Today we’re going to talk about another wrestling family (because family’s important and I want to). Also, the most popular member of said family is someone you may know as THE ROCK so there’s that too.
First Blood
Similar to most of the other topics I’ve written about, this story begins several decades ago with the Wild Samoans and Peter Maivia. Maivia began wrestling with the WWF in the 1970s and through his connection the Wild Samoans were brought in a few years later.
The aforementioned tag team consisted of real life siblings Afa and Sika Anoa’i who fought primarily during the seventies and eighties. Although their gimmick of being wild island men who were only able to communicate by grunting is now considered outdated at best and offensive at its worst, the two were quite popular for it in their time. The team saw great success, and were able to hold 21 tag team championships over the course of their careers. One of the tag teams that was able to pry said championships away from the two was the team of Rocky Johnson and Tony Atlas aka the first African American tag team in a major wrestling promotion.
As the teams worked together frequently in the early eighties, Rocky Johnson was introduced to the Samoans cousin, Ata Maivia, the daughter of Peter. The two would then marry and give birth to Dwayne who adopted the nickname “The Rock” from his father.
2.0
Afa, Sika and Rocky, had all hung up their boots by the late 90s but the next Samoan generation was already walking through the doors. This round of sons, brothers, and cousins saw a lot more solo action than the first.
Manu, Black Pearl, Umaga, Samu, Rosey, Tonga Kid, Rikishi, Yokozuna, and The Rock received varying levels of fame but helped to cement the legacies of their fathers. In fact, Rikishi and Yokozuna were so influential that they were both inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2015 and 2012 respectively.
Yokozuna was also the first in the family to hold the World Heavyweight championship, something that was then accomplished by Dwayne, who has become a household name, and Roman Reigns which leads us into…
The Bloodline
There are currently ten active family members wrestling today. The three that belong to the titular Bloodline are Roman Reigns, and the Usos (Jimmy and Jey). They’re currently running the WWE and have been long term championship holders since the early days of the pandemic. The Usos were first introduced alongside their cousin Tamina Snuka, the first popular women’s wrestler in the dynasty.
Jimmy then added popular women’s wrestler Naomi to the family when they were married in 2014 and their relationship has been brought onscreen as well. Nia Jax was pushed in particular by the Rock when she first started working for the WWE. Lance Anoa’i and Jacob Fatu have found success in Major League Wrestling (MLW). Sean Maluta and Solo Sikoa are the two newest at the table and there are even more members said to be in training. It’s safe to say that as wrestling has become a tradition for this family, seeing them in the ring has become a tradition for fans.