Afa Anoaʻi


Arthur Anoaʻi Sr. is a Samoan American retired professional wrestler and professional wrestling manager. Since retiring, he has operated the World Xtreme Wrestling promotion and trained wrestlers at the Wild Samoan Training Center.

Early life

Anoa'i was born on the island of Western Samoa, a trust territory that was then administered by New Zealand, and his family relocated to San Francisco, California in the United States when he was young. At the age of 17, Anoa'i enlisted in the United States Naval Sea Cadet Corps.

Professional wrestling career

Upon leaving the Naval Sea Cadet Corps, Anoaʻi began training as a wrestler under family friends Rocky Johnson and Peter Maivia. He later received supplementary training from Kurt Von Steiger. He wrestled his first match in 1971, in Phoenix, Arizona. He then trained his brother Sika, and the siblings formed a tag team known best as The Wild Samoans.
Throughout the 1970s, The Wild Samoans wrestled for the Canadian Stampede Wrestling promotion and for numerous National Wrestling Alliance affiliates. In 1978, The Wild Samoans traveled to Japan to wrestle for the International Wrestling Alliance, winning the IWA Tag Team Championship.

World Wrestling Federation (1979–1980, 1983–1984, 1992–1995)

In 1979, The Wild Samoans joined the World Wrestling Federation, where they were managed by Lou Albano and referred to as "Albano's Wildmen". The "wild" nature of the brothers was conveyed through their unorthodox behavior. While in the WWF, The Wild Samoans won the WWF World Tag Team Championship. Both members also challenged Bob Backlund for the WWF Heavyweight Championship on several occasions. They left the promotion in 1980.
The Wild Samoans then wrestled in Mid-South Wrestling and Jim Crockett Promotions, before returning to the WWF in 1983 and regaining the WWF World Tag Team Championship. After Sika suffered an injury, the tag team was supplemented by Afa's son Samu. The trio remained in the WWF until 1984. According to Afa, he lost his job because a few days earlier, Afa didn't come to work because he was at the birth of his son. Afa Anoaʻi returned to the WWF for a third time in 1992, as the manager and occasional tag partner of The Headshrinkers. He wrestled his final match on May 22, 1994, teaming with The Headshrinkers to defeat The Quebecers and Johnny Polo at the Rosemont Horizon. Anoaʻi left the WWF in mid-1995.

Late career

After leaving the WWF, he began training wrestlers at his Wild Samoan Training Facility, along with Sika. On March 31, 2007, the Wild Samoans were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by Samu and Sika's son, Matt. He was the wrestling trainer for Darren Aronofsky's 2008 film, The Wrestler.
In 2013 and 2014 Afa came out of retirement to wrestle for his promotion World Xtreme Wrestling at age 71.

Other work

In 1999, Afa and Lynn Anoaʻi started the Usos Foundation, a non-profit organization aiming to turn youth away from drugs, gangs and poverty by providing scholarships to the Wild Samoans Training Center.

Championships and accomplishments