One half of the Wild Samoans passed away on June 25th peacefully, surrounded by his family at the age of 79. He, and his brother Afa paved the way for multiple elite-level Samoan wrestlers to perform at the highest level in multiple wrestling organizations across the world. To celebrate all of Sika’s accomplishments we put together a list of facts and accomplishments that you may or may not know, but are all true.
- Leati Sika Amituana’i Anoa’i was born on April 5th 1945 in the village of Leone on the island of Tutuila in American Samoa. He was one of 13 children.
2) Sika was part of the United States Merchant Marines sailing ships mainly to Philippines and Japan before he joined his brother Afa in a wrestling ring.
3) Back in the middle and late 70’s, when the Wild Samoans debuted and built their reputations, wrestling was divided into territories. From 1973-1980 the group appeared with roughly 8-10 different territories where they won multiple tag team titles.
4) The Wild Samoans then had their first WWF run in 1980 from January to December. In so doing, they were managed by Captain Lou Albano and held the WWF Tag Team Titles twice.
5) In 1983 the Wild Samoans returned to WWF, were aligned once again with Lou Albano and on March 8th captured the WWE Tag Titles for the third and final time beating Chief Jay Strongbow and Jules Strongbow.
“My father had a profound impact on my entire family and we are forever grateful for the foundation he built for us. There’s no way to fill the void left by his passing but my sisters and I will do our best to represent him and his legacy,” he said. “Rest in Power, Dad. We love you.”
6) Later that year The Wild Samoans lost their title belts to a familiar team, the Soul Patrol (Rocky Johnson and Tony Atlas). Those two tag teams had a long standing rivalry, but The Wild Samoans would never capture the titles again. They once again left WWF in January of 1985.
7) After joining several other promotions, Afa had semi retired and Sika went back to WWF as a singles wrestler, this time managed by The Wizard.
8) In 1987 Anoa’i teamed with Kamala, his manager Mr Fuji and his “handler” Kim Chee. But the team dissolved later that same year when Kamala left the WWF.
9) It took until March 27th 1988 for Anoa’i to be featured on a pay-per-view. He wrestled in a Battle Royal at Wrestle-mania IV, which was his last WWF match.
10) Following his retirement, Sika was still active in the wrestling business as he and his brother formed the Wild Samoan Training Center. Their training center churned out both Batista and Yokozuna.
11) The Anoa’i wrestling family is vast and contains such names as Manu, current NXT General Manager Ava Raine, Samu and Fatu of the Samoan Swat Team (they were also the Headshrinkers), Sonny Siaki, Rosey(pictured above), Umaga (some of you may remember 3 Minute Warning) MLW’s Lance Anoa’i, Nia Jax, Tamina Snuka is also part of the Anoa’i dynasty, not because her father is Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka, but because her mother is Sharon Anoa’i. The Tonga Kid(who is actually Umaga’s twin brother), Solo Sikoa, Jimmy and Jay Uso, who are all sons of Rikishi, and cousin Yokozuna, Rocky Maivia, Rocky Johnson, and The Rock as well as Jacob Fatu (son of Tonga Kid, nephew of Rikishi) who just made his WWE debut, and the last one that I did not know was part of this lineage until doing this research is Dakota Kai.
We here at WeLikeSportz send our deepest condolences to the Anoa’i family, their friends and fans.
Resource Credit; Wikipedia, The Sportster, Verge Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, WTSP.com, WrestleTalk
Photo Credit Stream Community,
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