band did not receive any compensation for use of the song.[1]
- The name Three Minute Warning is believed to be a reference to when Bischoff used to run World Championship Wrestling. He'd arranged for WCW Monday Nitro to begin at 7:57pm, one hour and three minutes before Monday Night RAW, during which he would inform viewers of the (pre-taped) results for the nights RAW.
