In 2016, Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows, AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura left New Japan Pro Wrestling for WWE, and Tama Tonga was close.
Ultimately, Tonga decided to hang around, and as a result helped get his brother Tonga Loa in the company. Looking back over four years later, he knows that he made the right call, as he told Fightful in a new interview.
"It happened the way it was meant to be and it gave me a chance to tag with my brother. That’s something that I started the wrestling world with my brother to tag team, but we never got to have a chance. This was the opportunity to do it. So, it was perfect," he said.
Tonga stuck around in New Japan, and his brother immediately followed him into the company. That led to six IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Titles, three NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Championships, an ROH Tag Team Title runs...and a lot of curse words along the way. If you've seen the two perform, you might hear the occasional audible expletive being shouted.
According to Tama, New Japan asks them to stop fairly often.
"Oh, yeah. All the time. 'Hey, guys. Please. C’mon, guys. Can’t have that here. Guys? Alright, look. You gotta stop doing some of that. Guys. Alright, we’re gonna need you to sit this one out. C’mon guys.' So, we’re like, 'I’m trying, man. We’re trying.' They say 'What’s the problem with not cursing?,' I say ;You’re right. We’ll tone it down.' Yes. That’s been since the beginning of 2013 we’ve been told that. It just comes out, man, and sometimes it gets to the point, after a while they go, 'Don’t do it.' Japan is not made for kids. They made videos about that," said Tama.
You can see Tama Tonga and dozens of other New Japan stars every Friday night at 10 PM EST on NJPW Strong, airing on New Japan World. You can check out our full interview with Tama Tonga above!
