WrestlingNews.co’s Steve Fall recently caught up with Lloyd Anoa’i, also known as L.A. Smooth. Anoa’i is the son of the legendary Afa the Wild Samoan. During the interview, he explained why the Tribal Court segment that was planned last year was scrapped. He also revealed that he’s working on getting into WWE to work as a Producer. We have transcribed highlights below under this video interview.
On how he feels seeing his family (via The Bloodline storyline) being showcased in front of the world:
“It’s wonderful…we’ve made such an impact on the wrestling industry from years ago with my dad and my uncle. From High Chief Peter Maivia, my other uncle and our generation, when we were there. It’s a blessing to see how our Bloodline is going. It hasn’t stopped yet. I don’t know how far it’s gonna go. I know the Anoa’i dynasty and the Fatu dynasty will be in the wrestling industry for many years to come.”
Anoa’i added, “Rikisi, he has both his kids in the business. Myself from my dad, there’s three of us. My brother Samu, Afa Jr. and myself. I got my brother, Samu’s son, Lance Anoa’i. That’s all third generation. Jacob Fatu, you got Journey Fatu, you got Zilla Fatu. There’s so many of us. We’re taking over the industry.”
Anoa’i on plans for him in WWE in 1997:
“We signed in 97. They put me, Kish (Rikishi) and my cousin Matt, which is Rosy. We were gonna go in as New Age Samoans. They had us on the road. We stayed home for a while. They had us stay home and get in shape and all that stuff. They had us on the road..we were just doing house shows and they were gonna debut us. As everybody knows in WWE, if they got something else planned, they’ll pull something back…we were on the road and we debuted in Boston one time. After that they kept us on the road and after that we were done. I was actually supposed to be in Three Minute Warning but at that time I wasn’t able to be there. Umaga at that time was there and they were in Pensacola and they went out there and tore the house down and became Three Minute Warning. I was happy that he was there and became what they were.”
On his ECW run:
“It was me, Matty, and my brother. We were Samoan Gansta Party. We had great matches with the Ganstas, D’Von and Bubba. There were so many good times there as well.”
On who will win between Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns:
“I don’t think Cody Rhodes is gonna finish his story, that’s what I say. No disrespect to the Rhodes family but that story is not gonna end anytime soon.” Anoa’i said he will be in Philadelphia because he is booked to appear at WrestleCon.
On the scrapped Tribal Court segment that was originally scheduled for the January 23, 2023 episode of Raw:
“I was supposed to be there. They had us all coming in and one of us got sick. They wanted everybody there. They couldn’t get everybody there. They changed the plans and all that. I’m trying to go back as a producer with them. I actually did the package for SummerSlam with my family. That was a great opportunity. We’ll see what happens. Hopefully, somewhere down the line I can go back and be a producer and retire with that. I’m still wrestling but going on 37 years, I put in a lot of time.”
On what he did behind the scenes for the SummerSlam video package, he says, “They had the vision and I went and helped with my uncle. We went down to Pensacola, Florida. We went over there and did his thing about our Ula (red necklace). Who better to explain it than my dad and my uncle? I helped them with that, went there and did a thing with my dad and on the way there, we did something with Bianca Belair too. It was fun, it was interesting. It was something that was a little more experience for me to see that and help with it. I was honored.”
This interview is exclusive to WrestlingNews.co. If you use these quotes, please include a link back to this page.
