17 Wrestlers Who Took Forever To Get To WrestleMania (and Why)

It’s easy to pin down Samu’s Wrestlemania debut; it was at 1993’s Wrestlemania 9, where he and his cousin Fatu lost to the Steiner Brothers in a pretty good match. Of course, at Wrestlemania 9, one of the worst Manias in history, a match being “pretty good” made it an automatic match-of-the-night candidate.

What’s harder to pin down is Samu’s WWF debut. Most would assume he first wrestled for the company in 1992, when the Samoan Swat Team debuted in the WWF as The Samoans (quickly renamed “The Headshrinkers”). But unlike his partner Fatu, Samu had actually debuted with the company a decade earlier as part of the original Wild Samoans. 


Then known by his real name of Samula, the 19-year-old Samu debuted with the WWF in 1983, filling in for his injured uncle Sika (Roman Reigns, Sr.) and teaming with his father, Afa. Samula wrestled his last matches for the WWF in early 1985 on a tour of Japan, teaming with Hulk Hogan on several occasions. Afterwards, Samu decided to team with someone his own age, for once, namely his cousin Fatu.