3 - Minute Warning 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 . 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 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 .