Wrestling / Naomi (Wrestler)

aka: Naomi Night

Feel the glow!

Trinity Fatu (née McCray, born November 30, 1987, in Sanford, Florida) is an American professional wrester, dancer and model currently signed to WWE under the ring name Naomi.

Naomi worked at the company's developmental grounds at FCW under the name Naomi Knight (or Night) from 2009 to 2011, where she was a one-time FCW Divas Champion. She also competed on the third season of NXT, where she came in second place. In 2012, she debuted on the main roster as a valet for Brodus Clay, becoming a member of the Tons of Funk stable. She then formed a tag team known as The Funkadactyls with her fellow Tons of Funk valet Cameron that soon splintered off from Clay and Tons of Funk. Naomi and Cameron ended their alliance as well in 2014. In 2017, Naomi became WWE Smackdown Women's Champion at Elimination Chamber but had to relinquish her title two weeks later due to injury before winning it back at WrestleMania.

Since 2013, Trinity has been featured as one of the main cast members of Total Divas. She married Jimmy Uso one year later in 2014.

After controversially walking out on WWE in 2022 along with her then-tag team partner Sasha Banks, she confirmed in March 2023 that she had officially left the company. Naomi would then join the women's roster of Impact Wrestling, where she wrestles under her real first name Trinity. She won the Knockouts Championship for the first time at Slammiversary 2023. In January 2024 Naomi made her return to WWE at the Royal Rumble event.

She made her modeling debut in September 2022.

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Feel The Tropes:

• Aborted Arc:
  • A partial example. Naomi was in the middle of a push for the Divas Championship when she got an eye injury in a match against Aksana. Cameron got a push for the title in Naomi's stead while the latter was recovering, but Naomi never got a proper title match when she returned, only participating in a 14-Diva free for all at WrestleMania - then being immediately forgotten about when Paige abruptly won the title.
  • In the WrestleMania match, the finish was AJ seemingly making her submit to the Black Widow - except it was quickly shown that AJ was making her hand tap. Nothing comes of this bit of cheating and Naomi does not reference it at all afterwards.
• Action Mom: Downplayed. Jimmy Uso has children from his previous relationship and an episode of Total Divas explores this. She's defied this trope in interviews however - stating that she won't start a family until her time in WWE is up.
• Afro Asskicker: Has become this after returning in January 2020 with an afro.
• Amazonian Beauty: WWE.com ranked her number 4 out of the top 25 best abs in WWE history, in a list that included both male and female Superstars, past and present - with Naomi the highest of any female Superstar on the list.
• The Artifact: After The Funkadactyls split, Naomi kept the "Somebody Call My Momma" theme even if she dropped the dancing gimmick too. She eventually got a new theme of her own upon her 2015 heel turn.
• Ass Kicks You:
  • Ever since NXT, Naomi has enjoyed smashing her ass in her opponents' faces in a move named the Rear View. It was changed to a Lighter and Softer version of its FCW name, the 'Booty Call'.
  • She also has a move where she goes for a headscissors but pulls the opponent's face against her ass to give some kind of mid-air stink face. That one is named 'Bootylicious'.
  • Like Brodus Clay, she has a tendency to shake her ass when caught in a hold until her opponent gets uncomfortable enough to release it. Natalya (derisively) compared waist locking Naomi to riding a bucking horse.
• Badass Boast: When Alexa Bliss acted like she didn't know who Naomi was upon her 2017 return.
  "I'll show you exactly who I am. Why don't you step through those ropes? Girl, I will snatch that blonde hair bald!"
• Battle Couple: Began to manage The Usos (made up of her husband and brother in law) in late 2014 and competed alongside them in mixed tag matches. They also involved in WWE Mixed Match Challenge.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Naomi is one of the most level-headed members of the roster. But she can get just as aggressive as the rest of them if she's provoked. Alicia Fox invoked this in an episode of Total Divas where Naomi was worrying that she wouldn't be able to play an effective heel; she threw a drink in her face, and Naomi immediately snapped into a blind rage.
• Borrowed Catch Phrase: As she was attacking Paige, "you think this is your house?"
• Braids of Action: Sometimes. She'll wrestle with her hair tied back or in braids plenty of times. But she'll still gladly wrestle with her hair down. However her hair is always down if she's valeting.
• Break Up Breakout: Inverted. She didn't get to properly debut on the main roster until she found herself a partner. But then when they split, Cameron floundered on her own and had to go back to NXT to train - before getting quietly released in 2016. Naomi meanwhile got a couple of championship pushes and appeared on TV fairly regularly before finally becoming Smackdown Women's Champion, thus winning a title before Cameron.
• Canon Name: She had the last name of "Knight" (also spelled "Night") in FCW, which fans still use as her proper surname when she is on the main roster.
• Catchphrase: As of her rave gimmick, she's adopted "Feel The Glow" as hers.
• Chickification: Naomi was by far the most talented contestant on NXT Season 3 but took over a year to debut on the main roster - in a valet role, at that. By the time she got to have her first match, the rest of the contestants had all become wrestlers full-time.
• Cool Shades: She first sported these upon her heel turn. She's kept them as part of the rave gimmick.
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: Sings her own entrance theme song, "Amazing". She also sang part of the "Somebody Call My Momma" entrance theme live on Main Event with JoJo and Cameron.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": Averted on Total Divas, where she is referred to by her real name, Trinity.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: The basis for her 2015 heel turn. Despite two pinfall wins over the champ, she was not pleased when she lost a #1 contender's match to Paige. A heroic version of this was used in her 2017 push for the Smackdown Women's Championship.
• Epic Fail: In her debut match on NXT Season 3, a botch led to her and Maxine carrying on with the match despite the music playing to signal the finish.
• Everything's Better with Sparkles: Her Funkadactyl gear compared to her NXT and FCW gear. She also had rhinestones on her Eyepatch when she returned from her eye in injury. An episode of Total Divas had her getting a catsuit adorned with rhinestones for a music video shoot. She balked at the finished outfit and insisted it had to have rhinestones on the back as well.
• Evil Feels Good: Seemed blissful, even giddy, during her Face–Heel Turn (in the moments she wasn't gunning after Paige in a fury, at least). She even grinned at the audience/cameras and outright said, "It feels good."
• Expository Hairstyle Change: In the Funkadactyls she mostly wore her hair straight. After they split she wore her hair braided or curly more often. Likewise just before she turned heel, she changed her hair to be more permed. Of course that ended up subverted since she kept changing her hair around. When she returned from injury, she now had coloured tips that glowed in the dark.
• Eyepatch of Power: For a couple of weeks in March 2014 after getting an eye injury courtesy of Aksana the month before. The eyepatch even had rhinestones to match Naomi's gear.
• Face: Has been a face for almost the entire duration of her entire pro-wrestling career. They really tried to make her a heel when she first appeared in FCW, but fans kept cheering for her and her natural athleticism made her a perfect face. 2015 marked her first heel turn but she turned back face in 2016.
• Face–Heel Turn: Her first heel turn on the main roster when she attacked Paige post-match for winning a battle royal on April 13, 2015's RAW to become No. 1 Contender to Nikki Bella's Divas Championship. Why? Because Naomi had already pinned Nikki-as-champ twice^note Actually three times, taking an episode of Main Event into account, which should by all rights have automatically made Naomi the No. 1 Contender and yet she never got the title matches; Naomi just got tired of playing nice by sitting back and letting opportunities slip by her. Her turn was quite surprising at the time, as there had been nothing to hint to it occurring. She got plenty of heat for the beatdown, as Paige is not only one of the most over Divas, she's English — guess where RAW was that night?
• Fake-Hair Drama: According to Abraham Washington, Naomi would be easier to put away if every woman she wrestled did not make the mistake of pulling on her apparently expensive weave.
• Fanservice Pack: Her NXT ring gear resembled workout clothes that were more modest than the other Divas, but her Funkadactyl gear was a lot skimpier, and only got sexier as time went on.
• Finishing Move: The complete list includes — Knight Falls (a leg lariat used in FCW, which became a Signature Move on the main roster), a springboard crossbody (when she first started wrestling on the main roster), the Rear View (Ass Kicks You), split-legged moonsault, an inverted DDT, a handstand headscissors facebuster, and a headscissors crucifix choke submission called the Slayomission. Only the Rear View seems to have endured over the years, with the latter two used sporadically.
• Five Moves of Doom: Flipping clothesline, dropkicks, running hurricanrana, Full Nelson Bomb.
• Friendship Moment: Called out Tyson Kidd for his treatment of Natalya. Too bad that Nattie then yelled at her for "ruining everything".
• Fun with Acronyms: Her heel Tag Team with Tamina Snuka (and later Power Trio with the addition of Sasha Banks) is appropriately named (Team) BAD. Naomi originally defined the acronym as "Beautiful Alpha Divas," then "Best At Dominating," but soon after Sasha joined it became "Beautiful And Dangerous."
• Gag Haircut: Becomes the victim to one on Total Divas when she gets drunk and allows Paige to do her hair before WrestleMania.
• Genre Blindness: At first she seemed to get how to appeal to the audience better than anyone else on NXT. Then for the NXT Halloween costume contest she dressed as the hamburger helper hand, "One Pound, One Pan, One Tasty Meal", which she later wrestled in. Comedy costumes never win contests in WWE unfortunately, less is usually more in those situations.
• Heel–Face Turn: As of her return on 2016 to Smackdown, Naomi established herself as a face by stopping Eva Marie from interfering in a tag match.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: As a heel she wore black leather ring gear.
• Kaleidoscope Hair: On NXT season 3, she had different colored streaks in her hair every week.
• Kick Chick: Naomi favours a lot of kicks and enziguris in her arsenal. There's also one spot where she'll literally blast her opponent with a volley of kicks.
• Leotard of Power: Her default ring outfit, though with sleeves, as part of her rave gimmick.
• One-Steve Limit: She adopted the nickname 'Slayomi' by fans and it's now Canon. WWE also had a female tag team called the Slayers (Summer Rae and Layla) on TV at the same time.
• Only Sane Man: Portrayed as this on Total Divas, but was given this on the main roster too - particularly where Cameron and Natalya were involved.
• Power Trio: BAD with Tamina Snuka and Sasha Banks.
• Retcon: Her NXT Season 3 preview referred to her name as Naomi Knight. On the show's premiere episode the video was edited so that she didn't say the last name — and has been called just Naomi ever since.
• The Runner-Up Takes It All: In the long run, she lasted far longer in WWE than either Kaitlyn or AJ Lee did and probably became more famous as part of Total Divas.
• Sassy Black Woman: Yup. And yet she is probably the most soft-spoken, level-headed person on Planet Funk.
• Second Place Is for Losers: Ironically, she placed second on NXT Season 3 and was the last of the contestants to eventually debut on TV^note Except for Jamie Keyes, who asked for her release before NXT Season 3 had even ended.
• She-Fu: Well, she is a former dancer. There are a lot of flips, rolls, and pretty athletic moves in her matches. She still relies on more subdued and traditional wrestling maneuvers against other women, the flashy moves just being mixed in, but if Naomi is against a man, it is this trope all the way.
• Shout-Out:
  • She has a midair headscissors stinkface move that she called "Bootylicious".
  • According to a WWE.com interview her entire glow gimmick is one to The Last Dragon.
• Signature Move: A jumping high kick (think Enziguiri minus the feint), flying leg lariat (finisher in FCW), diving clothesline (double armed like The Undertaker but flips over if it connects), spinning leg lariat in the corner which leaves her on the apron, a plancha fakeout and the aforementioned rear view. She's also recently added a split-legged moonsault to her repertoire.
• Tag Team:
  • With Cameron as The Funkadactyls, when they weren't valets.
  • BAD started as this with Tamina Snuka, before Sasha Banks was added to the mix.
• Technician Versus Performer: The Technician to Cameron's Performer whenever the two were put against each other. She was always regarded as a wrestling Diva as opposed to a character one. She finally merged the two in 2016 adopting a rave dancer gimmick.
• Token Minority: She's the only black woman on the Smackdown roster, and became the first African-American to hold the Smackdown Women's Championship.
• Unnecessary Combat Roll: Well, she probably doesn't need to do so many flips, but, hey, Rule of Cool.
• Unusual Euphemism: She has pet names for her body parts. Her crotch is her 'cookie' and her breasts are her 'potatoes'. When she and Jimmy Uso were caught in the act on Total Divas, cue plenty of "hand in the cookie jar" jokes online.
• Un-person: Subverted after their walkout in 2022, she, along with Sasha, are no longer mentioned or appears on camera, and their merchandise was discontinued, that compares to CM Punk's level back in 2014. Despite that, they retained their WWE.com profiles.
• Ur-Example: The first FCW Divas Champion. There were two older belts that filled the same niche though, the first being the NWA Florida Women's title, holder being Mae Young, back when the company was still called CWF. To summarize, CWF was forced to change its name to FCW for a time and since there were several NWA promotions in Florida, established its very own FCW Ladies title, the first holder being Alexis Laree. For added confusion, there was also a Queen Of FCW ^note represented by a crown rather than a belt, the contemporary FCW 15 title was represented by a medal, the first champion being Angela Fong. Naomi would go on to lose to AJ Lee, who simplified things somewhat by combining "Queen" with "Divas".
• Use Your Head: Durin NXT Season 3, she defeated Maxine in a singles match after hitting her with a headbutt. She used the move again on Smackdown in 2020, this time while fighting Alexa Bliss on the top rope. A more frequent way she uses her head in her matches is through her signature split-legged jawbreaker.
• Victory Dance: Has done so at least once after winning a match.
• Worthy Opponent:
  • After coming up short in a Divas' Championship match against Audrey Marie, she shook the champ's hand.
  • Paige acknowledged Naomi as such with a respectful handshake after the latter defeated her. Naomi's tag-team partner Cameron? Not so much.
• Wrestling Family: She is now considered a part of the Anoa'i family through her marriage to Jimmy Uso.
• Xenafication: After a whole year of being just a dancer to Brodus Clay, Naomi suddenly won a #1 contender's battle royal and got a shot at the Divas Championship..

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