Wrestling / Meng

HEE-YUUHHHHHHHH!!!!

"There are 3 types of men: tough men, wrestler-tough men, and then there's Meng."

—Arn Anderson, Arn Anderson 4 Ever

Tonga ʻUliʻuli Fifita (born February 3, 1959) is a semi-retired Tongan sumo and Professional Wrestler best known for his time in WWE from 1986-1992 as King Tonga and Haku or his time in WCW from 1994-2001 as Meng. After competing in sumo wrestling under the name Fukunoshima, he made his pro-wrestling debut for All Japan Pro Wrestling in 1978. He also worked as a referee for the Funk family's territory in Amarillo, Texas. As King Tonga, he first made his name in the International Wrestling promotion in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He made his PPV debut as King Tonga in the battle royal that was part of the Chicago stage of WrestleMania II. He has competed for WWE, WCW, the AWA, New Japan Pro-Wrestling, CMLL, various National Wrestling Alliance territories, CHIKARA and many independent promotions around the world. Among his in-ring achievements, he is a former WWE World Tag Team Champion with André the Giant as the Colossal Connection and the final WCW Hardcore Champion. He is very well known among other wrestlers as being one of, and perhaps, the toughest man in American wrestling.

Not to be confused with those other guys called Haku, that other guy called Meng or with Ming the Merciless (although he can be pretty merciless).

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"Tongan Death Tropes":

• Afro Asskicker: He has had some BIG hair at different points in his career.
• Arch-Enemy:
  • In his first WWF run, "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan
  • In WCW, Sting and, after the breakup of the Faces of Fear, The Barbarian
• Ascended Extra: As per the tradition in Japanese wrestling promotions, started in All Japan as an anonymous second.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: As Col. Robert Parker's bodyguard in WCW.
• Badass Longrobe: In 1995 after joining the Dungeon of Doom.
• Bar Brawl: If half of the stories about him are true, it seems he was a magnet for these. Most likely this was caused by Alcohol-Induced Idiocy on the part of people who tried to provoke him.
• Bash Brothers: During his and Barbarian's very brief face run as a tag team, or on those occasions when they were up against teams higher (or lower, depending on how you look at it) on the Heel Hierarchy. They actually had some very cool double team moves, like Meng's back drop into Barbarian's powerbomb, or Meng's atomic drop followed by Barbarian's Kick of Fear.
• Battle Cry: "HEE-YUUHHHH!!!"
• Beware the Nice Ones: Many of Tonga's fellow wrestlers often describe him as being very friendly and easy to get along with.... so long as you didn't piss him off.
• Bullying a Dragon: There are many real life stories that illustrate how terrifying this guy was when things got weird, in case What Culture Wrestling's "10 Wrestling Stories That Prove Haku is Badass" isn't enough.
  • In 1989, some chaps in a Baltimore hotel bar spotted Tonga and Siva Afi, and upon recognizing them they decided to taunt them as "fake wrestlers" and such. Tonga's answer was grabbing the main of the offenders and biting off his freaking nose. Naturally, a brawl had place, and Tonga and Siva cleaned house before leaving calmly. Fifita was sued for $2.5 million, but he just found it funny.
  • A similar story by Kevin Sullivan has Tonga being rebuked by some dudes in a tavern. His answer, again, was choking one of them, knocking out another who came to aid his crony, and then biting off a chunk of the first's back and spitting it away. Sullivan was fast in pulling Tonga out of the place, and while doing so they saw police cars coming to the bar, but no charges were ever filed.
  • Yet again, Rick Steiner tells how Tonga once took out five marines in matter of seconds after they insulted him in a bar.
  • Contrary to popular belief, Tonga didn't take Jesse Barr's eyeball out of his socket when he attacked him for mistreating a construction worker in Puerto Rico, but he did trash Barr around and eye-gouged him a bit.
  • Speaking about mauling actions, Ric Flair once saw Tonga breaking with his own fingers the bottom teeth of a guy who was annoying him in a bar.
  • It took 13 policemen wielding mace sprays and steel handcuffs to submit Tonga during a brawl in St. Louis in which he and Ted DiBiase were involved (they were actually trying to break the quarrel up themselves, but the police mistook them for the instigators), and only for Tonga to no-sell the mace and break the cuffs they had put him behind his back. Seven of the policemen were supposedly left incapacitated in the fray.
  • A large cowboy once argued with Tonga and found himself going back through at least two sets of doors with a single, one-handed push.
  • Frenchy Martin saw how an unfortunate man insulted drunkenly Tonga in a club in which they were partying. The next thing Martin saw was Tonga fighting six guys before choking out two of them at once and knocking out the rest. The understandably worried club owner tried to get a bouncer to take on Tonga, but Martin reached for him and advised him to spare his man such a traumatic experience.
  • In a less self-defensive variation, Tonga once attacked Brutus Beefcake on the shower and strangled him up two feet in the air for complaining about him working too stiff. It was needed to call Hulk Hogan to calm things down.
  • Mexican mainstay El Canek "almost" suffered one of those beatdowns, as he was angry at Meng receiving a bigger pop than himself (a pretty notable thing, by the way) and tried to shoot on him in a tag team match. He supposedly tired himself out trying to force Tonga into a hold, only to accomplish nothing aside from causing the other wrestlers to laugh at him.
  • Chris Jericho and him got into a fight with security at a Mexican airport and handled them pretty well until they pulled their guns out. They got put in a cell at the airport for a few hours and were late for their show so the promoter wouldn’t pay them. Meng wouldn't have that, so he ripped off the locked door to the guy’s office and demanded his and Chris’ pay, which the guy instantly provided while hiding under his desk.
• Catchphrase: When walking to the ring for his matches, he would shout into the camera, "Mate Ma'a Tonga" (translation: "Die for Tonga"), which is the motto of the school he attended, Tonga College. He also usually writes this phrase next to his name when signing autographs.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: The kind of power which enables you to break handcuffs and enduring mace.
• The Comically Serious: Usually. Though it's not exactly like he's against actively participating in the comedy sometimes.
• Commuting on a Bus: 1998-2001 saw him get built up as a threat, lose to, say, Goldberg and then disappear again. This happened several times.
• Cool Mask: Wore one that looked sort of like a lion's head after joining the Dungeon of Doom.
• Cool Old Guy: Wrestling fans see him as this as his fearsome reputation hasn't subsided at all even at the age of 61. Many believe he could still take on any man who challenged him.
• Cool Shades: While in his bodyguard role as a member of the Stud Stable.
• David Versus Goliath: Played straight at least twice, with Fifita on both ends:
  • In 1986, while competing as King Tonga in the WWF, once bodyslammed Big John Studd (easily) after Studd had won a squash match (against two jobbers who had accepted Studd's latest "bodyslam challenge"). Later in 1986, when he began teaming with The Tonga Kid (and both changed their names to Haku and Tama, respectively) and called themselves the Islanders, got another major victory over Studd and his tag team partner, King Kong Bundy, by winning a $50,000 Tag Team Battle Royal at Madison Square Garden.
  • At WrestleMania VII when the Rockers (Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty) defeated Haku and Barbarian.
  • Inverted when the Faces of Fear defeated Chris Jericho and Eddie Guerrero on the February 4, 1997 WCW Monday Nitro.
• Death from Above: Could get up to over 300 lbs. and could do a frogsplash.
• Death Glare: If he looks at you like this◊, then you better start saying your prayers, because you are FUCKED!
• Defeating the Undefeatable: He and Dino Bravo actually once defeated THE ROAD WARRIORS in the old Montreal territory.
• Demoted to Extra: In 1991 WWE until he left, and at various points in WCW. Then again in WWE in 2001-2002 after Rikishi's injury and subsequent face turn.
• The Dragon: In the Dungeon of Doom - whether someone wanted to get their hands on Kevin Sullivan, or if they wanted to try and take the World Championship from The Giant, Meng was the guy they were going to have to go through to earn those matches.
• The Dreaded: Though he didn't try to be, he was definitely this behind the scenes.
  • The fact that André the Giant was afraid of him, and that Tonga stayed for a long time in WCW because nobody had the nerve to fire him, speak volumes.
  • It's said that, when D-Generation X did their risky WCW invasion in 1998, WWF issued a select cadre of toughs including Ken Shamrock, Steve Blackman, Ron Simmons, John "Bradshaw" Layfield and the Harris brothers to wait for DX in the parking lot in case WCW sent people to beat them up. However, it's also believed that DX were told that, if they saw Meng coming among the attackers, they should leave the reinforcements to make a You Shall Not Pass! Heroic Sacrifice and just freakin' run for their lives.
• Every Scar Has a Story: Has a scar on his upper right arm as the result of a shark attack in his native homeland. In Chris Jericho's autobiography 'A Lion's Tale', Chris mentions that Tonga ended up killing the shark with his bare hands.
• Facial Markings: In the early stages of his Dungeon of Doom run.
• Finishing Move: Tongan Death Grip, which according to Stevie Ray he can use in a real fight. He also used the crescent kick and diving headbutt. During his Dungeon of Doom days he also sometimes used a golden railroad spike as a foreign object. In his younger days he used a big splash off the top rope.
• Hard Head: So much that ramming his head into the turnbuckle would often prompt him to start no-selling everything, and/or ramming his own head into the turnbuckle to demonstrate how little it hurt him.
• Hell Is That Noise: The Faces of Fear had a memorable theme song that they used both as their tag team theme and their respective singles themes. Instead of being a standard pro wrestling heavy metal song, it was an eerie mix of flutes and chimes. Bobby Heenan said that the song would be unsettling even if you didn't know it meant Meng was on his way to the ring.
• Horrifying the Horror: To add to Tonga's badass reputation, André the Giant admitted he found the guy scary.
• Idiot Ball: During one of his matches against Goldberg, he actually managed to apply the dreaded Tongan Death Grip. Inexplicably, he assumed Goldberg submitted and released the hold before the referee called for the bell. This allowed Goldberg to hit a spear.
• I Know Karate: Meng was always billed in WCW as being an expert in karate, sumo, and some other unspecified martial arts. In Sumo Wrestling, he named "Fukonoshima".
• I'm a Humanitarian: Referred to this way at times in WCW.
• Intergenerational Friendship: He would hang out with Chris Jericho during the latter's early years if they were in the same company together. Downplayed as the two only have an 11 year age difference, though.
• Last of His Kind: When Haku jumped from WCW to WWE in 2001, he was still the WCW Hardcore Champion. WCW never acknowledged the belt again.
• Lightning Bruiser: During his younger days especially, he had an amazing vertical leap for his dropkick and finished matches with a Big Splash.
• No-Sell: One of the best ever at it. In addition to his hard head, he would sometimes respond to getting hit with a strike by bellowing and flailing his arms about in martial arts gestures. He was very good at timing this - as a heel he'd use it to quash a Hope Spot by his opponent, during his rare face runs it was often how he began his comebacks.
• Not So Above It All: In a low-key fashion. When appearing on unimportant shows such as WCW Worldwide, he'd occasionally entertain himself by doing un-Meng-ish things, such as going through a technical wrestling exchange with luchador Super Calo, or trolling Gene Okerlund by doing an interview in 4 different languages, none of which were English.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Back in WCW in 1998, he was talking backstage with Chris Candido, Tammy Lynn Sytch and Chris Jericho when Eric Bischoff and Greg Gagne, an office suit, approached them. Meng told them that they were interrupting him while he talked with his friends. Bischoff and Gagne apologized to Meng. That's right, MENG got ERIC BISCHOFF, his boss, to apologize to him. THAT's the kind of badass reputation he has and how scary he could be.
• Omniglot: Can speak English, Tongan and a few other languages, he just, in character, chose not to most of the time.
• Over-the-Shoulder Carry: Jacqueline and K-Kwik defeated Ivory and Haku on the June 16 (taped June 11), 2001 WWF Jakked when Jackie powerbombed and pinned Ivory. After the match, Haku threw Ivory over his shoulder and carried her to the back, with her screaming and protesting the whole time.
• Popularity Power: His unstoppable monster image made him very popular in WCW.
• Power Stable:
  • (in the AWA): The Sheik's Army
  • (in WWE): The Heenan Family
  • (in WCW): The Stud Stable
  • The Dungeon of Doom
    • The Alliance to End Hulkamania
  • The First Family, originally with the Barbarian and Hugh Morrus and manager Jimmy Hart before Meng was kicked out of the group.
  • He is also an associate member of the Bullet Club, due to his sons being its members.
• Pressure Point: His Tonga Death Grip and Asian Spike finishers were supposed to be based on these.
• Put on a Bus: WWE sent him down to OVW to manage the Island Boys (Kimo [Rosey] and O.G. Ekmo [Jamal/Umaga]), and eventually released him, with Haku never returning to WWE TV.
• Red Baron: "The Monster," "The Face of Terror"
• Screaming Warrior: He had a signature bellow that went HEEE-YUHHH. It sounded more intimidating than it looks in print.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After some 6 1/2 years of constant semi-pushes, he finally won a singles title in a major promotion when he defeated WCW Hardcore Champion Terry Funk and Crowbar in a three-way match at WCW Sin on January 14, 2001. A week later, he jumped to WWE as Haku, returning at the Royal Rumble and aligning himself with Rikishi. He explained on WWE's website that his motivation was being able to take care of his family.
• Shout-Out: WCW booker Kevin Sullivan gave him the name Meng, based on the Flash Gordon villain, Ming the Merciless.
• Still Got It: Showed it in New Japan Pro-Wrestling's Wrestle Kingdom 10 in the New Japan Rumble pre-show and the night after teaming with The Bullet Club which included his adopted son Tama Tonga, where he pulled off a piledriver and actually intimidated Hiroyoshi Tenzan of all people into backing away from him.
• Tag Team:
  • (in WWE): The Islanders, w/Tama
  • The Colossal Connection, w/Andre the Giant
  • (in SWS in Japan): The Natural Powers, w/Yoshiaki Yatsu
  • (in WCW): The Faces of Fear, w/The Barbarian
• We Used to Be Friends: With Kurasawa (aka New Japan's Manabu Nakanishi). They were tag team partners as part of the Stud Stable before Meng switched to the Dungeon of Doom. On the September 30, 1995 WCW Pro, Kurasawa had finished his match but was still in the ring doing some kind of meditation/prayer ritual when Meng came down for his match and they had a standoff, with Kurasawa's manager Col. Robert Parker having to hold Kurasawa back. It happened again in December prior to Starrcade. In the latter case, it may have been justified, as WCW was building up the "WCW vs. New Japan" angle, as Starrcade that year was billed as the "World Cup of Wrestling" and featured a tournament between WCW guys and New Japan guys, although neither Meng nor Kurasawa competed that night.
• Weirdness Magnet: As mentioned above, Meng was an easy going guy but terrifying when things got weird. It's just that things got weird around him a lot.
• Who's on First?: He's a guy from Tonga named Tonga, and fellow wrestlers loved to rib him about it. Given how intimidating the guy is, this seems to be one of the few forms of ribbing he would tolerate.
• Wild Tongan: Afa counts him as part of the Samoan Dynasty.
• The Worf Effect: Meng spent quite a bit of his career Worfing. Since he often ended up playing Dragon-like roles, he'd regularly lose to the faces to set up their final showdowns with whoever he was Dragoning for. This was usually sold by the commentators as "I can't believe he beat The Monster Meng!"
• Would Hit a Girl: Defeated Madusa in the WCW World Heavyweight Title Tournament on the October 25, 1999 Nitro. To Meng's credit he tried to scare her away by roaring and only hit her back after she actually hurt him a bit with a missile dropkick.
• Wrestling Family:
  • Afa of The Wild Samoans counts him as part of the Samoan Dynasty. He was even the Best Man at the wedding of Dwayne Johnson.
  • His three sons Tevita, Alipate and Taula (the latter two adopted), all wrestle. Tevita spent a few years in WWE as Camacho, and had a short stint in TNA as Micah. He would eventually become Tanga Loa. Alipate was in WWE's developmental program FCW, billed for a time as Donny Marlow and teamed with Brodus Clay (his daughter Vika has one son, George, with Brodus) as the Colossal Connection, which was the name of Haku's team with Andre, as well as Tamina Snuka and The Usos on occasion. He now competes for New Japan Pro-Wrestling as Tama Tonga or King Tonga Jr., both names Haku has used in the past. Both Tevita and Alipate, as Tanga Loa and Tama Tonga, form the Tag Team Guerrillas of Destiny. Meanwhile, Taula joined NJPW as a young lion and was recruted into the Bullet Club in 2017, initially taking the name Leo Tonga before shortly reverting to his usual ring name of Hikuleo, apparently upon Haku's urging.
• Wrestling Monster: Actually one of the smallest guys ever to play the 'monster' role^note not that he was by any stretch a small man, as he was usually billed as 6'1" and 275lb. And ironically, perhaps the most genuinely terrifying of them all.

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