4. The Rock’s Emotional Story Involving Haku
Following is an emotional story The Rock posted on Instagram about his Uncle, former WWF Superstar Haku:
Merry Christmas Uncle Tonga – enjoy your new truck! Cool Christmas story to share with y’all… Known my “Uncle Tonga” since I was 5yrs old. My grandfather, High Chief Peter Maivia helped train him to become a professional wrestler in the 70’s. Throughout Tonga’s illustrious wrestling career he changed his name to “King Haku” and became one the WWE’s most sought after “bad guys” and still known to this day for being one of the toughest and legit most vicious man in wrestling history.
Years later and I get a call from WWE saying “Vince McMahon wants to see you wrestle immediately. He’s flying you to RAW tomorrow and you’ll have a tryout match.” I thought holy s*** that’s awesome, buuuut there’s a few problems: For me, I wasn’t just having “a tryout match”, because I had never actually HAD a real match in my life. Ever. WWE thought that I already had multiple matches under my belt, but little did they know. What they also didn’t know was that I was broke as hell and didn’t actually own wrestling gear – no boots, knee pads or most importantly.. wrestling trunks.
I went to Sports Authority and bought some bright ass white volleyball knee pads, called my Uncle and asked if he had ANY trunks I could use for my tryout. He said all I have is a pair of shiny purple trunks (purple was his signature color), I told him I don’t care if the trunks are all the colors of Skittles, I’ll happily wear them. When I picked the trunks up from him I’ll never forget the monster hug he gave me, look me in the eyes and said, “I’m so proud of you. Go get ’em nephew!” Here’s the picture of me wrestling my FIRST MATCH EVER in Corpus Christi, TX in front of 15,000 people – proudly in my lucky purple trunks. And the rest… was history.
My Uncle Tonga is a family man, humble man and champion. Most importantly one of the greatest human beings I know. So we walk outside and I said “Uncle how do you like my truck?” He said, “Whoooaaa nephew it’s beautiful… I love it!” I said “Good ’cause it’s yours.” He was speechless. Thru tears (manly of course;) we monster hugged ’cause I’ll never forget what he did for me when I had nothing. Merry Christmas Uncle and ofa atu. #LuckyPurpleTrunks
3. Jeff Jarrett on Wrestling In Global Force Wrestling, What GFW Will Do, Working With Roddy Piper & More
Global Force Wrestling founder Jeff Jarrett was recently interviewed by Inquisitr, and was asked about wrestling in GFW, what GFW will do, working with Roddy Piper & more. Below are the highlights:
What GFW Will Offer:
“I remember the early days of TNA giving a kid from North Georgia a hell of an opportunity and AJ Styles went on to where his career is at. We can go on with the early days of TNA; Bobby Roode, and Eric Young, and James Storm. I can keep going on and on but giving guys an opportunity, a stage, and a platform. Basically giving them the ball and hoping they can score the touchdown. That’s something that really as a promoter, I’ve relished the opportunity to get to do that.”
Wrestling with GFW When He Said He’d Try Not To:
“I didn’t wrestle on any of the Grand Slam Tours and didn’t wrestle at the AMPED tapings, but we partnered up with a promoter in the United Kingdom and we ran our two shows at the end of the October in the United Kindom. As we moved on through the deal, the promoter was pretty blunt about it, that it wasn’t an option for us to do business together if I didn’t wrestle. He felt there is a marquee value so I agreed to that.”
On Working With Roddy Piper:
“He came up the hard way and I knew that. I heard stories, he worked all the territories. In California, Portland, Mid-Atlantic; he’d been around the horn. He may not come in as a main eventer, but he always left as a main eventer because he was real and he spoke from the heart. When I got the chance to work with Roddy and work in the same company with him; I worked with him in WCW and then meeting off-and-on, then working together in TNA a couple of times. We remained friends.”
