SAMU REVEALS THE INSANE TAG TEAM NAME THE WWF PITCHED BEFORE “THE HEADSHRINKERS”
By WorldWrestlingInsanity.comFor years he sniped opponents as a proud member of the Samoan Swat Team. He reduced the skull size of your favorite heroes as part of the Headshrinkers. Now, as he trains the next generation of young talent at the Wild Samoan Training Center, former WWF Tag Team Champion Samu joins ClubWWI.com for an uncut 46 minute shoot that looks at his entire career as well as the wrestling business itself.
Just like his Headshrinker partner Rikishi Fatu and brother Rosey, Samu spoke to James Guttman on ClubWWI.com and no subject was off limits. The former WWF, WCW, and ECW star spoke openly about everything including: The WWF Legend Who Was Supposed To Be a Headshrinker, The Night Iron Sheik Tried To Humble Him, Framing Paul Heyman For Speeding, Going Over The Von Erichs in Texas, How Politics Kept Him Out of Starrcade ’89, Why He Had No Job When He Arrived in WCW, The Star Who Helped Come Up With The SST Name, The Major Heat Max Moon Had and What Owen Hart Did To Teach Him a Lesson, The Reason He Dislikes Vince Russo, His Little Brother Manu on Raw, His Little Cousin Umaga on Smackdown, How Disobeying His Dad Lead To His MSG Debut, Almost Poking Inoki’s Eye Out, and More.
One question that James always likes to pose to guests is about their gimmicks. Knowing that WWE tries to present their stars with alternate name choices prior to a debut, JG checks to see if the guests were given any original gimmicks that they turned down before settling on their moniker. He asked Samu that about the Headshrinker gimmick. Was there an original name pitched? Sam says there was…and it’s a doozy.
“He wanted to call us the New Guinea Headhunters. (laughs) Which, I mean, you know, I mean we’re proud to be Samoan and dark, but we’re not that dark.. I’m saying, ‘Hey. Why can’t we just be Samoan?’ I guess they didn’t want to make it out like we were riding off of my dad and them, but he’s our manager. So I’m like, ‘Why? Why?’ I don’t know. So I came up with, I said, ‘What about the Headshrinkers?’ And that just seemed to fly with the creative team at the time.”
The stories don’t end there. On ClubWWI.com, Samu also speaks about the WWF legend originally set to be his Headshrinking partner and how an injury changed all that at the last minute, why he dislikes Vince Russo, his favorite teams to work with, memories of Buddy Roberts in WCCW, tag team psychology, and a ton more.
Aside from Samu over 130 star interviews are available on ClubWWI.com for less than five dollars a month. Among the other guests you can hear from are: Jesse Ventura, Big Daddy V, Terry Funk, Jerry Lawler, Vince Russo, Eric Bischoff, Ahmed Johnson, Bobby Heenan, Terri Runnels, Kevin Nash, The Iron Sheik, Sid Vicious, Paul Bearer, Brian Knobbs, Bruno Sammartino, Bryan Clark, Sean Mooney, Scott D’Amore, Tito Santana, Al Snow, Tod Gordon, JJ Dillon, Charlie Haas, Tom Prichard, Jacques Rougeau, Paul Roma, Tammy Sytch, Too Cold Scorpio, The Honky Tonk Man, Ole Anderson, Kid Kash, Ivan Koloff, Jackie Gayda, Scotty 2 Hotty, Dawn Marie, Mike Bucci, John Heidenreich, Jimmy Hart, Jimmy Valiant, Rick Martel, Bad News Brown, Nick Bockwinkel, Dory Funk Jr, Diamond Dallas Page, Rob Conway, Sylvain Grenier, Buff Bagwell, Christian Cage, Jazz, Demolition Ax and Smash, Koko B. Ware, Ricky Morton, Dustin Rhodes, Damian Demento, Fred “Shockmaster” Ottman, Cpl. Kirchner, One Man Gang, Scott Steiner, Shawn Stasiak, Ted DiBiase, Ivory, Chris Masters, Elix Skipper, Kamala, Samoa Joe, Giant Bernard, Bill DeMott, Juvi “Juice” Guerrera, Nora “Molly Holly” Greenwald, Nick Dinsmore, Harley Race, Bull Buchanan, D-Lo Brown, Road Warrior Animal, Missing Link, Rikishi, Slick, Nidia, George Steele, Christy Hemme, Disco Inferno, Paul Ellering, Vito, Steve Blackman, Bushwhacker Luke, AJ Styles, Chris Daniels, Dennis Stamp, Shawn Daivari, Kevin Sullivan, B.G. James, Ron Killings, Zach Gowan, Dan Severn, Earl and Dave Hebner, Baron Von Raschke, Spike Dudley, Rodney Mack, Downtown Bruno, Larry Zybszko, Rick Steiner, Mae Young, and many, more.
James Guttman’s second book, “World Wrestling Insanity Presents: Shoot First…Ask Questions Later,” is available for pre-order on Amazon.com.