Backstage Stories About WWE’s The Wild Samoans

The Wild Samoans, Afa and Sika were legendary tag team that starred for WWE before and in the early days of its 1980s national expansion. Additionally, the two big men succeeded in a range of territories before and after their time in New York, arriving as a memorable and widely respected pairing throughout the wrestling world. For all the accolades the brothers collected as in-ring performers, their legacy has only blossomed since.

The Wild Samoans became trainers, credited with helping talents ranging from Batista to Beth Phoenix prepare for huge careers in the business. Perhaps even more importantly, they’re viewed as elder statemen of the Anoa’i family. They represented the second generation of this family in the wrestling business and the generation to follow included no lesser stars than The Rock, Roman Reigns, Yokozuna, and Rikishi. A High Spots shoot interview with Afa and Sika (h/t Scott’s Blog of Doom) revealed a range of interesting behind the scenes stories related to the duo.

The Wild Samoans Went To Jail With Hulk Hogan

Strange Things Could Happen For Wrestlers On The Road

• Unexpected groupings of wrestlers traveled together at times.
• Hulk Hogan, Afa, and Sika got pulled over and arrested by police when they found a gun in the glove box.
• Hulk Hogan got off easier than Afa and Sika.

Afa and Sika were contemporaries of Hulk Hogan and have told a story of the three of them traveling together on the road, only to get pulled over by the police. Hogan did the talking, but wasn’t able to help them out of a jam when police found a gun in the glove compartment.

The Wild Samoans shared that the judge involved in their case let The Hulkster leave, with the implication it had to do with his star power, while it took Afa and Sika longer to get out of hot water.

Vince McMahon Sr. Laid The Foundation For The Connection Between The Anoa’i Family And WWE

The Roots Between The McMahon And Anoa’i Families Run Deep

• The Wild Samoans worked for Vince McMahon Sr. in New York.
• Vince McMahon Sr. told The Wild Samoans in front of his son that they were like family to him.
• Afa and Sika credited the elder McMahon with laying the groundwork for Vince McMahon hiring and pushing Anoa’i family members for generations to come.

The Wild Samoans shared that while working under Vince McMahon Sr., the promoter told them that they were like family to him given what they’d contributed to his business. They indicated that Vincent Kennedy McMahon was around for that very conversation.

Afa credited these comments from the older McMahon as the groundwork for the decades-long relationship between the Anoa’i family and WWE, as the next generation of the McMahon family looked out for the next generation of the Anoa’i family. After a bit of prodding, Vincent Kennedy McMahon also selected The Wild Samoans for WWE Hall of Fame induction in 2008.

The Wild Samoans Played Up Their Gimmick At Hamburger Stands In Puerto Rico

Kayfabe Transcended The Arena

• The Wild Samoans were expected to keep up their primitive characters in public.
• As a stunt to get people talking, Afa and Sika staged a scene at local hamburger stands in Puerto Rico.
• The Wild Samoans pocketed the actual food and savagely ripped at paper with their hands and teeth to get attention.

A big part of wrestling in The Wild Samoans’ heyday was protecting kayfabe and acting as though their gimmicks were real, even well away from the arena. Case in point, when the two were working in Puerto Rico they took their show on the road at local hamburger stands.

Afa and Sika spoke about ordering hamburgers then putting the food in their pockets and making a spectacle of themselves for bystanders, instead messily ripping at the paper packaging and tearing it apart with their teeth to the bewilderment of those looking on.

Stu Hart Stretched Out The Wild Samoans In A Car

Even Outside His Dungeon, Stu Hart Was Always Teaching Lessons

• Stu Hart was famous for punishing wrestlers with shoot holds in his Dungeon.
• The Wild Samoans didn’t visit Hart House when they were working for Stampede Wrestling.
• Stu Hart stretched The Wild Samoans in a car on the road.

Like so many major acts in wrestling, The Wild Samoans worked for a bit in the Hart family’s Stampede Wrestling promotion based out of Calgary. The duo were not, however, among those talents who visited Stu Hart’s infamous Dungeon to get stretched in the basement of Hart House by way of training, instilling respect, and ribbing.

The Wild Samoans did, however, speak to riding in a car with Hart and that he took the liberty of stretching them out inside the car much the same way he’d famously done to so many wrestlers on the mat.

The Wild Samoans Walked On Nails In The Mid-South

• In the days of stronger kayfabe, fans would be out to hurt heels.
• Fans in the Mid-South scattered nails on the floor that Afa and Sika had to walk over.
• The situation was especially dangerous for The Wild Samoans because they walked to the ring barefoot.

In the peak days of kayfabe, wrestling fans in regional territories tended to take their sports entertainment very seriously, including going out of their way to antagonize the heels. Afa and Sika recalled having a rough go of it when they wrestled for Bill Watts’s Mid-South promotion.

The brothers reported fans dropping nails on the floor when they were coming to the ring. Because they wrestled barefoot, it created a gruesome obstacle to have to have walk over nails on their way to the ring for a match.

The Wild Samoans Pushed Their Car To A Venue, Working For Stampede

Car Trouble Would Keep Afa And Sika From Making The Town

• The Wild Samoans worked for Stampede Wrestling earlier in their careers.
• The Canadian cold and distance from home led Afa and Sika not to stick around Stampede for very long.
• When Afa and Sika’s car died on the way to a show, they pushed it all the way to the arena.

The Wild Samoans didn’t stick it out for too long in the Stampede Wrestling promotion, citing the challenges of the cold and being so far away from home to wrestle for Stu Hart early in their careers. As a bit of a rite of passage, they recalled an incident when their car died on them in the cold north of the border, but they still had to make it to wrestle.

Proving their strength and toughness, Afa and Sika pushed their car all the way to the venue and still lived up to their commitment to wrestle that night.

A Closed-Minded Hairdresser In Louisiana Put Off The Wild Samoans From Getting Haircuts

Wild Hair Became Part Of Afa And Sika’s Look

• The Wild Samoans spoke about what it was like wrestling for Mid-South in an interview with Bill Apter.
• A prejudiced barber said he didn’t cut “your kind of hair.”
• The Wild Samoans never sought a professional haircut again.

A signature parts of The Wild Samoans fans know about was their wild hair. While that look made all the sense in the world for their gimmick, it emerged less by design than happenstance during their time wrestling in the Mid-South. In an interview with Bill Apter (h/t Looper) they shared that a prejudiced hairdresser outside Baton Rouge refused them service, saying he didn’t cut “your kind of hair.”

It’s not entirely clear if The Wild Samoans were hurt by the closed-mindedness or turned the unfortunate circumstance into an opportunity, but they claimed they never visited a barbershop again.

Afa Wrestled As Late As 2014

The Wild Samoans Were A Famous Team Over 3 Decades Earlier

• After transitioning to a career as a trainer and promoter, Afa still entered the ring on occasion.
• In 2014, Afa worked his last match on record.
• Three generations of Anoa’i family members were represented on Afa’s five-man team.

The Wild Samoans are best known for wrestling in the 1970s and 1980s before mostly transitioning to training and promoting wrestling. However, Afa actually got in the ring himself work a match as late as 2014, in his early seventies.

The match saw Afa team with his family—three sons and a grandson—for a ten-man tag team match that wasn’t too strenuous on him, but was a cool demonstration of the depth of the family’s roots in wrestling. The match occurred in Afa’s WXW promotion.