Wikipedia

Tanga Loa

American professional wrestler

Tevita Tu'amoeloa Fetaiakimoeata Fifita (born May 7, 1983) is a Tongan-American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Tonga Loa (formerly Tanga Loa[a]). He is signed to WWE, where he performs on the SmackDown brand as part of the stable The Bloodline. He is also known for his time in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he won the IWGP Tag Team Championship seven times, the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship three times and the ROH World Tag Team Championship one time. He was a member of Bullet Club and Guerrillas of Destiny (G.O.D.).

Tanga Loa
Tanga Loa in 2016
Birth nameTevita Tu'amoeloa Fetaiakimoeata Fifita
Born (1983-05-07) May 7, 1983 (age 41)[1]
Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.
Alma materUniversity of Texas at El Paso[2]
FamilyHaku (father)
Tama Tonga (brother)
Hikuleo (brother)
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)Agent T[2]
Camacho[2]
Donny Marlow
Micah[3]
Nuku
Tanga Loa[4][5]
Tanga Roa[6]
Tanga Roa[7]
Tevita Fifita
Tonga[2]
Tonga Loa[8]
Billed height6 ft 2 in (188 cm)
Billed weight230 lb (104 kg)
Billed fromFlorida
Honolulu, Hawaii[9]
Juárez, Mexico[2]
Trained byD-Von Dudley[2]
Bubba Ray Dudley
Florida Championship Wrestling[2]
Ricky Santana[10]
Haku[10]
Debut2008[2][4]

During his first run in WWE from 2009 to 2014, Fifita competed under the ring name Camacho. He spent most of this time in a tag team with Hunico. After eight years in NJPW he returned to WWE in May 2024, where he became one-time WWE Tag Team Champion with his brother Tama Tonga.

His father also worked for the WWE (then WWF) under the ring name Haku, while his brother and long-time Bullet Club partner Tama Tonga is also a part of WWE's Bloodline stable.

Career

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Before he became a professional wrestler, Fifita played football at the University of Texas at El Paso. He graduated from there with a degree in Liberal Arts with major in Communications Electronic Media and minor in criminal justice.

WWE (2009–2014)

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Fiifta signed a developmental contract with World Wrestling Entertainment on February 10, 2009 and was assigned to their developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) where he competed under the ring name Tonga. Later in March, he joined the Washington's Secret Service stable under the ring name Agent T. where he competed alongside Agent D. and Agent J. After that was over, he changed his ring name to Donny Marlow and teamed with C.J. Parker. On July 21, 2011, Marlow and Parker defeated Calvin Raines and Big E Langston to win the FCW Florida Tag Team Championship but lost the Tag Team Championship to Brad Maddox and Briley Pierce on November 3.

He debuted on the December 15, 2011 episode of Superstars as the enforcer of Hunico and went under the ring name Camacho.[11] The two teamed together on the April 26 episode of Superstars and defeated The Usos.[12] He made his pay-per-view debut at Over The Limit but was defeated in singles competition against Ryback.[13]

After that, he was sent back down to the developmental territory, the former FCW, which was rebranded into NXT. He debuted on NXT in a losing effort against Seth Rollins. He won a match later on the same episode in a six-man tag match when he teamed with Hunico and Michael McGillicutty against Rollins, Bo Dallas and Tyson Kidd.[14] He defeated Kidd in a singles match following a distraction from McGillicutty on the following episode of NXT.[15]

He competed in the pre-show of Money in the Bank when he teamed with Hunico in a losing effort against the WWE Tag Team Champions Kofi Kingston and R-Truth in a non-title match.[16] He made an appearance on the 1,000th episode of Raw with Hunico, Jinder Mahal, Curt Hawkins, Tyler Reks and Drew McIntyre when they tried to ambush Kane in the ring to make a statement but The Undertaker's return resulted in the Brothers of Destruction disposing of all six would-be attackers.[17]

When Hunico got injured, Camacho went back to NXT and attempted to collect a $5,000 bounty that was promised to anybody that could put Big E Langston "on the shelf". Camacho wanted to claim the bounty so he could "get Hunico out of Mexico" but lost to Langston.[18] Camacho reunited with Hunico at the WrestleMania Axxess live event but he has not been on television since May. He teamed with Hunico to challenge for the NXT Tag Team Championship but were unsuccessful in winning the titles.

On the November 6, 2013 episode of Main Event, he once again teamed with Hunico and they made their first televised tag team match since July 2012 against the Usos but lost. On June 12, 2014, Camacho was released from his WWE contract.[19]

Return to WWE (2024–present)

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As Tonga Loa, Fifita made his return to WWE at Backlash France on May 4, 2024. He helped Solo Sikoa and his brother Tama Tonga defeat Kevin Owens and Randy Orton in a Tag Team Street Fight and joined The Bloodline in doing so.[20] On the August 23 episode of SmackDown, Loa got his first main roster title in WWE when he became one half of the WWE Tag Team Champions. Sikoa forced previous champion Jacob Fatu to give up his half the title to be Sikoa's personal enforcer.[21] On October 25 he and Tonga lost their titles to The Motor City Machine Guns (Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley).[22]

Championships

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Footnotes

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  1. ↑ タンガ・ロア　Tanga Roa

References

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  1. ↑ "Tanga Loa profile". New Japan Pro-Wrestling. Archived from the original on 18 May 2018. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 "OWW profile". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved February 25, 2012.
  3. ↑ "Micah TNA Profile". Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. Archived from the original on April 28, 2016. Retrieved April 21, 2016.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 タンガ・ロア. New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved August 12, 2017.
  5. ↑ "The Guerrillas of Destiny make their ROH Debut in May". Ring of Honor. Retrieved April 18, 2016.
  6. ↑ タンガ・ロア. New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on March 16, 2016. Retrieved March 15, 2016.
  7. ↑ タンガ・ロア. New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on March 16, 2016. Retrieved March 15, 2016.
  8. ↑ Thomas, Jeremy (2024-05-10). "Tanga Loa Gets Slight Name Change In WWE". 411MANIA. Retrieved 2024-05-14.
  9. ↑ NJPW. "Tanga Loa – タンガ・ロア – BULLET CLUB – G.o.D | NEW JAPAN PRO-WRESTLING". NJPW. Archived from the original on 2018-05-18. Retrieved 2021-08-09.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Oliver, Greg (April 24, 2016). "Tama Tonga finally getting a shot in North America with ROH". Slam! Sports. Canadian Online Explorer. Archived from the original on November 26, 2016. Retrieved January 1, 2017.
  11. ↑ "James's WWE Superstars Report 12/16: Tag champs in main event, Riley vs. Swagger, Haku's son debuts". Wrestleview. Retrieved 2013-11-09.
  12. ↑ "James's WWE Superstars Report 4/26: Miz lands on Superstars, faces old nemesis; K2 vs. NXT Diva, more". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 2013-11-09.
  13. ↑ "WWE Over the Limit live coverage from Raleigh". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved 2013-11-09.
  14. ↑ "James's WWE NXT Report 7/4 - Week 3: Chris Hero (Ohno) debuts, Vader's son, Bateman, six-man main event; Overall Reax". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 2013-11-09.
  15. ↑ "James's WWE NXT Report 7/11: PTP vs. Usos main event, transformation of Husky Harris to Bray Wyatt continues, Seth Rollins promo". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 2013-11-09.
  16. ↑ "Caldwell's WWE MITB PPV Report 7/15: Complete "virtual time" coverage of live PPV - Punk vs. Bryan, Sheamus vs. Del Rio, two MITB matches". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 2013-11-09.
  17. ↑ "Caldwell's WWE Raw Results 7/23: Complete "virtual-time" coverage of live Raw #999 - WWE recognizes 1,000 episodes, WWE Title match, Lesnar, Rock, DX, wedding". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 2013-11-09.
  18. ↑ "James's WWE NXT Report 12/12 - Week 25: Rollins defends NXT Title, Paige in action, Overall Reax". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 2013-11-09.
  19. ↑ "Brodus Clay, Evan Bourne, Teddy Long, Curt Hawkins and other WWE Superstars released". WWE. Retrieved 2014-06-12.
  20. ↑ Powell, Jason (May 4, 2024). "WWE Backlash France results: Powell's live review of Cody Rhodes vs. AJ Styles for the WWE Championship, Damian Priest vs. Jey Uso for the World Hvt. Title, Bayley vs. Naomi vs. Tiffany Stratton for the WWE Women's Title". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved May 4, 2024.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Powell, Jason (August 23, 2024). "WWE Friday Night Smackdown results (8/23): Barnett's review of Jacob Fatu and Tama Tonga vs. The Street Profits for the WWE Tag Team Titles, LA Knight vs. Santos Escobar for the U.S. Title". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved September 12, 2024.
  22. ↑ Rubio, Antonio. "Motor City Machine Guns ganan los Campeonatos por Parejas de WWE en Smackdown". Solowrestling. Retrieved 26 October 2024.
  23. ↑ Kreikenbohm, Philip (July 21, 2011). "FCW Florida Tag Team Championship". Cagematch - The Internet Wrestling Database. Retrieved February 16, 2021.
  24. ↑ Kreikenbohm, Philip (April 10, 2016). "IWGP Tag Team Championship". Cagematch - The Internet Wrestling Database. Retrieved February 16, 2021.
  25. ↑ Kreikenbohm, Philip (December 17, 2017). "NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship". Cagematch - The Internet Wrestling Database. Retrieved February 16, 2021.
  26. ↑ Kreikenbohm, Philip (December 11, 2020). "World Tag League (2020)". Cagematch - The Internet Wrestling Database. Retrieved February 16, 2021.
  27. ↑ "Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) 500 for 2019 - the Internet Wrestling Database".
  28. ↑ Middleton, Marc (November 18, 2020). "FTR Takes Top Spot On The Inaugural PWI Tag Team 50 List". Wrestling Inc. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
  29. ↑ Kreikenbohm, Philip (April 6, 2019). "ROH World Tag Team Championship". Cagematch - The Internet Wrestling Database. Retrieved February 16, 2021.
  30. ↑ Kreikenbohm, Philip (February 16, 2015). "TNA Gut Check (2015)". Cagematch - The Internet Wrestling Database. Retrieved February 16, 2021.
  31. ↑ Kreikenbohm, Philip (February 19, 2017). "WC Big Top Tag Team Championship". Cagematch - The Internet Wrestling Database. Retrieved February 16, 2021.
  32. ↑ "02/19/2017 - WrestleCircus Presents: Taking Center Stage". WrestleCircus. Archived from the original on August 8, 2017. Retrieved February 21, 2017.
  33. ↑ Meltzer, Dave (February 20, 2017). "Daily Update: The Rock at Raw, Pete Dunne, Payback". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved February 21, 2017.

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