Tag: Tama Tonga

WWE’s Tama Tonga Sidelined With Undisclosed Injury

Just as Solo Sikoa’s new-look Bloodline seemed to be gaining serious momentum with Jacob Fatu’s big United States Championship win at WrestleMania 41, the faction has reportedly hit a major snag. Multiple sources, including BodySlam.net and Cody Whoades of PWN, have confirmed that Tama Tonga is taking a medical leave of absence due to an undisclosed injury—an issue that may require surgery.

Details on the injury are scarce, and as of now, neither WWE nor Tonga himself have issued a public statement. What’s clear, however, is that Tonga will be off WWE television for the foreseeable future, leaving a major hole in the faction’s lineup.

Tonga was last seen on the April 18 episode of SmackDown, where LA Knight launched a surprise backstage attack on The Bloodline to open the show. While the angle served to write Tonga off TV, reports indicate the injury wasn’t sustained during the brawl—it was simply a storyline device to explain his absence. Tonga was also notably absent from ringside during Jacob Fatu’s title match at WrestleMania, where faction leader Solo Sikoa accompanied the “Samoan Werewolf” instead.

The timing couldn’t be worse. Over the past year, Tonga has become a key figure in Sikoa’s Bloodline, bringing his hard-hitting New Japan Pro-Wrestling style to WWE and capturing Tag Team gold alongside both Jacob Fatu and his real-life brother Tonga Loa. Unfortunately, Loa has also been sidelined with an injury, leaving Sikoa and Fatu as the only active members of the once-deep faction.

With the group’s ranks now halved, all eyes are on how WWE plans to keep this iteration of The Bloodline strong. Will Sikoa and Fatu look to recruit fresh blood to maintain their dominance on SmackDown, or will they hold down the fort as a duo until Tonga and Loa return?

Whatever the plan, the faction’s future just got a little murkier—and with LA Knight still gunning for revenge, the pressure isn’t going anywhere.

Tama Tonga Joins The Bloodline, Helps Destroy Jimmy Uso In WWE SmackDown Debut

Post-WrestleMania, the winds of change tend to blow in WWE. Last night on “WWE SmackDown,” Solo Sikoa took charge and seemingly ushered in a new era, booting Jimmy Uso from The Bloodline with the help of a debuting Tama Tonga, all to “The Wiseman” Paul Heyman’s apparent surprise.

Heyman, Sikoa, and Uso took the ring with newly-crowned WWE-Hall-of-Famer stating that they were there on the orders of “The Tribal Chief” Roman Reigns, who ordered that they give no excuses for coming up short against the new Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. After giving Rhodes his due and singling out his focus, Heyman was interrupted by Sikoa, who asked if winning and losing matters, if there are consequences to losing, and if consequences mean change. Answering in the affirmative to all, Heyman looked beyond concerned as Sikoa pushed him aside, hugged his brother Jimmy, telling him he loved him, all just to set him up for an attack from behind by an invading hooded figure, soon revealed to be Tonga. After Sikoa hit a series of Samoan Spikes, Tonga held up “the one,” and was joined by Sikoa first, and then a hesitant Heyman, who then told his iPhone to “call Roman Reigns.” Sikoa then ripped the phone away and smashed it before finishing Jimmy with a Hip Attack while Uso had a chair draped around his head.

Tonga, technically, is not family to The Samoan Dynasty but it has long been recognized that the Anoa’i-Maivia-Fatu bloodline considers him as much, as they do his father Haku and brothers Hikuleo and Tanga Loa of New Japan Pro-Wrestling Fame. With Loa, Tonga is a seven-time IWGP Tag Team Champion and a Ring of Honor Tag Team Champion, a four-time NEVER Openweight Champion, and a four-time NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Champion with Loa and various other partners.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

According to a report from Fightful Select, WWE has been interested in Tonga for a long time now. This dates all the way back to 2016 when they first signed AJ Styles, Karl Anderson, Luke Gallows and Shinsuke Nakamura. While WWE was interested, Tonga chose to stay in NJPW at the time in order to work with his brothers, Hikuleo and Tonga Loa.

WWE had interest in Hikuleo and Tama last year as well, but a hiring freeze occurred when Vince McMahon worked his way back into the company and prevented any new signings from taking place. As of this writing, there isn’t any word on whether Tonga had any talks with AEW. Additionally, it was added that it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that he was WWE-bound due to the positive relationship the two sides have.

It remains to be seen whether WWE is still interested in bringing in Hikuleo or Tonga Loa. Jacob Fatu has signed with WWE and was backstage at WrestleMania 40, so he’ll likely be added to the mix in the near future. One idea was discussed regarding Fatu and Tonga teaming up much like their fathers Tonga Kid and Haku did, but there’s no word on if that’s still the working plan.

NJPW Star Tama Tonga Says This Is His Last Month In The Promotion

During NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 18, Tama Tonga beat Shingo Takagi, securing his fourth NEVER Openweight Championship.

In a post-show press conference, Tonga revealed that January marks his final month with New Japan Pro Wrestling. Tonga said he wanted to work closer to his family before talking highly about Japan, NJPW, and its talented roster.

Source: eWn

Tama Tonga Invites AJ Styles To NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 17, Vows To Dethrone Karl Anderson

Karl Anderson will defend the NEVER Openweight Championship against Tama Tonga in two weeks at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 17. This will be the first time that a WWE-contracted talent wrestles on the show.

Tonga took to Twitter to invite Styles to the Tokyo Dome show so that The OC Leader can watch The Good Bad Guy “smash” the WWE Superstar at the venue. He wrote,

“AJ can come too. He can watch me smash his boy. ( still got love for you #PhenomenalOne ) #Wrestlekingdom17 – January 4, 2023 #AndNew #NeverOpenWeightChampion.”

Earlier this year, Anderson defeated Tonga to win the NEVER Openweight Title at NJPW Dominion. It will be interesting to see if Anderson can retain the title in his second outing with Tonga come January 4th.

Source: ewrestlingnews

Tama Tonga Calls Out Kenny Omega And The Good Brothers For “Bullet Club” Reunion

Many wrestling fans were stoked to see a Bullet Club reunion with Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks and The Good Brothers throwing up the “Too Sweet” symbol on AEW Dynamite. The trio of Omega and The Good Brothers then took part in a six-man tag match at Impact Wrestling’s Hard to Kill as part of the AEW-Impact partnership.

But one person who wasn’t thrilled to see this reunion is founding Bullet Club member Tama Tonga. He called out Omega and The Good Brothers for being part of the “Bootleg Club” on his Tama’s Island podcast.

“If I was Dave Meltzer, I would have given the shirt 5 stars and given Kenny Omega 2 stars because his tan was more orange than a damn pumpkin! Who taught you how to tan, bro? Damn! You need to stop using that maple syrup as tanning because that’s not it, bro. That’s not it,” said Tonga.

“And let me tell you something, Karl Anderson, nice sweatshirt. I like it. I’ll give you props cause you’re an OG. But I’m gonna correct everybody that’s been saying, ‘Oh he’s an OG.’ Are y’all f***ing crazy? Are y’all f***ing out of your mind? You haven’t been in the group for five f***ing years, bro! You’ve gone onto greener pastures and you don’t have no say no more in Bullet Club. You know no longer claim Bullet Club. You were the OC. You were Bullet Proof. You were Bullet Brigade. You were the Bullet nobody cares. You were this. You were that. How many godd**n times are you gonna try, dog? It ain’t gonna work. When you ain’t got the heart and soul in it, it’s just bulls***.”

Anderson and Gallows departed the Bullet Club – and New Japan – in 2016 to join WWE and then Omega departed two years later to form AEW. Thus, the three didn’t leave the stable on the best of terms as they were essentially kicked out by the remaining members.

Tonga says that the reunion would have been great if it had taken place back in Japan but since it didn’t, the reunion made no sense for three people who were originally kicked out of the group.

“It would have been all gravy if they came back to Japan. There would have been a big ass reunion. I would have thrown a party. I would have gotten like 900 sponsors all over the place. We would have thrown out everything for these guys,” stated Tonga.

“And you sold out to the one team that we kicked out? How are you gonna have a reunion with guys that got kicked out? What kind of sh** it that, bro? What kind of sh** is that? That’s the dumbest, stupidest sh** I ever heard, bro. Y’all can’t get any dumber than that but I expect that. I expected you guys to play that stupid card. C’mon, you can do better than that, Karl Smanderson and Luke Smallows. Come on man!”

After being released by WWE, The Good Brothers could have returned to New Japan where they were three-time IWGP Tag Team Champions. But they elected to join Impact Wrestling and that doesn’t sit well with Tonga.

“Once a sellout, always a sellout. Never forget that,” Tonga said of Gallows and Anderson. “They’re always about that quick buck and whoring off, knowing the right time to pull the trigger. You guys are a bunch of, ‘Click. Click. Click. Click… No BANG!’ Nothing.

“The ‘Too Sweet’ heard around the world? F**k all that nonsense. That stupid-ass f***ery. That sh** is whack anyway. We done moved on. We done moved on.”

After the Bullet Club Reunion on Dynamite, AEW has filed a trademark to the ‘Too Sweet’ phrase. Omega, Gallows and Anderson then teamed as “The Elite” on an episode of Dynamite and some fans have argued that the Elite is further promoting the Bullet Club brand.

Tonga argues against that notion and says the members of the Elite are only out for themselves and don’t care about the Bullet Club.

“The only people they’re advertising are themselves, not Bullet Club. And you all should have known that when they did the whole Elite thing,” said Tonga. “‘Oh, the Elite made Bullet Club more famous.’ B***h, the Elite made the Elite more famous, not the Bullet Club. But that’s how they were able to go on. They used Bullet Club to go on and do their other sh**. They used us as a platform and let’s not forget that bulls***. Come on now! They used us, they used ROH. Who else did they use?

“I’m gonna tell you this – remember this – how you treat people on the way up is how they’re gonna treat you on the way down. Don’t forget that! Look at them struggling right now, man. Struggling so bad and so desperate, ‘Oh, let’s bring Bullet Club and all the ex-members.’ What kind of dumb sh** is that? I’ve never seen anything so dumb before. Karl Anderson, I expected more man. But I guess I was wrong. I guess five years out there in New York really cluttered your brain.”

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Tama Tonga Announces Pre-WrestleMania 35 ‘Bullet Club Block Party’

bullet club block party tama tonga announcement video njpw new japan

Bullet Club will be throwing a tailgate party before WrestleMania 35 in New Jersey and Tama Tonga made the announcement from Korakuen Hall.

The NJPW star has been teasing a block party for weeks and now we know why.

“The Bullet Club Block Party” will officially take place on Sunday, April 7 in conjunction with Jimmy’s Seafood. More details will be announced on January 2.

According to the event’s Twitter page, “This isn’t some invade the parking lot and throw up a tent event. This is gonna be at a real venue where WE call the shots, so be ready for a real party.”

Tonga published a video announcement shot in the ring after a match.

Watch the announcement below.

https://twitter.com/Tama_Tonga/status/1078010743054893056

Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet