Anoa’i would love to be a part of the storyline.
Taking to his official social media platforms, Lance Anoa’i confirmed that he was granted his release from Major League Wrestling. In 2022, Anoa’i signed with the organization and during his recent run, he captured the MLW World Tag Team Titles with Juicy Finau, who also finished up with MLW.
Prior to Lance’s exit, he appeared on episode #659 of The Shining Wizards podcast. He expressed that he believes The Bloodline’s success in WWE has benefitted him. He stated that he could see himself being a part of it but due to his contract at the time, he did not see that happening. He wants to be a part of it and has wanted to since Solo Sikoa got involved in the fall of 2022.
Honestly, I believe The Bloodline in WWE is why we are at the top and why I’m growing. Jacob’s even becoming such a bigger star. Look at Sefa, who is Solo (Sikoa) now, he just got brought up and right into the main spot so I believe The Bloodline was a big help to the whole family.
I do see myself in it, but, with my MLW contract, I don’t see myself in it.
I would love to be in it. I wanted to be part of it ever since they brought Solo in and I thought I could’ve been a part of it with him. Me, I believe Jacob (Fatu) could be a top star in there. I believe there’s a lot of us in there, especially because it’s called The Bloodline. I feel like we just need all the members of the family there.
Over the summer through the end of the September, Anoa’i toured with Pro Wrestling NOAH. He competed in their N-1 Victory tournament.
He shared that he suffered an injury at the conclusion of the tour. Anoa’i went for a dive but missed and said he temporarily lost feeling in his legs. He mentioned that he saw Saxon Huxley, who is touring with NOAH as well, suffer injuries to both of his knees but pushed forward to get ready for their next show.
So, I got injured on my — not necessarily in the N-1 (Victory tournament). One of my last matches on the tour, I end up doing a dive. It was me and (Hijo del Dr.) Wagner Jr. versus Kenoh and Psycho Clown and I did a dive and I missed the dive, lost feeling in both my legs. Yeah, so it was kind of tough and then I had to be ready to go so, it does take a toll on you, because you have to be ready. I know Saxon Huxley, he injured both his knees at the N-1 Rumble and then we had to get going the very next day so he had to tape both his knees up and just go with the flow. We’re very limited but, we’ll still show out.
Circling back to MLW, Anoa’i and Finau were billed as Samoan Swat Team. Initially, Anoa’i was against taking the name on. His father Samu and uncle Rikishi were known as Samoan Swat Team and Lance felt it was a lot to live up to. He added that him and Finau’s team started off comedic in MLW, but Samu told them to run with it.
Honestly, I was very against taking the name Samoan Swat Team. I wanted everything to be right before we became the Samoan Swat Team. Me and Jacob (Fatu) worked in Florida as the Samoan Strikeforce. You also got them out in California as South Pacific Savages so I was very against Samoan Swat Team, just because it was such a big name to live up to and I believe we could have. Juicy (Finau), who’s not blood related but he was brought in with Jacob and Rikishi, my uncle Rikishi, so we welcomed him in but it was just, the story to me didn’t make sense. It was more comedy in the beginning because if you’ve seen MLW, when we first came, we were selling stuff on the street and to me, that’s not Samoan savage, that’s not the Samoan Swat Team. If you want the Samoan Swat Team, you let us go out there and start whooping people’s asses right there. So, we were very against it and then once my dad was like, ‘Just run with it’ and he was happy with everything and then it started just filling in and then we just started carrying it.
Lance shared that he’s been helping out at the Wild Samoan Training Center, which is ran by Afa Anoa’i Jr. Afa was hospitalized in September with a heart issue and is recovering from that.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit The Shining Wizards with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
