Sika Anoaʻi

Sika Anoaʻi
Birth name Leati Anoaʻi
Born (1945-04-05) April 5, 1945[1]
Leone, American Samoa,
United States[1]
Residence Pensacola, Florida,
United States[2]
Children Rosey
Roman Reigns
Family Anoaʻi
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s) Sika
Samoan No2
Sika the Wild Samoan
Billed height 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Billed weight 319 lb (145 kg)
Billed from The Isle of Samoa
Trained by Afa Anoaʻi[3]
Debut 1974

Leati Anoaʻi[4] (born April 5, 1945)[1] is an American Samoan retired professional wrestler and a member of the Anoaʻi family. He is best known as a member of Wild Samoans, who wrestled in various promotions including the World Wrestling Federation and Mid-South Wrestling.

Career

Early tag team success in the WWWF/WWF/NWA

Sika teamed with his brother Afa to form the tag team the Wild Samoans.[4] In 1979, they signed with the World Wrestling Federation (now World Wrestling Entertainment).[5] Along with Afa, Sika held the WWF Tag Team Championship on three occasions.[6] They won their first title in the WWF by defeating the team of Ivan Putski and Tito Santana on April 12, 1980.[7] The Wild Samoans held the belts for almost four months before losing them to Bob Backlund and Pedro Morales on August 9.[7] The title was vacated the following day, however, because Backlund already held the WWF Championship and could not defend both titles. A tournament was held to select the new champions, and The Wild Samoans defeated Tony Garea and Rene Goulet to regain the belts.[7][8]

After losing the title to Garea and Rick Martel, the Wild Samoans left the WWF to compete in Bill Watts' Mid-South Wrestling. They won the tag team championship three times before leaving the promotion to wrestle in the National Wrestling Alliance's Georgia territory.[8] While there, the Wild Samoans defeated the Fabulous Freebirds to win the NWA National Tag Team Championship.[8] Sika and Afa soon left the promotion and vacated the championship.[8]

Following their stint in the NWA, the Wild Samoans returned to the WWF. They won their third and final WWF Tag Team Championship on March 8, 1983 by defeating Jules Strongbow and Chief Jay Strongbow.[7] Four days later, Sika sustained an injury during a match. As a result, he was forced to take time off while his nephew Samula Anoaʻi helped defend the title in his place.[9] The Samoans remained an active team in the WWF until late-1984, turning face and ditching their manager Captain Lou Albano after he cost them the tag team championship to Rocky Johnson and Tony Atlas. While face, they never achieved the same success they had during their runs as champions, quietly feuding with Adrian Adonis and Dick Murdoch until leaving in 1984.

Singles competitor in the WWF (1986-1988)

After Afa left the WWF, Sika also departed. After a two year absence, he returned on the September 13th, 1986 episode of WWF Superstars and defeated Don Driggers.[10] At the start Sika was managed by The Wizard.[11] Now billed as "Sika The Savage Samoan" he started as a singles competitor and was undefeated for several month, until finally being upset by Pedro Morales at a televised house show in Philadelphia, PA on November 8. This would be his only pinfall defeat of the year.

In 1987 he began the year inauspiciously, losing to Mike Rotundo in West Palm Beach, FL on January 1.[12] Sika remained dominant against lower level competition, but began suffering occasional loses in the winter and spring to Corporal Kirschener and Koko B. Ware. On the April 4th episode of WWF Superstars it was announced that Mr. Fuji was assuming his managership from The Wizard. The Wizard also passed his managerial duties of Kamala to Fuji, and Sika and Kamala quickly formed a tag-team. In May they began a house show series with The Can-Am Connection but were winless, and were also upset later that summer by The Young Stallions by countout. Following a pinfall defeat to the Stallions on August 30 in Toronto, Kamala left the promotion leaving Sika a full-time singles competitor again.

Three weeks later Sika headlined headlining the October 3, 1987 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event against Hulk Hogan.[13] Shortly afterwards Sika entered a program with the newly arrived Bam-Bam Bigelow. In the winter of 1987 he entered a feud against Jake Roberts.

Going into 1988 Sika faced Jim Duggan, George Steele, and Lanny Poffo.[14] On March 27, 1988 he participated in his first PPV, appearing a part of the battle royal at WrestleMania IV, but he did not win.[15] This was also his final match, as he left the WWF afterwards.

Post-WWF

Anoaʻi also appeared alongside Roddy Piper and other WWF wrestlers in the 1987 film Body Slam.[4][5] In 1988, Sika teamed up with another relative, Kokina (better known as Yokozuna). The pair wrestled as a tag team in Continental Wrestling Federation and were managed by Alan Martin.[16]

On the March 23, 2007 edition of WWE SmackDown, it was announced that Afa and Sika would be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2007.[17] On March 31, 2007, the Wild Samoans were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by Afa's son, Samu, and Sika's son, Matt.[18]

Sika and Afa now run The Wild Samoan Training Center, a wrestling school that has produced such alumni as Umaga and Batista, Rikishi, Billy Kidman, Chris Kanyon.[19] In March 2002, Sika suffered head and facial injuries when a beer truck hit his car near Pensacola, Florida.[4]

In 1999, Sika started up XW 2000, an independent wrestling promotion based in Pensacola, Florida. From 1999 until 2008 and again since 2010, the promotion runs family-oriented wrestling shows across the Florida Panhandle.

Personal life

One of four children, Sika moved to the United States when he was 14. His father was a pastor and was transferred to San Francisco.[1] To help feed his family, Sika joined the Merchant Marine.[1] Eventually, he followed Afa's lead and began wrestling professionally.[1]

Sika has two sons, Matthew and Leati Joseph.[5][20] Matt was a professional wrestler, who briefly wrestled in WWE under the name "Rosey", before dying on April 17, 2017. Leati Joseph, known as Joe, played college football for Georgia Tech from 2003 to 2006.[21] He began a wrestling career in 2010, working for WWE under the ring name Roman Reigns where he is a three-time WWE World Heavyweight Champion.

Sika and Afa are relatives of heavyweight boxer David Tua .[22]

In wrestling

Championships and accomplishments

  • Other honoree (1997)
  • IWA Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Afa[4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Sutter, Frederic Koehler (1989). The Samoans: A Global Family. Honolulu, Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press. p. 195. ISBN 0-8248-1238-7.
  2. ↑ "Wild Samoans: Tag Team/> Legends". Spasifik. Retrieved 2007-10-11.
  3. ↑ "Ten Questions With Afa the Wild Samoan". Wrestling Clothesline. Retrieved 2007-10-11.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Online World of Wrestling – Sika Anoai". Retrieved 2007-09-08.
  5. 1 2 3 "Biography: The Wild Samoans". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved 2007-10-11.
  6. 1 2 "History of the World Tag Team Championship". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved 2007-10-11.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "WWWF/WWF/WWE World Tag Team Title". Wrestling Titles. Retrieved 2007-12-26.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Tag Team Profiles: The Wild Samoans". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2007-12-25.
  9. ↑ "WWF World Tag Team Title History". Wrestling Information Archive. Retrieved 2007-10-12.
  10. ↑ http://www.thehistoryofwwe.com/86.htm
  11. 1 2 3 "Wrestler Profiles: Curtis Iaukea". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2007-10-12.
  12. ↑ http://www.thehistoryofwwe.com/87.htm
  13. ↑ "WWE Saturday Night's Main Event results – September 23, 1987". Retrieved 2007-09-08.
  14. ↑ http://www.thehistoryofwwe.com/88.htm
  15. ↑ "WWE WrestleMania IV results – March 27, 1988". Retrieved 2007-09-08.
  16. 1 2 "Eddie Gilbert Page 2". Kayfabe Memories. Retrieved 2007-10-12.
  17. ↑ "WWE SmackDown results – March 23, 2007". Retrieved 2007-09-08.
  18. ↑ "Hall of Fame 2007". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2007-09-08.
  19. ↑ "Wild Samoans: Tag Team Legends". Spasifik. Retrieved 2007-10-11.
  20. ↑ "Wild Samoan Sika". The Wild Samoan Training Center. Retrieved 2007-10-11.
  21. ↑ "Player Bio: Joe Anoai". Ramblin Wreck. Retrieved 2007-10-12.
  22. ↑ "David Tua". The Wild Samoan Training Center. Retrieved 2007-10-12.
  23. ↑ "Biography: Captain Lou Albano". World Wrestling Entertainment. Archived from the original on July 5, 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-12.
  24. ↑ "Continental Wrestling: November 1987 – May 1988". Retrieved 2001-10-12.
  25. ↑ "Memphis/CWA #3 Page #2". Kayfabe Memories. Retrieved 207-10-12. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  26. ↑ "Bruno Lauer's profile". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2009-08-03.
  27. ↑ "N.W.A. (Mid-America)/A.W.A. Southern Tag Team Title". Wrestling-Titles.com. Retrieved 2007-10-12.
  28. ↑ "N.W.A. National Tag Team Title". Wrestling-Titles.com. Retrieved 2007-10-12.
  29. ↑ "Gulf Coast Tag Team Title". Wrestling-Titles.com. Retrieved 2007-10-12.
  30. ↑ Royal Duncan and Gary Will (2000). "Tennessee: U.S. Tag Team Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. p. 194. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
  31. ↑ "NWA United States Tag Team Title (Mid-America)". wrestling-titles.com. Retrieved April 23, 2015.
  32. ↑ "Pro Wrestling Illustrated's Top 500 Wrestlers of the PWI Years". Wrestling Information Archive. Archived from the original on 2011-07-07. Retrieved 2007-10-11.
  33. ↑ "Pro Wrestling Illustrated's Top 100 Tag Teams of the PWI Years". Wrestling Information Archive. Archived from the original on 2011-09-21. Retrieved 2007-10-11.
  34. ↑ "The Wild Samoans". World Wrestling Entertainment. Archived from the original on 2007-07-18. Retrieved 2007-10-11.
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