 Siaki in 2007 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1974-07-23)July 23, 1974 (age 51) |
| Alma mater | East Carolina University |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Cocky Siaki Hawaiian GQ Money Sonny Siaki |
| Billed height | 6 ft 1 in (185 cm) |
| Billed weight | 242 lb (110 kg) |
| Billed from | Pago Pago, American Samoa |
| Trained by | Paul Orndorff WCW Power Plant Dusty Rhodes |
| Debut | March 1998 |
| Retired | January 9, 2009 |
Sonny Siaki (born July 23, 1974) is an American retiredprofessional wrestler of American Samoan descent. He is best known for his time inNWA Total Nonstop Action, where he was aone-timeTNA X Division Champion.
When Siaki was three, his family moved toHawaii, thenCalifornia in the United States of America before settling inWilmington, North Carolina. Siaki graduated fromNew Hanover High School, received a football scholarship to play atEast Carolina University, and majored in Physical Education. He playedinside linebacker until a seriousstinger injury forced him to stop playing football, preventing him from pursuing a professional football career.
After his school friendBrad Cain known as Lodi notified Siaki that theWCW Power Plant was holding tryouts in early 1999, Siaki attended the tryout and was awarded a WCW developmental contract. He graduated after seven months and wrestled his first televised match onWCW Saturday Night againstAllan Funk. Siaki largely appeared onSaturday Night and faced other Power Plant graduates, though he did make several appearances onThunder andNitro. Siaki eventually left WCW in March 2000, unhappy with the way he was being utilized.
Siaki moved on to the Urban Wrestling Alliance in California, where he was known as "Money". After nine months, the UWA folded and Siaki joinedTurnbuckle Championship Wrestling in March 2001 where he received further training from the TCW owner,Dusty Rhodes.
On June 19, 2002, Siaki debuted on the first event of theNational Wrestling Alliance-Total Nonstop Action as one-third of The Flying Elvises withJimmy Yang andJorge Estrada. The Elvises were a comedyheelstable who impersonatedElvis Presley. After the team disbanded, Siaki joinedVince Russo'sSports Entertainment Xtreme, a faction that tried to take over TNA (kayfabe). There he was then given avalet, Desire, a fellow TCW graduate, and earned the nickname "The Ace in the Hole". He won his first and only title in the promotion on December 11, 2002, when he defeatedJerry Lynn to win theTNA X Division Championship. He held the belt until February 12, 2003 when he lost toKid Kash. In July 2003, Siaki began afeud withD'Lo Brown, who he defeated in acasket match. In October 2003, he formed atag team withEkmo, which split when Ekmo began working forAll Japan Pro Wrestling.
In April 2004 he andSimon Diamond began feuding withGlenn Gilberti andJohnny Swinger. After Siaki and Diamond were victorious in a tag match, their opponents were forced to wearIrish andSamoan native dress respectively, punishing Gilberti and Swinger for the ethnic jokes they had made in the preceding weeks. Siaki formed a tag team withApolo, having his most notable match atLockdown, where they facedLance Hoyt andChris Candido in asteel cage tag match. During the match, Candido broke his leg and died four days after due to ablood clot. In December 2005, Siaki's contract with TNA expired, and he declined to re-sign, instead leaving the promotion on good terms.
In late December 2005, Siaki signed a contract withWorld Wrestling Entertainment. He debuted in the WWE developmental territoryDeep South Wrestling on February 2, 2006, suffering a minor injury in the process. On February 23, 2006, Sonny returned to Deep South Wrestling as a heel having a match withDamian Steele. Going by the moniker "Cocky Siaki", he andEric Perez (asUrban Assault) would win theDeep South Tag Team Titles on November 30, 2006. He then began teaming up withAfa Anoa'i, Jr. Both Siaki and former partner Eric Perez were working Raw house shows in March but Siaki suffered a back injury during that tour which left him out of action for 1 month. Siaki continued to tag with Afa Jr. in Deep South until it closed in April 2007. Siaki then re-debuted with Afa, as The Samoan Fight Club, in the new development territory, under theWorld Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) name,Florida Championship Wrestling. On September 15, 2007, it was reported that Siaki had been released from his developmental contract. Three days after the release, Siaki issued a statement saying that he has had some "personal issues" at home and that his focus was on his family right now, not wrestling.[1]
After leaving WWE, Siaki returned to the independent circuit. On September 17, 2008, Siaki announced his intention to retire from professional wrestling because he planned to donate one of his kidneys to his brother. Siaki would only have one kidney remaining, and thus the doctor told him he could not wrestle anymore, effectively ending his ten-year career.[2] He wrestled his final match on January 9, 2009.
He currently resides inAtlanta, Georgia and has a daughter.[3] After retiring from professional wrestling Siaki began working for UPS.[3]
Siaki appeared on an episode of "Family Feud" with his family.[4]
,Wrestlingdata,Internet Wrestling Database