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PWInsider.com is extremely sad to report the passing of WWE Hall of Famer Sika Anoa'i, one half of The Wild Samoans and the father of Roman Reigns and the late Matt "Rosey" Anoa'i.
Born in America Samoa, Sika and his family moved to San Francisco where he and Afa were well known fans who were so tough that after getting into altercations with heels, it was thought that it'd be safer for those in the business to bring them into the fold. After time serving in the merchant marines, Sika debuted alongside Afa in Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling. They had been trained by the late Kurt Von Steiger.
The Wild Samoans tag team were a product of their time, playing over the savage villains, wrestling barefoot and not speaking English to get over the idea of massive foreign heels beating down the American babyfaces. The reality was that despite their fearsome appearances, accentuated with rough work in the ring and wild hair, behind the scenes they were absolute gentlemen who didn't need to show their toughness unless tested. The pair helped spark the Anoa'i dynasty that includes countless children, cousins and adopted members, from The Rock to the late Jimmy Snuka to Rikishi and Samu to today's Bloodline in WWE.
The Wild Samoans battled all across every territory you would imagine, from Japan's IWE and NJPW to Stampede to Puerto Rico's WWC, Big Time Wrestling, the Continental Wrestling Association, Mid-South Wrestling, Gulf Coast Championship Wrestling, NWA All-Star Wrestling, NWA Mid-America and beyond, but they will be forever connected to the WWF, where they, under the management of Lou Albano, won the WWF Tag Team titles on three occasions and became one of the most famous teams of that era.
The pair were the dominant team in the early 80s for the promotion and were so pushed as heels that they would each challenge for the WWF Championship against Bob Backlund. They won the Tag Titles from Ivan Putski and Titio Santana in April 1980 before losing them that August to Backlund and Pedro Morales at Shea Stadium. Since Backlund was the reigning WWF titleholder at the time, the belts were vacated with The Samoans winning a tournament to capture them a second time
They lost the belts and moved on, touring for New Japan and working for Bill Watts in a storyline where they turned on Ernie Ladd to show allegiance to Skandar Akbar, winning the Mid-South Tag belts a number of times and feuding with Junkyard Dog. In Georgia Championship Wrestling, they were managed by Sonny King and feuded with The Fabulous Freebirds before leaving to return to the WWF.
The WWF return coincided with Vince Kennedy McMahon taking over the promotion. Once again, Afa and Sika were with Albano and once again they won the Championships for the third and final time, defeating The Strongbows. When Sika was hurt, a third member of the team, Afa's son Samu (sometimes billed as Samula) joined the team, at the time becoming one of the youngest men to main event Madison Square Garden.
The Samoans lost the titles for the final time to Tony Atlas and Rocky Johnson, a major milestone moment as the new champions were the first Black WWF Tag Team Champions, a moment that would be celebrated as part of the company history and is still promoted as such today. The crowd reaction in Allentown, PA when Albano accidentally struck his charge with a wooden steel chair, splintering it to set up the finish, is as electric as any promoter would ever hope for out of a live crowd.
Very soon, the WWF was Hulk Hogan country and Sika challenged him for the title. The Samoans however, were soon babyfaces after splitting with Albano in the wake of the loss, feuding with Dick Murdoch and Adrian Adonis before exiting the company yet again. The team would work some additional groups with Afa soon settling into promoting the TWWF and later the WXW in Pennsylvania while training talents (and Mickey Rourke) for the ring but Sika would eventually have a WWF run independent of Afa.
Returning to the WWF in 1986, Sika was promoted as a massive monster heel and even teamed with Kamala, a grouping that was played up as menacing on television but never really getting any sort of sustained push as a duo. Sika would again challenge Hogan for the WWF Championship on an episode of Saturday Night's Main Event in 1987 and made his Wrestlemania debut as part of a Battle Royal won by Bad News Brown at March 1988's Wrestlemania IV inn Atlantic City, NJ.
After WWF, Samu made a few random appearances in the ring but by the early 1990s was pretty much retired as a wrestler. He promoted the XW 2000 promotion out of Pensacola, Florida and made appearances on conventions for signings. he and Afa were deservedly inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2007.
In recent years, the rise of Roman Reigns as the leader of The Bloodline as well as The Wild Samoans' inclusion in all four season of NBC's Young Rock continued to elevate the legacy of The Wild Samoans, baking it ever deeper into the DNA of WWE. This past year's Wrestlemania run for The Rock and Reigns as a team was literally built on the backs of their family's legacy - and in many ways, it all began with Sika and Afa, who will forever be immortal, rightfully so, for all they accomplished in the business and the doors they opened for their family members to thrive in the generations that followed their own reign of terror in the ring.
On behalf of everyone at PWInsider.com, we send our deepest condolences to the entire Anoa'i family.
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