Sports Illustrated has posted a new Q&A with brothers Tanga Roa and Tama Tonga, who form the Guerrillas of Destiny in New Japan. Roa used to be Camacho in WWE, and below are some highlights from Roa’s portion of the Q&A:
Watching his father, Haku, at WrestleMania 6, where he teamed with Andre the Giant to face Demolition:
“I remember the match with my dad and Andre the Giant against Demolition at WrestleMania VI. We sat really high, away from everybody, and got to watch the match. They lost, but I remember they rolled out in those little rings during their entrance. Andre filled up the entire ring–I don’t know how my dad and Bobby [Heenan] even got in there. We were so young then that we couldn’t really appreciate it like we do now.
“When your father is a professional wrestler, we don’t want to fill his shoes, but we want to represent him and the rest of our family to the best of our ability. We may look like him, and we emulate some of his moves and movements, but the drive we had–especially among the two of us as brothers–always drove us.”
Transitioning from WWE to NJPW:
“I am bigger than most of the talents in Japan, but in WWE, I’m the same size as the other wrestlers, so I didn’t look as big and I didn’t work ‘big.’ Now I need to work like a giant, and that’s the only transition I’ve had to adapt to in Japan. They want me to move like a giant in Japan, while I could move a lot faster in WWE.
“I’m proudest to be working with my brother. That was our goal from the very beginning in the summer of 2004. I was still in college playing ball, and he was in the Air Force, and I call him in the middle of the night and told him we were going to become professional wrestlers. And he said, ‘You promise?’ and I said yes. We’re here together, working for a great company in New Japan and we have this opportunity to work alongside Ring of Honor, and that’s what I’m proud of. I have nothing to prove to WWE. I appreciated the time I had over there and I learned from it. I learned from it, make your weaknesses your strengths, and our goal is to keep kicking ass.
“I take great pride when I step in the ring with him knowing where we’ve been, what we’ve done, and what we are now trying to accomplish.”
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
