The latest episode of legendary pro wrestling journalist Bill Apter’s podcast Is Wrestling Fixed? was released earlier this morning. It features an exclusive interview with WWE Hall of Famer Afa of The Wild Samoans as well as an unreleased 2003 interview with Samoa Joe from backstage at a Ring Of Honor event.
Some of Afa’s comments about the origins of The Wild Samoans have been transcribed below.
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APTER: Who came up with the name The Wild Samoans?
AFA: Vince. That brings me back to Louisiana. That’s where we got the name. I don’t really want to talk about this because it’s kind of private to me but I’ll say it anyway. It’s up to you guys. The Wild Samoans became because we were in Louisiana working for Cowboy Bill Watts. We went to Shreveport, LA and after we did TV for Watts we liked to… in those days we didn’t live in hotels. We lived in our vans. You remember our vans?
BA: Yes, very well.
AFA: We used to live in camp grounds. We were real crazy like.
APTER: Gypsies.
AFA: The Wild Samoans became from when we went to this little town outside Baton Rouge to get a haircut. We walk in to this place and I think it was a country place. I think there was this black guy sweeping the floor and he was the only one there. On our way to the door this black guy kind of winked at us and said, “Get the hell out of there!” Without saying anything. Just his body language was trying to tell us that. I didn’t know and we just kept walking in. To make a long story short this other guy, this fat guy, comes over to me with a mouth full of tobacco going, “What do you want, boy?” We said, “We are here to get a haircut.” He said, “We don’t cut your kind of hair.” So the black guy is kinda looking at us like, “Get the hell out of here!” So we got it and left. That was the last time we got a haircut and that’s when we became The Wild Samoans. That’s the story.
This issue of Is Wrestling Fixed? features:
- Brand new, exclusive interviews with WWE Hall of Famer Afa of the Wild Samoans
- Classic audio from Bill’s archives featuring a 2003 interview with Samoa Joe
- Bill’s & Nick’s thoughts on some of the recent headlines from around the world of pro wrestling including their their in-depth thoughts on The Royal Rumble
- Classic Rankings from 1979
- The #AskApter Mail Bag
- More…
You can listen to the full audio archives in the embedded audio player below:
