Tama Tonga, the most intriguing star athlete in New Japan Pro Wrestling. [57] They reached the final of the 2016 World Tag League but lost to Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma on December 10. [27] Despite this, Hikuleo appeared at the event in the corner of Bullet Club. That . Me and Siva kind of cleaned house there and left. Hikuleo appeared in the crowd on Night 2 of Fyter Fest, watching the IWGP United States Championship match between Jon Moxley and Lance Archer, thus making his All Elite Wrestling (AEW) debut. Later on, Meng had a short-lived feud with Sting and occasionally faced top stars like Lex Luger and WCW Champion Bret Hart. This article is about the professional wrestler. The professional wrestler, the Tongan warrior, is an original member of the Bullet Club with fellow non-Japanese wrestlers - Prince . Following that, Hikuleo debuted in The European promotion Revolution Pro Wrestling for his excursion to gain more experience and training, losing to Dan Magee in his first match on June 29. NJPW star Tama Tonga is a member of the original Bullet Club in the promotion. [10][4], In January 2008, the brothers approached the Dudley Boyz to use the ring they had at the Team 3D Academy of Professional Wrestling and Sports Entertainment training school they operated in Kissimmee, Florida. Jan 5, 2023. And he shared it while taking a jab at the Tonga, alleging his rant came from a Drake album. WWE has interest in longtime New Japan Pro-Wrestling superstar Tama Tonga, according to a recent report from Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp.. Tonga feuded with the top stars of the promotion, including Dino Bravo. Most live rock is sold in two basic categories: base live rock and display quality live rock. As soon as Tama Tongas Twitter lockdown was lifted, he was quick to respond and accused Reigns of snitching him to the Twitter police. The team was named "Guerrillas of Destiny" (G.O.D.). Like bragging about being a bigger star as a WWE wrestler than a non-WWE wrestler actually means nothing at all and is a really weak insult. [91] Tonga later defeated Anderson to regain the NEVER Openweight Championship at Wrestle Kingdom 17, becoming the first to win a NJPW title from a WWE contracted wrestler since the two companies' past partnership ended in 1985. Haku was left to wrestle on the lower card shows like Sunday Night Heat. Tonga is the reigning NEVER Openweight Champion, winning the belt from Karl Anderson at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 17. The match was a 16-man torneo cibernetico elimination match, from which Tonga was eliminated when Atlantis and Shocker double teamed him. "Standing behind [The] Rock at Mania" - Wrestling fans react to Triple H reportedly bringing in WWE legend's adopted son Triple H. Upon winning the ROH World Tag Team Championship at G1 Supercard, he became the third wrestler to have won a championship in NJPW, CMLL, and ROH, behind Rocky Romero and Matt Taven. And then the banter escalated. Roman Reigns was born Leati Joseph Joe Anoaiand is a member of the Anoai family. [34] 94 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the, Ranked No. While stranded on Tama's Island, the rest of the world hasn't stopped spinning around Bullet Club OG Tama Tonga. [65] They lost the title to Chaos (Beretta, Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano) in a five-team gauntlet match on January 4, 2018, at Wrestle Kingdom 12 in Tokyo Dome. Their feud ended after a 6-man tag team match at WrestleMania IV where The Islanders and Heenan (wearing an attack dog outfit) defeated the Bulldogs and Koko B. Ware when Heenan pinned Koko. However, Tonga did manage to defeat the IWGP United States Champion, Juice Robinson, as well as that year's B Block winner, Kota Ibushi. Heenan was also close friends with Andre the Giant and claimed that the only two men in the world that Andre feared were Meng and Harley Race. Your login session has expired. [49], In March 2016, Tonga announced he would reform his tag team with Tevita in NJPW, recruiting him into the Bullet Club as Tanga Loa. On 14 September, the team was eliminated from the tournament in the first round by Team ROH (Mike Bennett and Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson).[15][16]. But after Taichi and Sabre Jr. defeated the champions in two separate singles matches earlier this month, they are expected to challenge for the IWGP Tag Team Championships once again. He attended Tonga College, an all-boys school, where the top sport was rugby. On 28 July 2021, Haku made a surprise appearance at All Elite Wrestling's (AEW) Fight for the Fallen event where he accompanied his son Hikuleo to the ring for his IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship match, where he faced Lance Archer in a losing effort. The team also had a classic feud with The British Bulldogs that was started when the Islanders, along with Bobby Heenan, kidnapped the Bulldogs' mascot, a bulldog named Matilda. By: Caroline John - Published: August 2, 2018 at 9:21 am, Tama Tonga (Left) and Roman Reigns (Right) (Photo: Twitter/Tama_Tonga, Jon Kopaloff/Stringer). Part of that is because he has seen the different roles kayfabe plays in Japan compared to the United States. Be the first one to comment on this story. [11] Shortly after competing in the Royal Rumble in 1992, Haku left the WWF to compete exclusively in SWS.[12]. In the summer of 1990 Haku transitioned to an opening card wrestler on the house show circuit. Later that month he was programmed into a house show program with Hercules. In the first part of 2010 he returned to WWC, first as a singles wrestler with the moniker King Tonga Jr. (his father had also wrestled in Puerto Rico as King Tonga). By Gentleman Ian. They have a daughter, Vika; a son, Tevita who is also a wrestler; and two adopted sons, Alipate and Taula. Maivia's daughter, Ata Maivia-Johnson, is Jax's aunt. Haku on The Rock & Rocky JohnsonWWE/WCW/New Japan Pro Wrestling Superstar Haku aka Meng aka King Tonga talks about Hollywood Megastar Dwayne "The Rock" Johns. [21][22] In August, Hikuleo was defeated by Juice Robinson at NJPW Resurgence. Nevertheless, this merely served as a springboard for him to wrestle all over the world. GoD To Become IWGP Tag Team Champions | Wrestle Kingdom 14 | NJPW | New Japan Pro Wrestling", "NJPW New Beginning USA Results 2.1.20: New IWGP Tag Team Ch", "The Guerrillas Of Destiny Capture The IWGP Tag Team Titles At NEW BEGINNING USA IN ATLANTA", "New IWGP Tag Team Champions Crowned at New Japan Road", "New IWGP Tag-Team Champions Crowned - Details", "Resultados Finales New Japan World Tag League 2020 - Best of the Super Jr. 27", " Presents WRESTLE KINGDOM 15 in 2021/1/4", "New IWGP Tag Team Champions Crowned At NJPW's "Wrestle Kingdom 15", "#AndNEW: Guerrillas Of Destiny Win IWGP Tag Titles At Wrestle Kingdom", "G.o.D Get Ace Aid in Nagaoka | NEW JAPAN PRO-WRESTLING", "NJPW Wrestling Dontaku 2022 Results: Tama Tonga Defeats EVIL for NEVER Openweight Championship, Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows Return to Japan (05/01)", "NJPW Dominion 6.12 Results: Jay White Defeats Kazuchika Okada to Win IWGP World Heavyweight Championship (06/12)", "NJPW G1 Climax 32 block winners determined, semifinals set", "NJPW G1 Climax 32- Semifinal Results (8/17) the Final Four Clash in Budokan", "2022.10.10 Declaration of Power | NEW JAPAN PRO-WRESTLING", "Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) 500 for 2019 - the Internet Wrestling Database", "FTR Takes Top Spot On The Inaugural PWI Tag Team 50 List", "The ROHbot Report: 2019 ROH Year-End Awards And More", "WXW Television Championship Titles Database CAGEMATCH - The Internet Wrestling Database", "WC Big Top Tag Team Championship Titles Database CAGEMATCH - The Internet Wrestling Database", "02/19/2017 - WrestleCircus Presents: Taking Center Stage", "Daily Update: The Rock at Raw, Pete Dunne, Payback", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tama_Tonga&oldid=1139209678, Expatriate professional wrestlers in Japan, Articles with dead external links from August 2017, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles lacking reliable references from November 2017, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Ranked No. New Japan Pro-Wrestling has revealed the full lineup for its upcoming 51st Anniversary event to take place at the Ota Ward General Gymnasium on March 6th. This led to there being two sides to Bullet Club; Team Cody and Team Kenny. [53] NJPW's most prestigious tournament, it entitles its winner to an IWGP Heavyweight Championship title match at the next Wrestle Kingdom., Tonga's participation in the G1 was seen as a major step-up. Are Tama Tonga and Roman Reigns related to each other? [15] Tonga was one of sixteen wrestlers who competed in the 2010 Best of the Super Juniors tournament. Although they are both apart of the Anoai family, Johnson and Reigns arent biologically related. He, alongside Theres no evidence that Tama Tonga and Roman Reigns are even distantly related. [55] Tonga finished the tournament on August 12 with a record of four wins and five losses. Then the fight started. In a shoot interview Bobby Heenan talked extensively about Meng and referred to him as the toughest man he has ever met. Rob Parker,[13] wearing business suits and shades while maintaining a quiet demeanor. He is currently signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he is the current NEVER Openweight Champion in his second reign. [42] Civil Unrest. [90] Due to knocking White out of the tournament, Tonga earned an IWGP World Heavyweight Championship match on October 10 at Declaration of Power, however failed to capture the title from White at the event. Tonga and Fale would team up again in the 2015 World Tag League for a worse result, picking up two wins for four losses to finish penultimate with four points. Alipate Aloisio Leone, popularly known as Tama Tonga, is often linked with WWE Champion Roman Reigns. Meng finally won the title at the Sin pay-per-view on 14 January 2001. I said, 'Yeah. Your login session has expired. He also entered the 2011 G1 Tag League tournament, this time teaming up with Strong Man, calling themselves Muscle Pavilion. People used to always compared Tama Tonga and Roman Reigns. At No Surrender, Jay White interfered in the Guerrillas of Destiny's match against former Bullet Club stablemates Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows by hitting his finishing move Bladerunner on Tonga causing them to lose the match. [12] TAMA offers Drum Kits, Snare Drums, Original Percussion, Hardware, Microphone Stands and Sticks, plus drum accessories like bags, cases and practice goods. defeated Makabe and Honma to become the new IWGP Tag Team Champions. Andr's face turn meant that the team had split. comments sorted by Best Top New Controversial Q&A Add a Comment Pumpkin-Bomb On April 10 at Invasion Attack 2016, G.O.D. For more information, please see our Be the first one to comment on this story. Ahead of Wednesday's episode of AEW Dynamite, the Bullet Club original revealed that he was a free agent, fuelling speculation that he would appear for the US-promotion.As Tama Tonga's original tweet featured a 'misinformation' hashtag, many fans questioned whether . They finished at the bottom of their block with a record of three wins and four losses. At Wrestling Dontaku, Tonga defeated EVIL to win the NEVER Openweight Championship, his first New Japan singles championship. After the Rumble, he formed a tag team with Rikishi, but the team did not last long due to Rikishi suffering an injury. I'll never forget it."[51]. Late in the match Andr attempted to interfere, but Haku accidentally struck him with a savate kick which left Andr tied in the ropes; Haku was pinned shortly after this. He took part in the 2014 World Tag League with Bad Luck Fale in November of that year. This is the official feed of New Japan Pro Wrestling Athlete Tama Tonga's podcast, Tama's Island! He would return in 2003 to win the championship for the third time. After moving to Japan in 1974, he competed under the shikona (sumo name) of Fukunoshima (). Since 2003, Fifita has been essentially retired, returning to the wrestling ring on a few occasions over the years. Tonga has spent his entire career in New Japan, but he does have some ties to WWE. As one half of the Guerrillas of Destiny with Tanga Loa, the Bullet Club. However he would cement his position as king by successfully defending his crown against the returning Race in a match at the 1989 Royal Rumble at The Summit in Houston. They continued wrestling under the same name in World Xtreme Wrestling (WXW) and Puerto Rico's World Wrestling Council (WWC) until early 2009. His dad, Rocky Johnson, was married to Ata Maivia, who is Peter Maivias adoptive daughter. 46: 29.10.2021: Later, he faced Sting in a losing effort for the vacated United States title at the 1995 Great American Bash. In 1988, following King Harley Race's legitimate stomach injury sustained in a match against Hulk Hogan, Haku was given Race's crown and robe and was rechristened King Haku during a coronation ceremony. 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