Afa Anoaʻi
Gataivasa Afa Anoa'i ( born November 21, 1942, Samoa ) is a Samoan American retired professional wrestler and wrestling manager, now a successful wrestling trainer and promoter. He trained with his brother Leati " Sika " Anoa'i as "The Wild Samoans " one of the most successful teams in the sport of wrestling day. Both are members of the WWE Hall of Fame since 2007.
- 3.1 Title
- 4.1 Filmography ( supporting roles )
- 4.2 Private / Family
Anoa'i was born in 1942 on the island of Samoa, but his family moved soon after San Francisco, California. At the age of 17, he volunteered for military service and joined the United States Marine Corps. After his discharge from the military, he was taken by Rocky Johnson and Peter Maivia into the wrestling business and got through it his first training session. Peter Maivia was a blood brother of his father, Johnson, in turn, the son-in Maivias. He gave his debut in 1971 in Phoenix.
1973, after further training by the wrestler Kurt von Steiger, he trained the way his brother Polaivao Leati Sika, which should be known as " Sika the Wild Samoan ". The two brothers played from then on as a tag team "The Wild Samoans " and Stu Hart's Stampede were active in Wrestling promotion, as well as in wrestling federation NWA.
Career
Active Wrestler
1978 were the brothers in Japan and won there the tag team title of the International Wrestling Alliance. In 1979, she finally came to the WWWF with Lou Albano as a manager. Their " savagery " has now been underlined in interviews again that they gave only grunts and ate raw fish. They received on April 12 Finally in 1980 the WWF Tag Team titles, lost him on 9 August of that year, shortly again to Bob Backlund and Pedro Morales, before they again got the title on September 9.
On November 8, they lost the title back to Tony Garea and Rick Martel and left the organization in the direction of NWA. In 1983 she returned to the WWF and got the tag team title for the third time, this time against the Strongbow Brothers. As Sika injured himself shortly, came Afas Samula son, Samu alias added and they stood on as a trio. They fehdeten mainly with Andre the Giant, Jimmy Snuka, Rocky Johnson and Tony Atlas. In 1984 she left the WWF again, and stood on an independent level by the end of the eighties on.
Manager, trainer and promoter
In 1992, Afa as manager of the Tag Teams "The Headshrinkers " back to the WWF. The team was made up of his son Samu and Fatu his nephew. The team won under his management also the tag team titles before Afa 1994, the WWF and left with his brother opened his own wrestling school. But even before that he had worked as a wrestling trainer and spawned such well-known names such as his nephew Yokozuna or Batista. Since 1996 he runs the wrestling promotion "World Xtreme Wrestling" ( WXW ), which already served some wrestlers as a springboard into the big leagues.
In 1999 he finally opened the "Wild Samoan Training Center " in Allentown, Pennsylvania. 2007 Afa introduced along with his brother from their oldest sons into the WWE Hall of Fame. On March 02, 2014 he got into his promotion for one last match again in the ring.
Title
Title
- Championship Wrestling from Florida 1 x NWA Florida Tag Team Championship with Sika
- 2 x NWA Gulf Coast Tag Team Championship with Sika
- 5 x UWF Tag Team Championship with Sika
- 2 x Detroit NWA World Tag Team Championship with Sika
- 2 x NWA Southern Tag Team Championship with Sika
- 2 x Stampede International Tag Team Championship with Sika
- 3 x WWWF / WWF World Tag Team Champion with Sika
Others
Filmography ( supporting roles )
Private / family
Afas family is as complex as large. One can say that the " Samoan Family" is one of the dominant and largest in wrestling:
- Afa even coached his younger brother Leati ( Sika ). In the meantime married a sister of Jimmy Snuka Rocky Johnson.
- Afas sons Samuel ( Samu ), Lloyd ( Alofa ) and Afa Jr. ( Manu ) were all wrestlers, plus he still has a daughter, Monica, who was married to the late wrestler Gary Albright.
- Afa has three siblings, their children also wrestlers were: Matthew " Rosey " Anoa'i and Roman Reigns ( Sika's sons ), Rodney and Reno Anoa'i aka Yokozuna and Black Pearl ( sons of his brother Junior), and the brothers Edward, Samuel and Solofa Fatu, aka Umaga, Tonga Kid and rikishi ( sons of his sister Vera).
- Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso are his great-nephew.
- The son of Rocky Johnson is The Rock, the Jimmy Snuka is Deuce.